Hello darkness my old friend...

...I’ve come to talk with you again...

Because a vision softly creeping, 

left it seeds while I was sleeping, 

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains

Within the sounds of silence.  

Today started with darkness.  We started out at 6:00 am.  We were in the dark until after 8:00. When we were just out of town, we saw another headlamp (or torch as most people here seem to call it), and it was a youngish Korean woman alone trying to figure out where to go.  Fortunately, we had been here before and knew the mistake not to make. So, she walked with us for about four miles.  She spoke no English and of course, we spoke no Korean.  So, we walked together, side by side, with Steve showing us the way.  For almost two hours.  Her name was something like Veronica.  For over an hour, we had the sounds of silence. 

The next ten miles took us along a road that probably used to be the main highway.  A new superhighway has now been built so we weren’t on the new freeway, but we walked along a road for a long time.... with a mountain on the right side.   A small river or large creek ran beside us most of the way.  It was wonderful. 

The sounds of the day were largely a rooster, dogs, birds and the crunch, crunch, pole, pole. Foot, pole, foot pole....we’ve listened to that so many quiet mornings before.  We walked through a lot

of horse manure. We saw what we imagine are the last sunflowers of the season.  

The hike up the hill today was about 5-6 miles.  It was on rocks.  Rocks with mud, little and big rocks, mud that was dark brown, light brown, dusty.  Rocks that can twist your ankle, rocks that are embedded, rocks, rocks, rocks.  All straight up.  In those last 5-6 miles, we climbed on those rocks for  just less than 2000 feet.  But, we were paid in spades for it.  Here are some pictures.  

Which makes me think of another old song which is appropriate for this time on our Camino.   

The leaves are falling, summer’s gone, 

Winter’s calling, I want to go home.  

I don’t remember who wrote or performed the song and can’t find it.....

We are seven days away from Santiago and it is time to start thinking about getting back to our regular life. We have missed all our family and friends and we are especially excited to meet our newest grand baby, Maddy.  But excited to see all our children, their spouses and our grandchildren.  We have missed them dearly and our friends.  

I’ve also thought about what things help me make it....And other than my dear husband, I would say that nothing is more important than the wildflowers and my walking poles or sticks.  The sticks have saved both Steve and me from multiple injuries and the wildflowers have saved my spirit when I wondered how I would make it the next few miles or over the next hill.  

We ascended almost 3000 feet today and descended just under 1000 and walked 18.6 miles. So it was a very long day.  

We met Ginger and Kurt from Alabama today. 

I walked with a couple from Israel for a while.  We had dinner with a guy from Columbia (the country) last night.  Alberto. We learned a lot about the history and current events of his country.  Plus he helped us translate our drink and food orders.  

We are in O’Cebreira tonight.  A beautiful little church.  Chilly here.  A great bar.  Super gin y tonicas.  We are resting now and plan to have an early dinner and call it a night.  Less than 100 miles to go. 

Here are a few more pictures from today:

We miss Sandy and have taken lots of pictures of dogs along the way.  

Off to Tricastella tomorrow.  14 miles.