Day 13 Vega de Valcarce to Samos

Day 13 Vega de Valcarce to Samos

31.26 (total 468.58)

Monument at O Cebreiro

Up at 6:00 again. The municipal aubergue in Vega was full so we ended up in a private place that had a kitchen upstairs. The place was empty when we arrived but filled up quickly although at €10 it was a bit more expensive than was usual. I had a night of vivid dreams and woke more than once. Ricky had got provisions for breakfast but we couldn’t get into the kitchen at first. We managed to get in before we left but then found that there was no tea or coffee so eventually we set off without and in the hope that we could get something on the road.

Samos - entrance to the monastery

Again, this was a climb out, probably the steepest and most enduring climb of them all. It was bottom gear all the way and with some zig zagging across the road to take the sting out where the road was exceptionally steep. When we started off the Autovia was on bridges high above us. By the time we had reached the top the Autovia was a long way below us. We stopped after 8 miles of climbing at Pedrafita for some breakfast before continuing the climb for another couple of miles to O Cebreiro. We had two more peaks before we finally topped out after 15.5 miles of climbing. Added to the 10 miles the day before this put the hill in the region of 25 miles long. The descent from the top started immediately and it was a good road, wide with good visibility and no traffic, so we were away. We covered 9 miles in 15 minutes! I was doing 35 mph when I passed a sign warning of a steep descent so I kept shifting my weight backwards on the bike so that I could brake late and hard. Again a top speed of 45/46 mph was easily achieved. We were all beaming with the adrenalin rush when we got to the village of Triacastela at the bottom. The descent continued even after Triacastela but at a much more gentle space and so we rolled into Samos in the early afternoon and came across the monastery. It was decided that this would be a great place to stay as the aubergue was within the monastery, and so that is what we did.

After the usual scrub up and washing of clothes we took a tour of the monastery which was exceptionally beautiful. After that we went for a meal, again from the Perrigrino’s menu before attending mass in the monastery. The meal turned out to be a mistake, but we were not to discover that until next day.

Also strange that the monastery had a petrol station attached!