Quinto día - martes el 20 del mayo
All the people in the upstairs bedroom (directly above ours) started stirring about 06:00, and given that they were all wearing hiking boots, we got up not too much later, getting underway about 07:30 and back on the barricaded-for-pilgrims old highway. We stayed on that for a couple of hours, walking in comfortable, but quickly warming, clear weather. We passed through a couple of hamlets of the typical sort, and by some heavy constructions sites as well. We were definitely beginning to climb - being an automobile route, the way was a slight enough grade to not be SO bad. The new highway was apparently flatter, being built on very high bridges to completely span big chunks of lower ground.
Then we turned off towards Ruitelán. For most of the rest of the way to O Cebreiro, we were on dirt track, and considerably steeper terrain. We stopped at Ruitelán for breakfast/lunch and a rest break so we could make the climb in one push, and that's just what we did. A long push upwards it was, too - it took me about 3 1/2 hours to cover only about 8 km (5 mi). Stanley, with his youth and long legs, finished some minutes sooner. It was almost unrelentingly uphill, except for places that, after having gone uphill, wend downhill so you could go uphill again. As we chugged through it, though, it became more and more clear that it was worth the climb - the views from on top were beautiful.
We got to O Cebreiro a bit before 15:00 and plunked down for a rest on a stone wall there, but soon got involved in a visit with an English couple driving through. That conversation lasted some 30 minutes, so we rested just a bit longer before proceeding on. Our prior experiences with the popular albergues told us to find another place to stay. (And sure enough, Theo told us later that they had all stayed up late singing each other's national anthems!).
O Cebreiro is near the Alto do Poio, the pass through the mountains, and is pretty windblown. It also has a couple of unique structures, apparently thatched storehouses, that feature prominently on postcards, etc.
The day having been less taxing than we had expected, we still had enough legs to march on another 6 km to Hospital de Condesa, where we found a small and very quiet do-it-yourself albergue. We signed ourselves in, stamped our credenciales, and bathed and washed clothes. In the event, this self-service was the common arrangement in Galicia, but was a bit surprising to us on first contact. There was no place here to buy food, so we went without dinner (the Stan Plan, again).
We were both struck with how long it stayed light - until sometime after 22:00, anyway. We visited a bit with Pilar from Galicia, José from Alicance, and with Peter from Koblenz, and just sat and admired the scenery before crawling into our sleeping bags at about 22:00 on what had turned into a rather chilly evening.
Today's walk: 29 km (18 mi). Five-day total: 156 km (97 mi).
