It's funny how I get more nervous and panicked walking on a main road from town to town in the dark yet the day before I was walking down a mountain through a forest and there wasn't a bother on me, go figure! It was a pretty straight run this morning,there were about three towns one after another from when I left Cacabelos till I reached Villafranca. I sat there and had coffee and some fruit and was chatting to my mate Ger who was currently at my salon having her done, it made me miss my clients and my work but at the same time it made me realise that life just goes on regardless of if you're there or not. It was just something that sprang to mind as I walked on.

It's funny there has been a few times on my walk where I have really tried to make myself think about where I want to be long term, Sydney, Ireland or who knows where but every time I begin to think about it nothing happens. Which truly make's me believe that for now I'm exactly where I'm meant to be,Sydney. Who knows what the future will hold but I guess that's just life. The towns today just seemed to be closer to each other then normal I felt I was in small towns and villages more then I was out of them today! I didn't mind though I was taking my time as there was the mother of all mountains to climb before I reached my destination for the day.

I found today to be very quite, I didn't meet anyone for the first 3 hours at least which was kind of nice as I was just in my own zone. I know I mentioned it yesterday but I'm loving the part of Spain that I'm passing through at the moment everything is so green and pretty. When I reached Herrerías (the last big town before the climb up the mountain) I decided it would stop for a rest and change my socks and let my feet breath for 20 minutes or so, it felt so good to just sit and be. I had to laugh though there was an American lady sitting across the courtyard and suddenly I hear her yell " OMG have you seen the hight of the climb we have to do now" looking at an English lady that was sat across from her. The English lady replied " I know, I'm here looking to see if someone would want to share a cab with me to get there as I have a sore knee" I was weak laughing to myself the whole conversation was just gas! Before I knew it they had ordered a cab and it had arrived to collect them, I have to say as I saw them getting into the car I did think to myself how amazing it would be to get a lift up and also the fact that it would probably only take them ten minutes max!!

So I set off on the last 8.2km starting at 750m climbing to 1,300m! I knew the only way to get me through this was to add some spice and I'm talking about about a bit of jenny from the block, she had me shimmying up that hill???????? All joking aside tho it was a difficult climb, I stopped a few times just to stand in some shaded areas that were around and to sit and enjoy some cold water. It was after 1pm so the sun was quite hot and there was no breeze what so ever! I thought I'd never get to the top, then suddenly I could see a hostel omg was I delight or what. All the pain just lifted and I couldn't wait to chuck the bag off and have some food, till I realised it wasn't where i was staying it was a tiny town just before it???? I considered quite strongly just staying there but then I just though 'come on Sam it's only another 2.5km you've got this' so off I went again. It felt like the longest stretch I'd done since I started, it was getting hotter and I just needed it to be over now! Let's just say when I arrived into the hostel I was channeling my inner Britney Spears circa 'slave4you' minus the snake around neck ??????

I went straight to the room took my shoes off and lay down for twenty minutes before showering and heading for some food. The town I'm in today is O'Cebreiro it from the Galician culture which shares many historical similarities with other Celtic regions particular the west of Ireland!! The language Galega is still spoken by a substantial minority and understood by the majority, while writers and poets have helped preserve it more robustly then Irish or Scottish Gaelic. The town actually reminds me of Ireland the stone work and buildings look like something you'd see over in the west. It's a beautiful little place and the views are just amazing, I'd love to stay up and watch the sun set but I know that's not going to happen as the eyes are falling out of my head! I'm just sat here writhing this with a glass of wine in a bar up the street from where I'm staying as they don't have wifi where I am tonight. It's interesting to watch the last of the pilgrims arrive in scurrying to find accommodation, now that we are getting closer to the Santiago it's going to become a lot more crowded on the roads and will be harder to get accommodation as the last 100km is the most popular.

*627.5km down * 162.5km till Santiago??