Camino Day 29: Villafranca del Bierzo to Ambasmestas
“That man is rich whose pleasures are the cheapest.”
Day 29: 15 kms - 22,598 steps
I sleep really well and wake up fully charged and ready to go. It’s quite a relief to be feeling so well again. We bump into Phillip & Rob at breakfast and they tell me yesterday was by far the hardest day for them – they are amazed I could do it after having been so sick the day prior. This makes me feel even better!!
The forecast is for rain but it doesn’t eventuate beyond a half hour of light sprinkles.
The path, although along the road is quite pretty and runs alongside a river which babbles and sparkles at me. I wish I were a trout fisherman so I could spend some time here just standing in the shallows.
We pass a grove of trees all painted completely blue. No idea why.
Then in La Portels De Valcarexc we see a stall selling cherries. Time to get some. Next door is a produce store and we pick up some local goats cheese for lunch.
We arrive in the tiny village of Ambasmestas before lunch, check into our hotel and take our boots off for the rest of the day. I am so happy to have a half day – I really want my feet to breathe so this rash can abate.
We snack on goats cheese and crackers, then after a break we go out to explore this town, such as it is, and we are thrilled to find a goat cheese farm! With farm gate sales and its OPEN!!! And it’s the same maker that we just purchased for our lunch. So we buy some more from the cheerful farmer who lets us try all the different types – we chose garlic and herbs. SO GOOD. This is only the second farmgate we have seen, the first being yesterday’s cherry farmer. I am so happy. I always dreamt on Camino we could pop into local farms on the way and get supplies and now it has happened.
Tomorrow we have decided to take horses for a 2 hour stretch of the trail. Should be fun. As a bonus it is a steep uphill section.
