Today we walked 12.9 miles (20.7 km) in 6.5 hours with breaks.

We were up and out just before sunrise again, and that seems to be working well for us. We avoid some of the heat (although today was a bit cooler) and we get to our destination a little earlier.

Today was all about getting back down the mountain we climbed yesterday, but fortunately it wasn’t nearly as steep, long, rocky, treacherous, or exhausting as coming down from Foncebadón. (That day wasn’t our favorite — can you tell?)

We started the day with another Camino landmark, a bronze statue of a pilgrim fighting against the wind. I love seeing all these landmarks that I’ve seen in pictures so many times already.

We’re also seeing a lot more cows here in Galicia, and had to share the road with them a couple of times (to Lisa’s delight — she talks to all of them and they seem to enjoy it).

Part of the reason it was cooler today was because we spent so much more time in the forests. We’ll be seeing more of that now, which is fine with us as long as it’s dry. We’ve seen reports of rain in the area but we’ve managed to stay ahead of it — so far at least.

Here are the photos for today, starting with a misty sunrise from the top of O Cebreiro.

Video of the cattle drive: