I couldn’t sleep last night. I didn’t sleep well the night before either. I think I’ve had O Cebreiro on my mind. I have been getting more and more worried about climbing this hill and things came to a head in the early hours of this morning… Hence the lack of sleep.

Who am I kidding… I’m fat and fifty (one) and forgetful and feckless and I feel like a fraud… I should not be doing this.

I felt pretty much the same when I woke and as we started walking this morning the feelings of self doubt just hung around me like a dark cloud.

So we walked and walked and took photos and walked… All the time uphill. We came off the road and onto a track and still we were going up and still I thought I can’t do this.

It wasn’t raining but there was a heavy mist and it was cold and damp. We were walking through the clouds and still we carried on walking up.

We stopped for a coffee about half way up. Teresa and Pam look so at ease and I feel like I’m melting. We leave the bar and again we walk up. And again I’m left wondering what on earth I have got myself into. We just kept on walking up and up into the clouds and it’s wet and sticky and cold and so very steep.

After a few hours it feels like the sun is trying to break through and Teresa shouts out “I wonder what it looks like out there?” We can only see maybe 10 metres ahead so if it’s a good view we were missing it.

On and on and up and up we walked, kilometre after kilometre up hill! In fact we walked out of Leon and into Galicia and for three hours or more we just kept walking up.

We reached a point where we seem to come out above the cloud and we saw blue sky but the track had also turned to mud. Teresa and Pam were waiting for me at the top of mud.

“Thanks for waiting” says I “That’s OK” said they “Safety in numbers as there are three big dogs on the path”

And they weren’t joking! Teresa picked up a big stone and we walked with purpose past the three of them. “Thank you so much for waiting for me” says me! Pam replies “that’s OK we were using you as bait as the dogs would smell your fear!”

Gotta love these two girls!

So on we walked, up and up and all the while I berated myself and my situation… But do you know what? After all that self doubt I did it, I walked up the mountain!

And after lunch we walked up even more before finally stopping for the day at a little albergue in Fonfria.

We just about managed to shower before a fabulous communal dinner and now the three of us are in our sleeping bags, ready to sleep off our walk.

There’s a few more hills to go tomorrow and a huge descent but I can sleep tonight… I did it!