Day 40 - Handling Disappointment

Wed 25th Oct., Puebla de Sanabria to Lubian, 21 klms on foot, 9 by taxi.

This is not the post I had planned as the day started. I had intended a continuation of yesterday's "Connections" post, but it was not to be.

All being well I will return to that post, sometime over the next day or two or three, or not ...

Today started well. The walk out of Puebla de Sanabria along the Rio Castro, a tributary of the Rio Tera, was very pretty (and wet underfoot!!).

We even had sunshine for a while

We had high altitude road works to watch ...

road fog warning markers to walk by

(very) high altitude viaducto to walk over (I couldn't look over the edge - way way too high for me)!

a tunnel to walk through

But despite all that, the weather has beaten us. What the photos don't show is the howling wind and driving rain, or the freezing hands and drenched feet.

At Padornelo (altitude around 1400 metres and the highest point on the Camino Sanabrés/VDLP) we decided to brave the elements and walk the last 9 klms to Lubián. But the conditions were just too much. After perhaps only 200 metres we were heading towards being either more drenched or more cold, if that was possible, so we pulled over into a cafe and made the difficult decision to summons a taxi to bring us here (to Lubián). Tomorrow we'll return to Puebla de Sanabria, again by taxi. Not quite sure what happens after that. There are still hopes of resuming the walk from Ourense in a few days, but time will tell. Maybe it's all over ...

I'm being intentionally restrained here. My disappointment is palpable. It's the right call, but that doesn't make it feel any better.