Pilgrimage Day 23 - Over the Hill!

The intrepid duo have arrived in Sarria a hillside village in the mountains after travelling 42 miles.
Paul is the reporter tonight as Ben was otherwise engaged!
The first section of the climb was fairly strenuous and both nearly got off at one point. they got to the top.
There will be some photographs added on Thursday of today's ride showing the boys at the bottom looking up at a lorry on the road, one with the lorry next to them halfway up, and the third of them looking down from the top at the lorry. Paul says this will show us just how much they climbed and rode.
They passed through a village called El Cebreiro a 'National Monument' comprising of pallozas which are round thatched dwellings of Celtic origin which are set into the mountain side. Very pretty and olde worldy. The church is also very pretty.
At the top is a statue of a pilgrim and the views are magnificent and it was a privilege to be up there.
After a few more miles of undulation the big decent woooooooooooooooooo (Paul's word!) for 12Km. They stopped on a few occasions to let the wheel rims cool off - no wonder when Paul reached a speed of 37mph! Paul says it didn't feel like he was doing that speed but the speedo on the bike says he was so he must have been.
Cebreiro is anther town that is 'dead' with only a few shops and hostels. In Spain they don't open in the afternoon and it is difficult to get a meal before 8:30pm. Places open 9am to 1pm then close till 8:30ish. Paul suspects that when they go into town it will be quiet, there is nothing of interest to photograph.
The aim to get to Palas do Rei on Thursday and they have 40 miles to go to Santiago so are wll on target to arrive by (or even before) Saturday.
They are now just setting their sights on arriving in Santiago and I am sure that the last few days of their travels will be great - as long as Ben doesn't leave his camera behind again and have to get a taxi to go and get it from the top of the mountain they had just come down!
Hopefully the pictures will have arrived overnight and I will post them on Thursday.

Malcolm