Day 60 Cea - Castro Dozon

POSTED A DAY LATE

Today has been marked by very steep climbs and equally steep descents, often through narrow paths lined with rocks and boulders.  Our guide book said this stage should only be attempted by those people who were very fit.  I guess we are very fit as we survived!

The first few miles to the Monastery at Oseira were very pleasant although the weather  was overcast and bitterly cold.  Instead of wearing shorts we had elected to wear long trousers and we were very glad of this as the morning wore on.

The Monastery, founded in the XII century, was partially destroyed by fire in the 16^th century when most of its books and other records were lost.  Later it was sacked and was left abandoned  until 1929 when monks from the Cistercian order in France started its restoration.  

Today the work continues but much of it has been brought back to its original splendour.  The church in the monastery has survived intact and dates from the XII century.

After the peace and tranquillity of the monastery we endured one of the most arduous climbs in the Camino, yet!  Up 500 feet in an almost vertical climb which had us gasping for breath!  This trend continued with more difficult climbs and descents although very gradually losing height.  One or two bits of the path were very muddy and in one case we had to abandon the path to take to the hills and rejoin the path a bit further on.

The path took us through a succession of small villages each looking more deserted than the next.  In A Gouxa, the very first village in the province of Pontevedra used to be very famous for its Horse Fair.  All that remains now is some very old stables.  Eventually we came to the village of Dozon whee we are spending the night in the local Albergue.

Tomorrow we continue to the village of Laxe, coming closer to Santiago slowly but surely.