¡Hola! Day 36 -18k pretty much all uphill but all good. Spent the early part solo, next bit with Joel, a 34 yr old agronomist from Brazil (no wife/kids yet cos far too young), then the pm with Sal and a couple of gringos de Colorado. Didn't think about much on the track today but when the going gets tough I seem to be playing "Eye of the Tiger" - theme from 1st Rocky movie. Yesterday I was walking along way out no where and getting hot, tired so on came the Rock...

¡Buenas! Day 35- 18k, hot sunny day. We spent the day getting out of the bowl of flat land ( about 50k across) in which Ponferrada (and the Templar Castle) is the main centre. It was tough walking over a secondary, back country goat track (see pic of Sal in action) up hill and down dale. fantastic views though especially back the way we had come - high hills with snow and central lowland that could grow just about anything. So we ground out the kms, got lost in...

¡Buenas dias! Day 34- 18k, Ponferrada to Pieros, nice sunny day. Early part of the walk on my own - taking pics of poppies mostly - heaps of them everywhere. Spent the remainder talking to a retired French Judge - name of Giles (pronounced Sheels!) He was the same age as me, born, bred on Corsica (same as Napoleon), lives in southern Spain during winter (too cold in Corsica) We talked about rugby, Tahiti (he dodged the nuclear bullet), the French legal system,...

¡Hola! Day 33 - 15k, sunny, beautiful spring day. Walked down off the massif through a couple of villages eventually to Ponferrada - the location of a huge Knights Templar Castillo (see pic). What a place - we spent our €8 and sponged it all up for couple of hours - best historic site on the trip for us. Didn't really talk much to anyone on the walk down - quite nice really. Took about 3 hours, dirt track mostly, poppies and other wild flowers coming out and p...

¡Buenas! Day 32 - 11k over the top of the Galician Massif - said to be inhabited by elves and fairies. We saw none but we did stop at the Cruz de Ferro - finally made it!! (See pic). Yep - we left our stones on behalf of the Matthews (especially Bill), the Grimmett's (especially Rex), the Hays and last but certainly not least Alex Familton. It was quite overwhelming actually. We both felt very emotional, quite a few tears, so long/hard to get here and a lot of ...