Beauty Cuts – Camino Days 31-34 (Somos)
Shortcuts are the fast route to missing life. By definition they cut something short in the name of efficiency. That’s why I’m notorious in our family for “beauty cuts.” When I announce, “I think this will be a better route - trust me!” the family groans (which I generously interpret as endorsement) and knows their straight-forward trip just became a long curvy adventure.
On the Camino these are called “Alternate Routes”, and the four we take over the next four days result in probably the most beautiful hikes of the whole camino. The first comes before breakfast, courtesy of friends who had gone ahead and texted back not to miss this faintly-marked turn-off. Instead of a relatively flat straight road into Villafranca, we are treated to 7 km of steep climb (and later descent) through fresh sunrise vineyards, far from any cars.
We also pass the “Puerta del Perdon” - a church where pilgrims who are too sick to continue (we’re also close to the ominous Pilgrim’s Cemetery) can receive their “Compostella” certificate of completion (but only certain days when it happens to be open, unlike today, so I guess we’ll just keep going…)
Beauty Cuts #2 & 3: Chestnut Farms to Pradela
After yet another surprise reunion breakfast with our 3-generation German family in Villafranca, we are emboldened to take the steeper 11 km option out of town. Over the next several km we climb at an average 10% grade, occasionally emerging into open areas where we can see the main path further and further below us at the mountain base. We text back to Caroline that if she’s serious about today being a rest day to please please not follow us, to which she cheerfully replies that she’s already sent her mother ahead with the trailer so she and her eager 4-year-old can hike this steep steep unrelenting path.
Unrelentingly beautiful, that is, passing through a succession of ancient chestnut tree farms. So many have fallen from the heavy branches that I sometimes get a spiky husk stuck deep in my happy bare feet. Today is sunny and warm and prime harvesting season, drawing whole families up from the valley or the city to rake and collect and bag their precious nuts.
It’s also prime season for hunting wild boar, so we sometimes see or hear groups of eager men with their eager dogs and hungry guns. Hungry us are happy to have inadvertently taken yet another Beauty Cut near the top that brings us an extra km into the ten-house stone village of Pradela, where we sit at a world-top albergue patio and enjoy lunch with fresh-squeezed raspberry-watermelon juice, chestnut-chocolate cake for me, and chestnut liquor for Sarah and Paula who just caught up.
A challenging steep decline finally dumps us late afternoon into Trabadelo at the now-legendary Casa Susi where Fermin’s warm handshake and his inspiring love story with Susi are balm for these body-exhausted and soul-satiated wanderers. With the loving owners’ blessing, we push two single beds into an alcove for a private “cama matrimonial.” Just before dinnertime a much-more-exhausted-than-satiated Caroline and Gerhardt show up at the neighbouring hostel, the 4-year-old so proud that we walked the whole way, the 30-year-old mother wishing she’d taken our advice to stick to the main road. We help them find a restaurant, then return for a delicious family meal at Casa Susi, sharing around the table about our journeys. 18-year-old Lore from Belgium - who over time will merge into our eclectic family - shares that she writes down at least one thing she learns every day, “though sometimes it’s hard to choose because I learn so much every day!” I feel old.
No beauty cuts necessary the next day - we meander through a gorgeous valley, then up another unrelenting and inspiring mountain climb that keeps opening up to ever-more breathtaking views. O Cebreiro, a fairy-tale stone village, awaits at the top. After a nap I hike halfway back down to help Caroline up this tough final stretch. Hiding behind the Galicia regional border marker I sing out “our song - “Señor Don Gato” - to a delighted Gerhard. This bonus walk, without any backpack or obligation, gives a feeling of lightness and gaiety to what was tough and rewarding the first time.
As we arrive in the old stone town, Caroline gasps and even lightly cries, “I remember this place! It was so foggy you could hardly see the buildings. I had lunch in that place, then walked up to the church. There were several bibles open, all to the same passage in different languages including German. What was written there spoke directly to what I was suffering from and changed how I looked at my life.” The Camino provides.
Beauty Cut #3: Somos
At 6:45am we start down the mountain under the clear stars and forest path. It’s supposed to be all downhill today, but a very steep UPhill brings us to a rest stop with the biggest dogs and biggest egg-potato tortillas of the whole camino (it will actually take me 3 more days to finish the leftovers). And a satisfying view of more pilgrims with the same exasperated “Where did THAT uphill come from?!” painted on their panting faces. “Come pet the dawgs,” we call to them, “and have a Texas-sized tortilla!”
At the bottom we veer onto the longer (by 10km), less-travelled southern Somos Route. It takes us along the river to a sunny swimming hole, then to an old rambling renovated estate home-cum-albergue, where we meet back up with Claudia and the German family to cook up a big family pasta meal.
Beauty Cut #4: Sarria
We reach Somos in time for breakfast and too early for a tour of the beautiful monastery. Leaving town, we take yet another longer and beautifuller route to Sarria, the town where Sarah started her pilgrimage 2 years ago. From now on, we’ll be walking alongside fresh pilgrims with clean white (!) clothes and clean overstuffed backpacks, trying to suppress a gloating moral superiority that we’ve done the “real” camino (even though we’ve met others who walked from their home country just to get to the same starting point as we did).
But honestly, more important than where you start and end is the fact that you start at all. And which meandering alternate paths and unique adventures you embrace along the way. I’m publishing this on American Thanksgiving, and after these past four days I truly am thankful to have a partner who remains open to adventure, run-and-find-out side scamperings, and our lifetime of inevitably longer and wilder and intriguinger Beauty Cuts.
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Currently in...
Mayne Island, BC, then to a family wedding in Surrey
Heading to...
Paris, Albania, Milan, then Cambodia-Thailand-Vietnam for Oct-May. Please share any sites, people or ideas by email.
Thanks for helping me visualize and feel your amazing trek. Grateful for your adventurous spirit.