Day 34 – at Ribadelago

There was a disaster here on the early morning of January 9th, 1959 when the dam on the River Tara failed, releasing water from the Vega de Tera reservoir. A total of 144 of the 664 residents of the village were killed.

On a quiet and cloudless day like today the horror of such a tragedy seems distant. I chose to hike up the Tara valley though didn’t get as far as the old dam.

There was a lot of loose stone on the initial section, and after that, as the path climbed steeply, there were several big steps. My hip is relatively painless, thanks to acupuncture, but still pretty useless, which made the going extremely slow. Down as well as up.

I was back at the van for late lunch, and a chilled afternoon watching the International School Sevens from Rugby School, which my old school, The Grange from Chile, were participating in, and doing well, finishing top of their group.