Month: October 2022

Ponferrada to Cacabelos – 14 Kms, 23,732 steps

After a good night’s sleep in my luxurious room, I was ready to go, and I joined the tide of departing pilgrims at 8:15. The path took us through the center of town (of course) and then through a nice riverside park, past the Museum of Energy and some interesting public art.

I passed quickly through the Ponferrada suburbs, on nice, flat paths of packed dirt and gravel. Very pleasant walking!

An hour and a half later, I arrived in Fuentes Nuevas, my halfway point and 30-minute break. Another cafe con leche topped me up.

I’ve seen, and mentioned previously, some of the interesting modes of Camino transport I’ve seen. For example, the guy with the unicycle. Today I saw a handicapped guy in a wheelchair created from a Segway! Remember the Segway? The two-wheeled, self balancing, scooter-like device, that was going to replace walking? Well, this guy was in one fitted out as a wheelchair. It looked so weird because there were no front wheels. The guy just zoomed along in it. I wish I’d taken a picture.

Let’s talk about storks for a moment. They build big, unsightly nests on tall objects. Almost always on church bell towers here:

However, the town of Camponaraya did a smart thing to protect their churches: they gave the storks another option:

The days and kilometers are going by. Only ten more days until my Camino is over.

I’m not sure how I feel at the moment. I’m kind of ready to see my Camino end. Spending a week on the couch sounds pretty good. But, who knows what the next week will bring.

Tomorrow is a long 20 Kms into a narrow valley, with some gentle climbs. It’s a set up for Thursday’s killer climb into the mountains. Cheers.

El Acebo to Ponferrada – 17 Kms, 23,65 steps

No taxis were involved today, but the first half of my day involved more of the incredibly difficult, toe-banging descents of yesterday. I shouted out “Hallelujah” when it was finally over.

I remember this stretch of the Camino from 2019 and not fondly. There were a lot more level areas and areas of packed dirt today than yesterday, but the concentration required to pick my way down the steep descents was the same.

I slept really well las night, due to fatigue from yesterday and a good mattress, in a hotel that listed numerous amenities online: a swimming pool, a steam room, a massage service. Well, yes, and no. The hotel was at one end of the village and, at the other end and half a kilometer away down a pretty good hill, was a brand new albergue owned by the same company. The pool, steam room, etc. were all down there, and hotel guests were welcome to go use them. Right. No one wants to walk down there and then walk back. How do you say “bait and switch” in Spanish?

I’m meeting more Camino veterans this time, people who have walked it multiple times, like me. For example, I met a nurse from Toronto the other night who was on her fourth Camino. She said, “some people go to their beach house every summer, I go on the Camino”. Doesn’t seem quite the same to me, but okay if it works for her. Sadly, I think this increased frequency of vets relates to the large number of Camino know-it-alls I’ve encountered. I see these folks pontificating and remind myself again not to be one of them.

The term Buen Camino (have a good [walk on the] way) is the universal pilgrim greeting, regardless of your nationality. It’s the polite thing to say when you pass another pilgrim or get passed. As an effort at good PR, I make a point of saying hello to every single local person out for a stroll that I encounter, and 99% of them have wished me a buen camino in return.

I finally made it to Ponferrada, and it only took me four hours. That was pretty good considering my snail’s pace down the descents and a 25-minute halfway point break in Molinaseca. Some of the stuff I’m remembering from 2019 as hard or long is turning out to be easier and shorter, and that’s a nice result.

I’m in a very nice hostal, with a great private room. My bathroom is huge and the shower has nozzles at all sorts of heights. In addition, there’s a great laundry room in the basement. Yes, I stayed here in 2019 and it was too good not to come back.

Tomorrow, I have a relatively short day of 14 Kms, and a fairly flat route to Cacabelos. That will let my feet and legs rest and recover. The weather continues to be what we’d call Indian Summer back in Virginia: clear and cool in the morning, sunny and 70 by midday. Only 11 more days to go.

Rabanal del Camino to El Acebo – 17 Kms, 24,247 steps

I’m not having a good Camino day. My walk today took me over the highest point in the whole Camino and down some really awful descents. In the middle of one descent from Hell, I was cursing the idiots who administer this segment of the path and think it’s acceptable. It’s not, and I wonder how many foot and knee injuries happen here as a result. Shame on them!

The day started cool and sunny, and warmed up quickly; I was in shirt sleeves within an hour. That was good because I had a lot of climbing to do. Here’s today’s height profile:

After the initial climb to Foncebadon, I took this photo back over the valley behind me:

The Cruz de Ferro is where pilgrims leave a stone they bring from home, representing something they want to remember, or to forget.

My halfway point break was at a nice food truck, featuring homemade coffee cake and Irish/Galacian music. Cows across the road contributed to the ambiance.

Then came the descents from Hell. Loose rocks and steep descents that demanded I pay 100% attention to where my boots and hiking pole tips were going, for 35 minutes. Forget the scenery, forget taking photos, just look down and try to avoid stumbling and falling! Really bad stuff. I can’t imagine anyone negotiating this in the rain.

And then, near El Acebo two idiots on bicycles come down the path, barely in control, nearly hitting me. Twenty yards on, they had to dismount and walk their bikes. What were they thinking!? They should have followed the road, which is the bicycle route.

I’m safely in a nice hostel now, washed and fed. Tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same! Taxi, anyone?

Astorga to Rabanal del Camino – 21 Kms, 27,347 steps

I said farewell to Astorga at 8:00 AM and joined several others heading down the Camino to the city limits. Sunrise occurred about 20 minutes later. It was a chilly 44 F and I was layered up. The walking was smooth and easy, however.

Before long, I had passed through several small towns and arrived at my halfway point, Santa Catalina de Somoza, and I stopped for breakfast at a cafe I recognized from 2019. How I managed 10 Kms without coffee (there was nothing open in Astorga) is a mystery.

The guidebook says that Santa Catalina de Somoza is the only town on the Camino named for a woman! She’s Saint Catherine of Alexandria, and apparently the “de Somoza” part means “of the foothills”. At any rate, I’m glad to have spent a nice 30 minutes there, getting my caffeine fix and shedding layers to better match the warming weather.

There are a lot of pilgrims out on the Camino now, more than I remember seeing at this point in 2019. Sometimes it seems crowded, other times it’s nice to be able to see where others are going up ahead when the path zigs and zags. I wonder what this means it will be like when I get to Sarria, where the short-distance folks traditionally join in and swell the pilgrim headcount.

My next stop was the town of El Ganso, whose name makes me think of “Gonzo”, Hunter S. Thompson’s wacky type of journalism. The town is the home of the famous Cowboy Cafe, which I think might please Thompson:

It’s more hype than substance, though. For example, there’s Willie Nelson on the sound sysem, but no Lone Star in the taps. Of course, if you’re going to have Cowboy Cafe, then you need:

Yes, an albergue that houses you in teepees. I think Hollywood needs to look into filming a new series of westerns here – the community is obviously into it already.

I was in Rabanal de Camino in no time after that and I’m now checked in and unpacked at El Refugio Hosteria, a really nice hostal. In 2019, I ate a fantastic dinner here, featuring a salad with a scoop of spiced ice cream, and a main dish of beef cheeks in red wine sauce. It was absolutely the best meal of that Camino, so I’m looking forward to seeing what is on offer this evening.

Tomorrow, I’m off to El Acebo. It’s only 17 Kms but, as I recall, there are some steep sections with treacherous footing. The weather forecast is for more of the same, which is great. Cheers.