Highs and Lows in More Ways than One

While the Gaucelmo albergue was lovely, last night and early this morning, we were reminded of why we don't like staying in albergue dormitories too much, and prefer our own room.

By 9.00 p.m. lights were out in the dorm and people were in bed, so we had to do everything by headtorch. Then, we'd hardly got to sleep, when alarms started going off at 5.30 a.m. and our fellow pilgrims were getting up.

Still, the English hospitaleros gave us breakfast (very unusual in an albergue) so this was a good start, then we exchanged email addresses so we can stay in touch and hopefully see them when they go to Walsingham next Easter, which is near our bear cave.

Even without hurrying, we were back on the Camino at 7.30 a.m. It was actually still dark and we worried about missing a yellow arrow waymarker. We really do fail to understand the attraction of setting out at 6.30 or earlier.

We were glad when it got light as today's walk was through some beautiful mountain scenery and most of the time we had dedicated dirt tracks which were much kinder to our paws than hard surfaces.

We climbed up through scenery that reminded us of crossing the Pyranees at the start of the Camino in Spain.

Our first stop of the day was at the famous Cruz de Ferro, a small iron cross on top of a big wooden pole. This in turn stands on a huge pile of stones left by pilgrims over many centuries. The idea is that you take a stone of some significance with you from home, and lay it at the foot of the cross as a symbolic laying down of a burden, and also as a symbol of your efforts on the pilgrimage.

Here we are laying stones taken from one of our favourite stretches of beach at home ...


From the cross we went down a bit, then up a bit more, to the highest point on the Camino, 1,515m. The views were superb and it was warm and sunny.

We then started a big descent of 845m. We were glad of our shock absorbing stuffing, as our minders reported it being hard on their knees and little toe blisters.

We had to growl a few times at stupid packs of cyclists who insisted on riding their bikes down our, often narrow, steep and some times rocky, Pedestrian path, expecting us to leap out the way as they came hurtling down. Why they couldn't use the very quiet Tarmac road which was made for them, was beyond us.

We had thought about going onto Ponteferrada today, and we certainly had time to do it, but when we got to Molinesca, it was such a delightful spot by the river, that we simply had to stop. We knew it was the right decision when we were able get a room in a Casa Rural hostal, right by the river, overlooking the old bridge. How's this for the view from our room?


In any event we had walked a tough 16.5 miles to get here and there is always tomorrow.

We are currently finishing our wine at the end of our pilgrim meal, but before that we had a pleasant time relaxing by the river and talking to a very nice South African lady who, like us, likes hamsters.

We have also met 2 fellow Brits just now. They're finishing just down the road in Ponteferrada tomorrow, having walked from Leon.

Love from the Camino bears xxx