Rabanal del Camino to Villafranca del Bierzo

Day 32  Rabanal del Camino to Molinaseca (27kms)

It was a cold and frosty morning…outside!  The heaters were turned off during the night but are on again this morning – great in the bathroom but a little warm in the bedroom.  Nevertheless, we enjoy a really nice breakfast and step outside wearing our warm hats for the first time.  It is dark when we set off at 8.10am but the sun soon comes up and we watch it with Alison, Jenny and another lady from Ballarat. 

We have 350m to climb this morning and are pleased to find that the climb is gently spread out over about 7kms.  It’s very pleasant walking on a little trail alongside the road…but we are barely aware of the road unless a car is passing by.  Pass through Foncebadon, a small village that has fallen into disrepair and has few permanent residents.  An itinerant, sleeping in his dingy loaded on a small 4-wheeled horse-drawn wagon (no horse in sight, but with a dog) pokes his head out from under a white tarpaulin, seemingly with everything but the kitchen sink in the boat with him!

Climb continues steadily to the Ermita de Santiago and the Cruz de Ferro, which marks the border between the land of the Maragatos and the region of El Bierzo. 

This Cross is one of the symbolic monuments on the Camino.  It is a small iron cross placed at the top of a huge wooden pole set in a mound of rocks and stones, many of them brought from home by peregrinos and placed on the pile. 

We have a rest at the picnic ground and eat our leftovers from breakfast.

As we go gently down for a bit, we are aware of rather strange looking buildings ahead…this is the village of Manjarin, with only a few buildings occupied, and a medieval-style albergue which is described as being “rich in character but low in facilities.”  As we approach what appears to be a refreshment place, a bell rings out…Tomas, the self-styled Knight Templar, complete with tabard emblazoned with the Templar emblem, rings the bell to welcome all-comers.  We stop for the worst coffee of our trip, but enjoy an experience that can’t be bought!  Tiny kittens everywhere…nestling around a brazier to keep warm, climbing over and into peregrinos packs, and sharing a biscuit with a small dog. Tomas has a ‘gift shop’ where souvenirs are at least twice the price of anywhere else we have seen, and you make a donation for your coffee and a Marie biscuit.  He stamps our Credentiale and off we go.

We approach Punto Alto (1515m) where a couple of ugly little pitches constitute the steepest climbs of the day.  From here it’s down, down, down, much more steeply than any climb since our first day when we descended into Roncesvalles.  The track is eroded and quite loose in places.  We can see Ponferrado almost filling the valley below and the lake which is the dammed Rio Sil. 

Lunch is taken off the track in the shelter of a slate outcrop which provides a very suitable backrest and protection from the wind and we enjoy our cuppa in the sun while watching fellow peregrinos pass by.

Close to the village of Acebo, we really have to watch our footing as the track is broken up and very steep, but we collect water in the village and catch up with a group of  day walkers having their community lunch while waiting for their transport.  As we wander on down the road, we  pass an iron bicycle mounted on a rock, a memorial to a German cyclist, Heinrich Kradse, killed on the Camino in 1982, just one of the many memorials we have seen.  Continuing on the road most of the way to Riego de Ambros, we eventually find a bar where we can get a coffee…and use the servicios!  At the end of the village, we immediately drop down into the valley via an outcropping natural slate pathway – not easy to walk on – before coming out of that valley and contouring into the next,, our descent continuing, often quite steeply, along this valley to the beautiful little village of Molinaseca on the banks of the Rio Maruelo.  On the bridge we meet 3 girls (2 sisters and 1 other, whose sister started with them but had to go back to work) from Brisbane whose parents did the Camino 3 years ago and the girls are emulating their feat.



 Molinaseca



Walk the length of Calle Real before finding our accommodation, enjoy another coffee (that’s 3 for the day, if you count the one at Manjarin!) and Elaine has a shower while John goes to the supermarket for tomorrow’s lunch.

At dinner we again meet 2 French couples who have walked from Le Puy in France (they will have covered approx. 1500kms in total!)…one of the ladies is travelling by taxi at the moment as she is unwell, but hopes to start walking again soon.  We decide to have Hamburgueser and Cheeps (also came with a fritte egg on the side) and finished with a Café Grande that took us half an hour to drink it was so grande!!

Day 33  Molinaseca to Cacabelos (25kms)

Breakfast this morning is served the traditional way for this area – backwards!  When we arrive at the table, there are warm, mini-croissants on the table with butter and jam.  We then get our coffee and tea.  Next to appear is toasted baguette followed by 2 slices of baguette with olive oil, cheese and ham.  Then along comes the orange juice!  Very tasty and we left a table full of dirty dishes!

Another cold and frosty morning as we step out at 8.23 am wearing warm hats, gloves and a scarf for one.  Only the local cats are active as they search for their first kill of the day.  Very few peregrinos on the track as we tackle the first of many undulations to the village of Campo on our way to the town of Ponferrada by a rather convoluted route, not particularly well way marked, but along tracks and very minor roads.

We enter the town over a stone bridge…there’s a surprise!...and wend our way quite steeply up through the back streets to emerge at the Castilla de los Templarios, finished in 1282 by the Knights Templar, but abandoned some 30 years later.  It has been extensively modified since then and the town is now renovating it.  Past the Castillo and into the Plaza where we find the Basilica, the Virgen de la Encina.  This is where the Pope will conduct Mass later this month so we pop in for a look…not so lavish as many, and smaller than some, but with it’s own charm.

After leaving the urban area via the village of Compostilla…through a breezeway under a residential building and into a courtyard at the end of which is the Compostilla Church, it’s out onto the road to Columbrianos, where we change out of warm hats into sunhats, Fuentes Nueves and Camponaraya, all largish villages, punctuated by market gardens, small areas of pasture, stands of poplars and other deciduous trees, all starting to loose their leaves. 

There are no picnic areas through these villages so when we find a lovely flat concrete ‘seat,’ we decide to make this our lunch stop…until we realise that it is actually a sewage inspection pit cover!  Next best is a seat outside the Camponaraya cemetery…fortunately the gates are firmly closed and we sit in the sun while the billy boils, and shed another 2 layers of clothing before we start out again – now in short sleeves as the sun is quite warm. 

We meet 2 young men and their white van who are entertaining 2 young female peregrinas with their questionable musical talent.  What they lacked in finesse, they certainly make up for in volume!  From here it’s more hills but pleasant walking as make our way to Cacabelos for our overnight stay.  We arrive at just on 3.00pm, a good day’s walk after a very hard day yesterday.  One of us has very tired feet.

Accommodation tonight is at a very old hotel – beautifully restored with heaps of atmosphere.  We are welcomed with a cup of wine and a piece of ‘local specialtie’ pie which we sit in the sun to eat.  Elaine has a ‘legs up’ rest and John goes to check out the dinner options.  On his return we have a coffee in the hotel café, by the open fire, and then shower and try the internet which is not successful. 



La Moncloa, Cacabelos



Day 34  Cacabelos to Villafranca del Bierzo (8+3kms)

Late start, lovely breakfast of orange juice, toast and locally produced jam with coffee and tea, and we step outside at 9.20am!  It’s 3C!!

The sun is just kissing the tops of the surrounding hills and we set off uphill towards the small village of Pieros.  As we have a very short day, and therefore lots of time, we decide to explore the site of the Celtic city of Castrum Verigidum (Castro Ventosa on the roadside sign), a 3km detour including a 100m climb/descent.  All we find at the top is the partly restored perimeter retaining wall around the flat topped hill which is now a vineyard.  John, however, does take a very cute photo of a squirrel!

On our descent we are very taken with the amazing autumn colours of the trees and the vines, making a beautiful patterned carpet across the hills.  Back on track, we watch some people stripping corn from the cobs via what looked a bit like a hand operated mincer.  We take the scenic route to Villafranca del Bierzo via Valtuille de Arriba, where we have morning tea of café con leche grande…with complimentary ‘bruschetta’ (toasted baguette with spicy tomato spread and a sardine on top) and mini sponge cake.  Many houses in this village are very old and seemingly abandoned, thus falling into disrepair.  A large trailer, attached to the now familiar John Deere tractor, stands laden with crates of grapes…and by one corner, where the juice drips from the trailer, is a large, black container…waste not the fruits of one’s labour!



Waste not, want not!



Following the undulating, rough vehicular track through the vines and partly wooded approach to Villafranca, we meet a man in a car spruiking for accommodation business, and suddenly happen upon the village tucked away in the shadows of the hills…another typical Spanish village with narrow streets, stone buildings, numerous plazas, and a population which comes alive after 5.00pm each day.

The Iglesia de Santiago is at the entry to the village.  In the past, pilgrims too sick to continue to Santiago de Compostela could pass through its northern portal, the Puerta del Perdon, and receive dispensation for their sins.

Lunch is an omelette in Plaza Mayor and we spend the afternoon browsing the village and checking emails, etc.  We check at the Albergue to see if we can do our washing there tomorrow…yes!!  Laundromats are just not something the Spanish know about, so it’s an albergue or the hotel room Chinese laundry.  We meet Jeanette over dinner and hear her amazing story of having her pack stolen from outside a bar, and how she got most of her things back over the last 24hrs. 

Day 35  Rest Day Villafranca del Bierzo

We opt for a late breakfast and are served a menu to die for…freshly squeezed orange juice, 5 varieties of cereal, fruit, yoghurt, scrambled eggs, toasted baguette and toasted croissant, butter, jam, 2 varieties of ham, 2 varieties of cheese, 4 varieties of fresh fruit, pastries, muffins, cakes.  And tea and coffee!...a huge difference from the coffee and toast or cake we have been getting. I order tea with ‘una poquito con leche’ (a little drop of milk) and find the milk added to the teapot with the tea bag!



Iglesias de Santiago





Castilla de los Marqueses



Catching up with our diary and blog takes up most of what’s left of the morning, but we walk around the town, through the gardens, to the supermarket to check out stock, have a coffee, go to the information centre, then to the albergue to do our laundry.  Unfortunately the historic ‘church of absolution’ is closed for the day, and the Castilla de los Marqueses, which dominates the town from the hill, is not open to the public.   Another coffee before going back to collect our lovely dry laundry...which we are sure will please those of you who have been observant enough to notice that changes of clothing have not been a huge priority! 

Heading for the supermarket to shop for tomorrow, but find Mars bars in the paper shop, tomato in the butchers, and a wholemeal baguette in…the bread shop!  Have dinner early, in a virtually empty restaurant, as opposed to last night when the place was buzzing, before packing and having an early night…tomorrow is reputedly the first of two tough days.