Rabanal del Camino to Ponferrada

May 13, 2016 Friday

A muddy and long walk over the mountain to Ponferrada    Walking Day #22

This was a long, long day of 34 kilometers (22 miles) over a mountain top that is the highest point on the Camino, where Cruz de Ferro is located. The long, long climb up the mountain was very slow, because the pathway had become a creek, and a muddy creek at that. The downhill was just as bad, and slower. Then there was a climb to the second highest point on the Camino and down from there. The last 7 kilometers from Molinaseca to Ponferrada were on concrete tile sidewalks, and although hard, firm, level footing was a blessing. With short breaks, we were walking from 7:45 AM until just about 5:45 PM when I finally arrived at the hotel - that is about 10 hours of walking on very difficult muddy, slippery, and very rocky paths, often more like a creek than a path.

As Sir Edmund Hillary (the first to climb Mt. Everest in 1953) said, "It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." And today was very much that.

A Camino way marker on the road leaving Rabanal del Camino. It is cold out - we can see our breath as we start the long climb up the mountain.

Water follows the path of least resistance, and the Camino path is just that, so we are walking up a path that has become a creek, and on both sides, the ground is wet and mushy, not a good choice for side-stepping the creek/path.

Here I am as we catch our breath going up the mountain. From Rabanal del Camino, it is only about 7 or 8 kilometers to Cruz de Ferro, the highest point on the Camino.

And with little fanfare, it appeared right by the path as we rounded a curve. Cruz de Ferro is an iron cross atop a very weathered wooden pole surrounded by rocks left by pilgrims for many years. Cruz de Ferro has become one of the abiding symbols of the pilgrim way of Saint James. Rocks are left as symbols of many kinds, remembrances, loves, a desire to change something in one's life, or for many other reasons. It has become a tradition to bring a stone or rock from home to leave at the foot of Cruz de Ferro.

Here I am at the foot of the Cruz de Ferro monument.

And near the top of the this unusual Camino way marker - unusual in that the shell lines are in red rather than the traditional yellow.

 Along the rocky and muddy path down the first hill and then up the next, in spite of the slowness and difficulty, the scenery was beautiful and quite uplifting. Being up in the natural setting where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims have walked along the same path was deeply moving.

We passed several stands of trees with an odd moss, very different than that we see at lower levels. This appears silvery-green, and almost flaky. Quite striking.

 And the path down reveals more stunningly beautiful scenery. The rocky and quite muddy path makes for a slow and deliberate descent.

 Another view of the path downhill showing how uneven and rocky it is. Here there is not too much mud, though, so the going was a little faster than when we had to traverse mud and water.

 And on the way down, another tradition Camino way marker with a yellow arrow almost looking like an afterthought.

In a little valley - the danger in these little valleys is that water collects at low spots, and this one was no exception. We slogged through the mud off to the side of the path.

This is the path, uneven, rocky, but better than walking down a creek (which is just ahead).

And frequently, because of the recent rains, there are quite beautiful flowers along the path of in view of the path.

Sometimes a way marker is just an arrow painted on a rock. There is no doubt which way to go here.

In the distance we see Ponferrada taunting us. It is still several kilometers off, and then we had to walk around part of the town to get to the old central plaza where the hotel was. A long, long approach. I am tired, very, very tired, but after a hot shower, dry clean clothes, I learned that there was a laundromat (lavanderías de autoservicio) in this town of 70,000 close to the hotel, and now I have all clean and dry clothes. Yay!  (In the towns of 800 or 1500 population, laundromats are not common.)

Next: A shorter day of only 22 kilometers to Villafranca del Bierzo