Day 9/24 Rabanal - El Acebo Today is suppose to be one of the most challenging on Camino. The climb to Cruz Ferro (1500m above sea level, but we start at 1000m from Rabanal) and then the steep decent to Ponferrada (500m). But we will stop at El Acebo about 1000m down. We headed away around 0830. There is a service that transfers your pack to your next destination for €5, so we have loaded Mike’s pack up and sent that forward. Keeps mine light and takes the...

Day 8/23 Astorga - Rabanal I headed out alone today for the walk to Rabanal. Another rest day for Mike’s heal, he will get a taxi to Rabanal. It was a beautiful 8d morning. There is snow on the mountains but thankfully no wind today so perfect conditions. It was strange walking alone, but so many people do it and it wasn’t long before I teamed up with Peggy from Orange County CA. We ended up walking the whole day together. We made a few stops for breakf...

Day 7/22 Day off Astorga Good place to have an extra day. Visited the Gaudi Bishops Museum. The cathedral is next door and is another amazing structure. Market day in Astorga today and every Tuesday. Wow - it’s impressive how they transform 2 empty squares so quickly into a pumping market place. Everything was available from fruit/veg to homewares. By 4pm they had disappeared. A huge effort involved with setting up and down. Caught up again with Vicky an...

Day 5/21 Had a great sleep and finally after a week feel in the time zone. A fab breakfast at our accommodation, everything homemade, jam, fried eggs, toasted baguette etc. we headed away at 0900 for Astorga - approx 23k with lots of villages enroute. It was a pleasant 8d with some low cloud. Stopped at Villaries de Orbigo for coffee after crossing the amazing bridge in pic. A bit of history; “Don Suero de Quiñones, a wealthy knight was rejected by the wom...

Day 5/20 Leon - Villavante. Another cold start - 3d. We headed out of the city around 0800 - took over an hour to finally leave Leon. It was a long hard days walking. 34k in all. We truly stumbled into our beautiful accommodation- Molino Galocha - a lovely renovated old windmill. Our fabulous host, Mercedes and her husband, greeted us with open arms and beer. We were aching. We took drugs to ease the pain. Just two other guests - Fan and Jen, girlfriends ...