Wednesday, June 15, Day 25 on the Camino

Today we trekked about 19 miles (31 k) to the city of Cacabalos, population of 5,500. Our day started out with some hesitation as the sky was dark with low clouds and the ground was very wet, but it wasn’t raining. With rain threatening it was tempting to stay in our nice room one more day. After we had breakfast and saw others putting on their rain gear it almost made me feel guilty even thinking of staying another day, so off we went.

At first we traveled on the asphalt road thinking the dirt Camino would be too muddy and after a quarter of a mile or so we moved onto the actual dirt Camino. It was not too muddy but it was a very steep downhill and the surface was rocky and deeply rutted. At one point it was so rocky I wished that I would have stayed on the asphalt road.

After about two miles we came to the little village of Riego de Ambros, which appeared out of nowhere. It was obviously an old village by the looks of the buildings and my curious mind wondered how and why it was originally settled. It is very small, probably less than one hundred people, on a steep hillside, and really in the middle of nowhere.

After passing Riego de Ambros the Camino went through a thickly forested area and the surface was steep slick rock with lots of drops. Then it crossed several small streams and much of the surface turned very muddy.
The Camino entered back onto the highway and then back on the dirt for what looked like a long steep downhill to the city miles below. I decide to stay on the highway and Monica took the dirt Camino. The way down on the highway was steep and pleasant because there was no real car traffic. It did have long zig zags and might have been long than the dirt Camino? Monica got down to the village of Molinaseca fifteen minutes before me.

Molinaseca is a village from a post card, as it actually looked like a city in the Alps. It is right on Rio Manuelo, which is the river that ran along the highway I had taken. There of course is a beautiful old church and an old stone bridge over the river. It looked like a tourist town and the main cobble street through town look beautiful. Describing it sounds like so many of the other villages I have gone through but this looked so clean and picturesque it stood out. In retrospect I wish we had made it down here for our stop last night.

The next large city we came to was Pongerrada, population 69,000. It is a large town but not one of my favorites. It had its beautiful old downtown and buildings and castle, but I was a little surprised by how much graffiti there was all over the city. It was especially noticeable along the Camino, which is curious since the Camino is a symbol of pride for the Spanish people.

It had threatened to rain all day and after we passed through the village of Camonaraya we saw dark black clouds rolling towards us and considered whether to stop and seek shelter under a canopy at a cafe or continue since it was only another three miles to Cacabelos. We decide to go on, and not two minutes later it started to pour! I only have my Gore-Tex rain jacket and no rain pants and Monica only has a poncho.

It was about another one hour to Cacabalos and it rain most of the way there. The Camino passed through lightly forested hills and some farmland so there was no place to find shelter. Just outside of town it stop raining but by then our lower bodies were pretty wet. This is were wearing nylon or polyester pants pays off because our pants were dry by the time we found a place to stay.

We looked at a few albergues and then found a very nice hotel that was very inexpensive and similar in price to a private room in the albergue, and including breakfast, so we took it.

We went out to diner and then found a market a half block from our hotel and loaded up with fruits and vegetables for the night and tomorrow.

Tomorrow we hope to make it to somewhere near Valcarce, which is at the bottom of the second biggest elevation climb after Saint Jean. This would allow us to start the climb first thing in the morning while we have the most energy. Rain is predicted for tomorrow and that will also determine when and how far we will go.

Best wishes,
Ted

Starting the day with dark clouds threatening to rain