Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Rabanal del Camino, Spain - Astorga to Rabanal del Camino

We were up again at the crack of dawn, leg muscles are hurting like crazy this morning - I was keen to give today a miss... but know that we have to go on!

This morning was the coldest day yet, I looked fashionable in my green pants, patterned knee high stockings, bright orange socks and socks as gloves! Ant had wanted to stick socks on his ears, but this I think was going a bit too far on the fashion stakes.

Getting up early and walking in the cold paid off though, we were able to watch the sun rise over Astorga - and what a wicked sight.

Today's walk was wicked, not too many uphill and the scenery was breathtaking. We made it to Rabanal del Camino by 12.40pm, and seeing as we were well ahead of time had decided to continue on to the next village Foncebadón (a further 5.8km. Thankfully we spoke to a fellow pilgrim, who on speaking to a local, had found out the Albergue at Foncebadón had now closed for the year... the next Albergue would be a further 10km.

After finding the Albergue at Rabanal del Camino, we were told that the doors wouldn't open until 2.30pm. The hospitalier told us that there were only 24 beds available for the night and that we would need to line our bags up in an orderly fashion. It definitely helped the time pass by - counting bags. Its was also funny to walk grown-ups finding so much amusement in watching bags being placed in a line.

The Albergue was great, clean, with good showers and most importantly everyone had a blanket!

Although my muscles are tired and sore, I feel surprisingly good.

Tomorrow we head up and over a mountain, in what will be our longest day of walking yet - 32.5km.

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