I am not sure why I did not realize this after months of research, but beginning in Astorga, the Camino begins it's ascent & today it reaches it's highest point, El Cruz Ferro (Iron Cross) where pilgrims leave rocks representing burdens they want to relinquish & leave belongings representing prayers for themselves or others. What this means for me is that the first four hours of my nearly eight hour walk was all ascent & the remainder a pretty steep descent. Fortunately, after the first two hours, I walked with a man from Denmark (organic farmer who had already walked for 20 days & was well acquainted with Camino travel) & much of the afternoon with a delightful woman from Sweden who was also new to the Camino (had started in Astorga as well, but chose to begin with a shorter day). Both of them were generous enough to walk at my slower pace & certainly made a challenging hike easier.
We arrived in El Acebo at 5pm, showered, hand-washed laundry (which did not dry due to late hour) and had multicultural dinner: two men from France, one young woman from Brazil who was trying to decide what to do since her traveling companion ditched out, and a woman from Germany in addition to my Dutch & Swedish walking companions. It is now 10 pm & I am awaiting our laundry to be dried in the secador & ready for bed. Will sign off for now & add photos later.
Another peregrino stopping for a coffee:
Always taking pictures of cats along the way:
Some photos at Cruz de Ferro:
No comments:
Post a Comment