Still descending

It rained overnight in Acebo, but fortunately it was clear skies this morning as we left, headed down toward Ponferrada. The initial descent was very steep, but on dirt track. Not as many rocks, but since it rained overnight it was a little slippery so we had to switch-back our way down. It got exhausting mentally having to keep the focus on the precise placement of our feet and poles in order not to slip. But it was still beautiful. Here and there we caught glimpses of the sunrise splattered against the neighboring mountains. And the wild Spanish lavender growing everywhere blanketed the hillsides in purple splendor. We also spotted some of the tiny, Maragato villages tucked into the mountains as we walked.

We got to the little village of Riego de Ambrosa. Very neat, clean village, and we stopped at the chapel and lit candles for mom and dad. The trail veered off to the left through a hidden valley (so well hidden that we missed it the first time through and had to go back), that felt like we were walking through a jungle path. There were tree limbs creating a canopy above us and bushes growing all around on either side of the path, and a stream cutting through it. We were surrounded by greenery, and birdsong filled the air. A little bit of heaven. We didn’t see a lot of other pilgrims on the trail today. But we did see a border collie come flying down the mountain past us. Never saw his owner, but he seemed to know where he was going!

Going through these mountains reminded me somewhat of going through the Meseta. We followed the guidebook and tracked our kilometers on my Apple Watch to see how far we had gone and how far was left to go. The next town, Molinaseca, was supposedly one kilometer away, but we couldn’t see any sign of a town. Only endless mountains, trees and valleys all around us. If felt like it was taking forever to get there with the unforgiving downhill. But then, up one more stretch of trail and around a bend, and there it was, beckoning us to stop for a cafe con leche and a bit of rest from the downhill. Yes indeed!

On the way into town, we passed over an old brick bridge. Just on the other side sat a guy at a little table doing custom wax stamps on a donation basis. I was able to choose the impression (from six options) and color, so I went with a purple rose. Quite lovely! We then made our way to a restaurant for a little snack of tortilla and cafe, and where we met up with Alex, a young man from London who was traveling solo that we had met at dinner last night. We had a lovely lunch chatting with him.

When we got to Ponferrada, we immediately set out to do laundry after checking into the hotel - another half mile walk there and back, but at least it was on flat ground! After that, we toured the Templar castle from 12th century when the Knights Templar used it as a fortress to protect the city and especially the pilgrims. Pretty amazing to see the incredibly high walls and all the lookout points, and imagine the knights keeping watch almost 1000 years ago.

After the tour, we met up with a couple of other pilgrims friends from the US that we met early on in our journey, and we all had dinner together! Fun!

It’s hard to believe we have only nine days left in our Camino. It is going by so fast, though Rory and I both agree that we are getting travel weary. The daily packing and unpacking loses its charm after a while. But we are so close!