Chuck's News: Day 11 - Sunday, September 8, 2019 - Astorga to Rabanal - Into the Mountains - 12.31 Miles - Total Miles to Date

We have been walking across the Meseta, or Mesa, since we started walking in Burgos 10 days ago. The way has been nearly flat, with the occasional dip and short climb into a river drainage. We have been surrounded by fields of grain stubble, withered sunflowers and occasionally corn. Although you might think this country less than desirable to walk through, for me it has been a delight. I have never walked through this type of topography, so my interest was peaked by this new experience. The mesa is just below 3000 feet in elevation. But, today we will climb into the hills west of this mesa. We will gain about 1000’ today as we climb to the village of Rabanal. This is over a distance of about 10 miles. Pretty gentle terrain.

It is interesting hiking with crowds of people that have never really hiked before. There is an anticipation about “climbing” up this “mountain”. Of course, the guidebooks have documented two deaths that occurred on the trail. This has put a touch of fear in more than a few as to the treacherous conditions of the route ahead. We were told that tomorrow when we go over the top (elevation 4900’) we should not travel in the dark of morning because of the dangerous path. Checking the map I see the path parallels a road the entire way so I am doubtful of the perceived difficulty, but I think my background in mountain travel is a bit more extensive than the average traveler on this pilgrimage.

There were about 115 people in the albergue last night, about 20 to a room. There were about 5-6 albergues in the Astorga, plus innumerable hotels. Just speculating, but I bet 200-300 people will walk toward the pass today. We will traverse through 4 towns on our way to Rabanal. There is one town further up the hill, Foncebadon, but we will stop at Rabanal.

We were up at 5:00am this morning and snuck out of the room, hopefully not disturbing the 18 other people. We moved to the kitchen downstairs, had hardboiled eggs and bread for breakfast, fixed Sally’s feet and headed out the door a little before 6:00. While in the kitchen we saw Karen and Tanya, Raquel and about a dozen other early risers. Tanya’s foot is sore, she tripped on it yesterday, and walked all through this amazing town, putting additional strain on it. She will walk today, but if it gets too sore, she will take a cab to the next town.

The morning was again glorious. It makes getting up early a delight, knowing we will have the trail way mostly to ourselves with the stars above and the cool air all around. We called Andy (6:00am here is 9:00pm back at home) and talked for a while.

We stopped at the first red chair, still in the dark, but went inside and found a delicious piece of what we would call potato quiche. 1/6 of a pie split between us. 1.80€. Wolfed it down and out the door in about 3 minutes to the dismay of a Swiss, German and Swedish trio at the table next to us.

The way soon left the town and followed a two track dirt road steadily, but gently up. We stopped at Santa Catalina de Somoza at the second red chair of the morning. I was carrying a Pepsi we found in the grocery store. Sally enjoyed that and I purchased a Diet Coke from the cafe. Inside I found Karen and Tanya having a bite. Tanya’s foot was again to painful to continue on, so she was taking a taxi to Foncebadon. Karen would walk there. Outside Sally and I were sipping our drinks, watching the parade of pilgrims walk past. Soon Regina and Sandy came by and we had a chat. We left before them. They waited for the taxi to pick up Tanya, then continued their walk. We made it to El Gonso (great name) and found another red chair. Now, it was a long dry spell to Rabanal, 4.3 miles away. We walked and talked with a variety of people along the way. André and and his wife, of South Africa were a hoot. He is a retired anathesiologist and travels the world now. I met Larry, from Tacoma, a retire Special Forces vet doing his 7th Camino with the goal of doing 10.

The way actually became a trail, and fairly steep for a short portion before wandering onto the road for a piece, then a trail again before it entered Rabanal.

Rabanal is a quaint, cute little town, totally dependent on the Camino for existence. There are 3 or 4 albergue housing over 100 pilgrims a night and a hotel or two. All these are housed in old stone buildings, so the quaintness of the village is not lost. We picked the Nuestra Señora del Pilar Pilgrims Hostel for the night, based on the profusion of flowers and the excellent reviews. We were not disappointed. It was spotlessly clean, had great food, a great courtyard and plaza.

We wandered the town and met a 59 year old woman named D’Ann who is doing the PCT next year. We talked with her for 45 minutes about it and other topics, getting to know her. She was the national logistics director for Toyota, based in Dallas, Texas, retired 6 months ago and was traveling and doing the things she dreamed of while working. We agreed to meet her at the church at 7:00 tonight to hear the Gregorian monks sing their prayers.

Our original plan of eating lunch was so delayed in our search for the “right place” (three choices) that it was now nearly 2:00pm. We returned to our albergue and ate there. It had the best rated food in town. As we ate, we decided it was well deserved.

After lunch we retired to our bunks. I wrote, Sally napped. At 6ish we prepared to go listen to the monks. The church is an old stone building that should be condemned. Stones had fallen from the arching ceiling overhead, there were cracks in the walls and ceiling everywhere and there were signs of emergency shoring up to keep it standing. But, we seated ourselves near the back and prayed it would make it through the service. About 60-70 people packed the place and the monks performed their songs beautifully in Latin. Luckily for me, it only lasted about 20 minutes. About 10 minutes in D’Ann came in. Lucky for her we had saved some space on our pew and she slid in beside us.

Afterwards, we talked with her for another half an hour about her upcoming PCT experience, then parted company. We walked back to the albergue, prepared our bags for the morning and climbed in bed about 9:20pm.

We decided that maybe it would be a good idea to have one pack sent forward. We checked about the possibility, but found we needed to email and give notice before 9:00pm. We were too late. We would be carrying our packs up to Foncebadon in the morning, and over the “pass”. We only had about 1100 feet to climb, over 5 miles, so again, not steep.

People continued to sneak quietly into the room and climb in bed, but I was asleep and oblivious to it all in just a few minutes.

In Astorga at 6:00 in the morning.