Another long day 😟.

We’ve made the mistake of booking our flight back to the UK for Wednesday next week. We booked it in Rabanal when we were still 250 km from Santiago de Compostela. At that point we had eight full days of walking. We’re down to six starting tomorrow and we’re 184 km away from Santiago so we’re on target but it’s tough on the feet.

This is Ponferrada first thing in the morning. Not a soul in sight. The hotel was pleasant but a little sad. The chap running it, early twenties, did everything from taking our money to stay, organising our washing, dinner and then providing breakfast at 7:30 this morning. We see quite a few peregrinos as we walk but I suspect that the real influx won’t start for a few weeks yet. The hostels and albergues en route clearly need the peregrinos to survive and if we’re the only ones staying it’s going to be tough financially 😒.

Today’s route found us winding our way slowly through Ponferrada’s reasonably well heeled suburbs before passing quite quickly into the surrounding countryside. We stopped after 5 km for coffee.

There are various reminders that this is a pilgrim route.

But also that this is a relatively impoverished region. All of the villages show evidence of decline.

But, there are always storks 🤗

This area is clearly a wine growing region. The path today took us through mile after mile of fields containing dormant vines.

It must be a fabulous sight to see these fields when the vines are heavy with grapes in late summer.

We stopped for coffee and food every 5 miles or so. We were tempted to stop in Villafranca del Bierzo, a lovely small town

but with a timetable to stick to we ploughed on. The official Camino route took us alongside the main road while an alternative route would have taken us across country, with a 400m+ ascent and descent. We chose the road.

The Spanish authorities had sensibly constructed a 4′ high, solid concrete barrier between the pilgrim path and the main road but the path itself was solid concrete, horribly hard going for aching feet. We stopped a couple of times and on one occasion took the following ‘selfie’. We may appear to be smiling but it’s an illusion. It’s raining, we’re shattered, our feet and legs are burning and we’re contemplating the sheer absurdity of the whole venture.

Some 34 km after we set out this morning we arrived in Trabadelo (no idea why it’s also called Work It). We stopped at the first hostel in the village. It had a private double room, a bath with piping hot water, and two single beds pushed together. Two out of three isn’t bad so we’ve stayed. Menu peregrino was excellent; mixed salad to start, salmon, pepper and potato as second course washed down with our beverage of choice, in this case agua con gas.

Mum is already asleep.

Buen Camino