Day 31 - Rabanal del Camino - Molinaseca - 2 October, 2014

Time Departed: 8.00 am

Time Arrived: 3.00 pm

Distance: 25 kms

Cumulative Distance: 571 kms

Percentage Complete: 71%

Weather: Sunny and warm 

Accommodation: Hostal Casa El Palacio 

Feelings: Henk - Excited, Neil - Excited, Di - Keen

Today we were excited to be climbing to the highest point on the entire journey. Breakfast felt like a scene directly from "Faulty Towers". Even the German walkers at another table could see the funny side of it. We left Rabanal del Camino as the bells were striking eight o'clock. 

We didn't find the ascent as hard as expected. We climbed 350 metres over eight kms to 1 505 metres to Cruz de Ferro (The Iron Cross). We enjoyed the change of vegetation and the scenery which was very beautiful and we were surrounded by mountains. 

There were no compressed paths today but dirt tracks, stone and lots of shale. 

There are a lot more walkers on the path again. For a few days and possibly because we took alternate routes away from the roads that it seemed that we were the only walkers. 

After a little over an hour's climb from Rabanal del Camino we had a brief break at the unusual hill town of Foncebadon. Its one street is a stone and dirt, steep path and there are many abandoned, stone buildings which was a feature of today's walk. 

From Foncebadon it was only a further two kilometres to the Cruz de Ferro which is a large pole with an iron cross that sits on a pile of rocks. We each carried a small stone from the large stone cross, Cruceira Santo Toribio, which overlooked Astorga and placed it on the mound. I wished good health for my family and friends. Neil wrote on his stone, "For Vi" who is his mother-in-law. Henk just threw his onto the pile! He was too busy taking photos for everyone. There were many peregrinos having their photo taken including us.

The path from Cruz de Ferro to Manjarin and to the other peak Punto Alto was a very pleasant, mostly flat path with lovely vegetation. We wondered when we would start to descend. Manjarin only consisted of an alternate-looking albergue with signposts at the front entrance. 

At Punto Alto there was a van with tables, chairs and umbrellas and we decided to have an early lunch of Espanal Tortilla before descending. 

The path descended quickly straight after Punto Alto. It was very steep and slow going as we had to pick our way between loose shale and rocks. It took us much longer to come down than to climb. At one stage I was getting grumpy and realised I had nothing to complain about as my body was coping well with the descent. Those with knee and ankle problems would have found it very difficult. There were a number of injuries due to falls and sprains and taxis were called. The taxi numbers appeared frequently on the Camino signs throughout the day.

The village houses we passed were very different from what we have seen. All had stone walls, black shale roofs and small wooden verandahs. They had an alpine feel to them. 

Many walkers chose to have lunch at Acebo but we pressed on. There was till 12 kms to go and the afternoon sun was starting to beat down. We could see the large town of Ponferrada in the distance and we will be walking through it tomorrow.

We met Meredith and Phillip from Sydney about two kilometres from our destination. It was good to have the company on the way in as it was getting hot and it was a good distraction. We crossed the medieval bridge, Puente de Peregrinos over the Meruelo River to our accommodation which sat alongside the bridge on the right as we entered. 

When we arrived at Molinaseca we had descended 900 metres over a 12 kms distance. It was quite a descent! We were glad to arrive and put our feet up.

Molinaseca is a lovely small medieval town. 

We walked around the streets for about half an hour and settled in to a cafe alongside the river to have a pre-dinner drink. We have a view of the bridge from our hotel room. 

It was an early night for us. We were tired but we also needed the extra sleep because tomorrow is our longest day on The Camino. We tackle 31 kms. Thankfully, it won't have the ascents and descents of today.