Camino : Foncebadón to Cacabelos

Many of my photographer friends have shown me pictures of the Milky Way and I am always amazed at their fantastic photography. I personally have never been able to take such beautiful pictures. Mostly because I just use my iPhone all the time which does not have that level of capability.

I started walking and found the full display of stars in the absence of light pollution. I was happy to take one picture where at least some stars are visible.

Today, the path was very hilly, and there was no bar or cafeteria open in the first couple of hours.

The snowy mountain tops were visible throughout the path and they looked very pretty.

At dawn, I could see much more color in the surroundings.

The sunrise was mesmerizing, as the pallet of colors exploded in the sky.

The sky above the snowclad mountains looked colorful as well.

I climbed the first 4000 feet and was at the same level as the radio tower when it became fully sunny.

The path was wet and muddy, had many small water streams; the colorful shrubs all around had many lavender flowers.

After the steep uphill climb, a steep downhill followed. It was projected that I would descend at least 3000 feet in the next few miles.

The various size pebbles strewn around posed a challenge in stepping just the right way to prevent shocks to the blisters.

As I descended through the narrow path, the next town stop of Molinaseca was visible.

It seemed to have a bunch of Albergues. The first Albergue and bar was named La Rosa. I went a little further to see if there’s any other one open, but none were and I decided to give La Rosa a try.

The two folks running the bar and Albergue was a couple, the husband was Spanish and the wife was Dutch. They had acquired the property a year ago. They had found their happy place. They negotiated with the previous owners for eight years and finally pulled the trigger during the Covid pandemic when the price was just right.

They have to ensure to treat the tourists right and run a brisk business nine months of the year because during the winter months, there is no foot traffic. Their savings have to be enough to cover the lean months.

The path ahead was quite scenic, pretty, wooded and downhill. I saw a variety of flowers. In fact the whole hillside was covered with wildflower shrubs.

I was very happy to see the remaining kilometer count inch closer and closer to 200.

Passing by ‘Ermita de nuestra Señora de Angustias’, a hermitage with a beautiful edifice, I marched on.

I was treated to a landscape with a river, the Camino, the mountain in the background and a church.

At the next town, Aaron, the British young pilgrim was going to meet up with me and we were planning to have lunch together. A bar serving paella with a big veranda, entertaining 20 or so pilgrims seemed like a good spot to hang out.

I got the seafood paella, although the paella negra was still eluding me.

A very tall pilgrim, who was probably 196 cm tall, was walking around collecting used Coke cans, making artwork with them and placing it on pilgrim’s tables.

Continuing further, I saw yet another statue of a pilgrim and the name of the town visible to people entering from the other side of it.

The next section was through a very green lush meadow.

The pretty big town of Ponferrada was visible in a distance.

The typical Calle Mayor of the town went by a Pilgrim’s Hospital.

The hospital had a very cute looking door.

A pilgrim statue here had a very pointy hat. I realized it was the Knight Templar statue.

The Castillo de los Templarios was right next to the statue.

A restaurant with an excellent view of the castle was across the street, and I decided it was a good spot to hang out while having some coffee, wine, and watch locals as they walked around in this big town.

The rivers Sil and Boeza flow through this town of Ponferrada.

Walking further, the path went through the outskirts of the town under a big highway, and the supporting columns of the highway had some interesting murals.

The countryside was continuing to be lush, wooded, and had a great view of the snowclad mountains.

Another 6 km of walking brought me to Camponayara. Few kilometers back, at Columbrianos, the brisk walker from Norway, Anne, had caught up with me and we walked together to Camponayara. This was her place to call it a day while I had plans to stay in the next town, another six more kilometers away.

An Olympics weightlifter from Spain, who had won many awards seemed to be from the city. There was a plaque and a statue commemorating her successes.

Before going into the wilderness, the path continued over a big, busy highway, which the Spanish call the autopista.

What a delight it was to see the mile marker showing the first sighting of a number below 200 km.

Finally I was in Cacabelos. I saw many signs of Pulpo, octopus, one of my favorite dishes but unfortunately the restaurants were closed.

I checked into the albergue which had two other occupants and it charged €10.

An interesting technology bashing mural was right next to the albergue.

After a good paella meal, I called it a night.