Overnight - Refugio Gaucelmo
I left Astorga after a too-comfortable night in a too-pleasant hotel, looking forward to my next albergue. The day - just over 20 kilometres - promised to be mostly uphill and a prelude to the longer, sharper, climb the next day.
As it turned out, the elevation chart didn't reflect how benign the inclines generally were. Which is not to say it wasn't another great day on the Camino - it certainly was, with the past two days just about making up for the ugly first day post-Leon.
The roadside walks out of Astorga were again quiet with very little car, or even foot, traffic and the pathways generally were back to their best. The first and only pre-Rabanal stop was at a very well located and patronized cafe/bar at Santa Catalina de Somoza, which has the distinction of selling the cheapest black tea on the Camino so far. At 70 Eurocents, coupled with a 3 Euro tortilla, it was a bargain. And beautifully constructed it was too. They placed the tea bag into the hot water in the tea pot just so ...
After a few more minutes pilgrim-watching and chatting, it was time to resume, with the uphills having slightly more 'up' than in the first half of the walk. The sun then started making its presence felt, shortening up the shadows and generating some decent sweat on the exposed track.
The walk ended with a climb into Rabanal, and a short wait outside the front door of the very impressive looking Refugio Gaucelmo, which opens at midday. When registration started, the place turned out to be even more impressive, run by some very friendly English volunteers who provided an afternoon tea and very helpful company. Before that, for lunch, I had headed over to the bar across the road for a substantial and delicious pilgrims’ meal.
Later in the afternoon, I wandered into the Refugio’s simple library and started re-reading a book they had there that I’d bought back in Australia as part of my preparation for the Camino. It was called “Walking Home” by Sonia Choquette, and when I first read it, I thought it was a complete load of tosh. My overwhelming interest was in the practical side of her walk, to which she devoted very little space. I had great difficulty then even finishing it as she kept going on numerous tangents about how various seemingly innocuous aspects of her Camino journey - ‘from humbled to healed’ as she termed it - prompted her to recall depressingly painful details of her life and relationships, about which she wrote endlessly. So I was quite surprised after spending an hour or so reading it here that I could now actually see where she was coming from and even started to empathise with her plight.
At 7:00pm, it was time to head to the adjacent church for vespers, where the four resident monks sang verses to each other in what was really quite a moving ceremony. Tomorrow, it’s a day back in the mountains, and I’m looking forward to it.
Weather - Same old, same old. Albeit the talk around the Refugio from those who keep a close eye on these things is that there might be some rain on the horizon. We shall see.
Health - No issues.
Food - Banana; Tortilla slice + bread slice + pot of tea for breakfast at Santa Catalina de Somoza; Apple; Cans Coke Zero x2 in Rabanal; Pilgrims menu at hotel next to refugio (bread basket, seafood broth, grilled chicken with chips, cheesecake slice with cream); Afternoon tea at Refugio (cups of tea x4 + small cake/biscuits x3); Small Belgian chocolate bar; Orange
Expenses – Accommodation (by donation) - 10.00; Food/Drink - 19.50 Total - 29.50
Walking time - 4 hours, 30 minutes (start 6:45am, arrive at accommodation 11:15am)
Brierley distance - 20.6km (total 534.0km)
Daily Steps - 29,734
Total Camino steps - 851,061
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