Day 29–Thursday, June 8. Ponferrada to Villafranca del Bierza (17.5 miles)

I guess the mileage might be catching up with us. Thanks to the usual a@@hole jerks, we were awake at 5:15 even though we were hoping to sleep until 6:30. We tried to feign sleep until 7 but we didn’t get any real rest. We were on the road by 7:30 as planned. Leaving the municipal, one of the hospitallieros told us that the only restaurant open was the one across the street. We didn’t believe him and headed on. How can a city of 62,000 people only have one restaurant open before 10?

The Camino passes several religious building of significance including a Basilica and a 12th century Knights Templar castle. We got pictures of the buildings but didn’t go inside because 1) we have a long hiking day planned, 2) the buildings weren’t open yet, and 3) (and I can’t stress this enough) we are burnt out on ornate religious buildings built on the backs of exploited people by people who considered themselves more important than Jesus and who brought us the inquisition.

We did enter one building of importance–a 24 hour pharmacy. I bought a tube of topical anti-inflammatory cream to see if it will help my feet. Usually, by the time we get 12 miles in, my Achilles’ tendon is pretty irritated and I want it to stop hurting. I try stretching, but it’s not enough. Also, all the road walking is just turning our feet to mush after a couple of miles.

There was a pleasant walk out of town along the Rio Sil. Right on the edge of town, the trail climbs up to give an amazing view of town. From a distance, Ponferrada is a beautiful town. The people were very friendly (even little kids in the street yell “Buen Camino” to us as we pass), but they have a terrible graffiti problem here. From ground level to 6′ high, almost every building has been tagged. Pam took the inquisitors approach to the graffiti and suggested putting cameras out, find who’s doing the damage, and then destroy what they love most in life as retribution. She might have made a good torturer during the inquisition. Have I mentioned she hasn’t been feeling well the last few days? (At least it’s not directed at me this morning).

On the edge of town, we saw an open bar so I motioned to Shaun to stop so we can get some food and caffeine in Pam. We found the only open bar in town that doesn’t serve any food. We pumped a cafe con leche and a bag of chips into her hoping to give her enough energy to make it to the next town.

The next town was almost 3 miles of not too bad of walking, but still a lot of road. The day was slightly overcast so it was boiling yet. I always hope for cloudy days or rain over clear days. Entering into Columbrianos, the first cafe we passed actually served American breakfasts of bacon and eggs but Pam wavered so Shaun said we’re moving on. The next cafe was part of an Albergue but it was a very nice with a great courtyard seating area. As soon as we got the food to our table, we heard “Curtis, Pam” and looked around to see Barry, Kay, and Ross entering the cafe. They have decided to cut back on distances and are now doing 15-20K a day so this will be one of the last chances we get to see them before Compestella.

We left the cafe and went right back to road walking. We thought we saw Susan in front of us but weren’t sure. We caught up with her in about a mile around Fuentes Nuevas. She was looking at a winery tour as a stopping point. We said we’d join her if it was on the trail. We ended up walking with her for the next 3.5 miles into her stopping point of Cacabelos.

Just shy of half way to her destination town was Camponaraya. We decided to stop for a cool down rest in a bar. As soon as we walked in, we ran into Barry, Kay, and Ross–we happened upon their stop for the day. I tried out my new anti-inflammatory cream on my feet and was amazed at the affect in just a matter of minutes–thank you Brian Cranston, aka Pete.

We weren’t feeling bad, but we had only managed to cover a 10.7K in just slightly over 5 hours (that’s only about 1.5 mph). We all agreed the 20 mile day was a lost cause so we stopped in at the next winery we saw for a glass.

Cacabelos was where we were going to take our stand and start hiking for real–after we had a really nice long lunch break. Susan already had a reservation, so she could take the time for a late lunch. Shaun checked the Albergue situation in Villafranca and we didn’t think we’d have any problems finding anything whatever time we got in. We took our time and finished up lunch around 2:30.

Having only hiked 10 miles in 7 hours, we now decided to hike the final 7 miles in 2 hours. What made this an even more appealing goal was that it was almost all road. Honestly, my feet were feeling great so I was game.

We made it in just before 5. We ended up hiking with a couple of girls once we got into town. One of them turned out to be Polish and the other Russian but with a Latvian passport. They had just started in Leon and met today. They tried communicating in Russian and Polish but when they couldn’t understand each other, they would switch to English. We had met the Polish girl at the winery when we stopped earlier.

We had a communal supper with over 17 people present. Russian, Poland, Germany, Italy, France, Canada, Spain, Australia, and the US were all represented at dinner with Germany leading the way tonight.