Camino de Santiago - Day 8 - Astorga to Ponferrada

Biking Day 8

• Astorga ---> Ponferrada
• 53.3 km (33.1 miles)
• 4 hours (with stops and lunch)
• Total Distance Traveled: 503.4 km (312.9 miles)

What a gorgeous bike ride I had today. I left Astorga around 8:00 am. It was chilly, I was shivering the first couple of miles, but I slowly warmed up and the sky was clear and the day became warm really quick. The first 20.6 km (12.8 miles) to Rabanal del Camino was pretty bare, but it was a good incline up the whole way. Rabanal del Camino was just at the start of the tree line heading into the mountains. From there it was straight up to the top of the mountain. I stayed on the road for a bit because the camino was parallel to it, but at Rabanal del Camino I stuck to the official path. 

The dog tried herding me over too, literally.

The views and scenery were so pretty that the uphill wasn't so bad. Once I got to the Cruz de Fierro it was downhill. I really wanted to do the downhill by the official path even though many people said I was crazy, but it really wasn't that bad. From Collado de las Antenas to El Acebo it was a straight drop. The camino was pretty rough, but I took it slow and managed no to fall :)

From the top

Cruz de Fierro

Water break

taking the camino over the mountain

heading across the top

Rough rocky road down

As I was passing through a small town I heard a few American girls talking and as I passed I turned briefly to say hello and one of them said, "Hey!" It was a girl that I studied abroad with in Granada 4 in 2006 and a girl who was living in Seville doing that same job as I was. It was really random and we agreed to meet up in Ponferrada at the albergue to hang out. After leaving them I started back down the trail but the actual road looked so fun I decided to take it down the remainder of the mountain. It was a blast; it curved down the side of this mountain with a steep slope and zig-zaging back and forth.

Study abroad friend

Fun ride down the mountain

I got into Ponferrada and checked into the albergue and hung out till the girls got there. We made some dinner and hung out, but I started feeling a bit sick. I think I drank some bad water along the way. In each town they have fountains, some are potable and some are not. This one wasn't marked but it looked like the ones that were usually potable so I went ahead and filled up the water bottle. Bad idea. As I am writing this I am sweating buckets and feel like I am going to hurl. If you are doing the camino and the fountain isn't marked, don´t take the risk!

Tomorrow is an up up up up up up hill day. I am going to try and push on as far as I can but we will see because the weather is really hot. I plan on getting a pretty early start, we have to be out of the albergue by 7:30 am, so hopefully it will be cool for the uphill portion.