Mazarife to Astorga

I woke in the middle of the night, and felt the energy in the air. The breeze coming through the open windows shifted from warm to cold, and rumblings in the distance confirmed it: the rain had arrived. With much reluctance I shut the window closest to my bed, I knew it was going to get stuffy in here really quickly with it closed.

The rain helped to mute the sound of those in the room who were snoring, and I fell back to sleep. We agreed to wake early again today because of the ever present heat, and a few hours later I was up.

The floor in the inner part of the building was exposed to the sky, and it was covered in a minefield of water puddles. I got my stuff ready in the dining room where we shared dinner the previous night. Crissi was eager to get going, and she departed before the rest of us.

With darkness enveloping the small village, and the street lights carving out orange cones of light, I turned on my head torch and headed out of town. The way out was easy to find thanks to it being a straight paved road shooting off into the distance.

More heads down walking along the road while avoiding the occasional car.

The sun started to ignite the sky as it struggled to break out from the thick clouds that concealed it near the horizon. Forty minutes later it broke free, and illuminated the world around me.

I walked through endless farmlands as the road approached a T-junction in the distance. Flies and snails were out in force this morning, taking up the entire path both on the ground and in the air.

Here the path veered off to the left after crossing the junction, and then took a sharp right, as it turned into a wide mud-filled dirt trail. More farmlands surrounded me as I zig-zagged my way along, avoiding the puddles of water.

On a few occasions I spotted Crissi's shoe print in the mud, and knew that I mustn't be too far behind her. After a while the path veered off to the right through stacks of earth and hay, as the first town on todays trek, Villabente, appeared. I saw nothing of interest in the town, and kept going via a winding route that went through the city's center, and passed some lumber warehouses before arriving on the dirt path once more. Train tracks ahead forced a 90 degree turn to the right.

As I followed alongside the tracks, I quickened my pace in hopes of reaching Crissi in the next, larger, town called Hospital de Orbigo. But a faster pace meant that I couldn't be as nimble as I would have preferred when it came to avoiding the massive legions of white-shelled snails that were occupying the white gravel path. I tried my best, but I know I probably stepped on several of them. A large stone arrow in the middle of the path told me that I was still going in the proper direction.

Hospital de Orbigo's entrance deliberately went around all sides of an industrial site before having to run across a busy street in order to continue on the path on other side of a roundabout.

The yellow arrows, and curvy road art, led me to Bar El Puente. It had a garden full of colorful small birds. With no breakfast to be had, I bought a banana and an apple before heading for the bridge.

The bridge was the site of a legendary medieval jousting competition. There’s a huge backstory to it, and you should read about it, but the bridge itself is called El Paso Honroso (The Honorable Pass).

I decided to skip breakfast here since the only offerings were at expensive restaurants, and it ended up being a good decision because on my way out of town I ran in to Crissi. She was debating taking the road route along the highway (nay), or the scenic route through the hills and trees (yay). I "made" her choose the scenic route.

The next town at Villares de Orbigo had an open cafe, and the food was so cheap that both Crissi and I got some food. A minor uphill gravel path took us to the widest red dirt path that I've ever seen. We took this down, around, and over another highway.

A few more kilometers and we were entering Santibanez de Valdeiglesias. Bianca randomly spotted us at the top of the road as we were leaving and called us over. As we waited for her to pack up, we randomly ran into Mauro at an Albergue! He was just getting started on this day, so he promised to catch up.

We marched along the red dirt paths through various forests, up and over hills, and over large rocks, and I spotted several large and odd looking bugs. The pictures above don't do the scenery justice though. Even though it was very red, it was very beautiful.

A couple hours later and we arrived at a trail angel stop known as Casa de Los Dioses. It was a free food and drink place, with plenty of cushioned seats in the shade. We even got to sign our names onto the side of the house. And the host was quite a character himself.

Another thirty minutes would pass before getting our first views of Astorga at the cross on the hill overlooking the city. We passed through San Justo de la Vega and continued to follow the road for a while until we came to bright white gravel path. It rain alongside the backs of several warehouse buildings.

The only shade was a thin sliver next to the buildings. After a turn in the path we came to giant green ramp structure that would take us up and over some train tracks. Initially this made me mad because we had just done all of that walking, and then to have to go up and down several ramps just to get over some train tracks. We followed the road again, sticking to the narrow sidewalks where we could, pass a roundabout and up a steep ramp towards the old part of the city.

There was an Albergue at the top of this ramp, right inside the city, but we initially ignored it because I thought it looked like a hospital. After a few more moments we decided to turn around and head to the place. It ended up being a good place, especially at five euros. It had great views of the surrounding countryside thanks to our rooms being on the top floor.

The nicety of the amenities stopped there.

There were zero outlets near the beds, the showers were so hot they nearly scalded my skin, they made us stay on the top floor because “we are young”, the bathroom toilet stalls were super tiny and I could barely move in them, and finally there is no air circulation.

But it was only five euros, so I took it in stride.

We grabbed much needed beers and food at a local bar. I did some more gear repacking, got rid of stuff that I just didn’t need, and was able to get rid of my first aid kit plastic bag! But somehow my bag still feels way to full.

After repacking, I suddenly became very aware of the pain in my knee (especially after going up and down five flights of stairs several times). I went to the pharmacy and got a brace for my knee, along with some cream for my finger (which somehow got an infection near the finger nail). The knee brace feels great when going downhill, and down stairs. I should have gotten this earlier.

I met up with Cerstin near the cathedral and we took a quick walk around town. We decided to not go inside the cathedral, or do the touristy tours. It looked like every other church after we stuck our heads inside for a quick peek.

Cerstin invited me to dinner with her, another German pilgrim, and a mother-daughter duo from Europe. They were making pancakes for dinner, and we had “real” German beer called Kriek with it. The food and the beer were both really good. I felt ashamed for having not helped prepare any of it.

The weather is gearing up for another storm, and the rain blew through without much warning. All of the clothes hanging outside got soaked. It's still hot and stuffy in our room, even after that torrent of wind and rain. Looks like it'll be another night of no clothes. But I'm excited, because tomorrow we are officially returning to the mountains.