emilyonearth

Having already done most of the walk uphill by going on to Foncebadón, it was just a short walk to the Cruz de Ferro in the morning, a tall iron cross marking the highest point in the Camino Frances at a little over 1500m above sea level. An Australian minister who was walking the Camino decided to hold a service there at 7am, and he seemed to have quite a gathering by about 6:45 – we didn’t stick around for it, and instead continued on our way. Not long afterwards we came across a little food truck, and mum treated herself to some cake to celebrate her birthday!

The hard part about the walk into Molinaseca was that it was almost entirely downhill, very steep at times, with lots of rock and loose stones. It was very hard work in the legs! Mum wore her sandals, as last time we have a big downhill like this is when she got her toenail blisters from her feet sliding to the front of her shoes – she wanted to avoid a repeat of that situation. I tried out wearing sandals briefly too, but it wasn’t for me. Lacking the support of my shoes made walking really difficult, so I changed back when we stopped for a rest and a drink. It was still very hard work, mentally as much as physically. You really have to think about where you put your foot for every single step, and then your legs are burning from the constant downhill…

Arriving at the albergue was an unusual experience. We were right on time for opening, but the woman told us they weren’t ready and to wait outside. I asked what time they would open and she said she didn’t know! Not long later a man invited us to come and check in. It was now that we realised they had somehow lost our reservation. I showed him the messages I had confirming this reservation, but he had no record of them. Luckily they had space anyway so it wasn’t a problem. While checking in, the man also asked if we would like to sign up for the communal dinner. We did so, and then the woman from earlier came and started telling the man off for offering us dinner, because she didn’t know if she was even going to make dinner tonight. It turned into quite an argument, and was rather uncomfortable! Anyway, dinner did end up going ahead, and we met a few new people – an Irish man, a woman from the Netherlands who is cycling the Camino and started from her home, and a woman my age from Panama. There were others too, but we didn’t get to know them.

I didn’t sleep wonderfully – I found what I think were bedbugs, so I was a bit worried about that. Luckily we treated our things with permethrin before leaving home, so I slept with a treated silk liner between me and the mattress, with no other bedding, and I don’t seem to have any bites today, so hopefully nothing arises from that!!