Day 11 Leon to Rabanal del Camino

Day 11 Leon to Rabanal del Camino

44.14 (total 391.08)

Hospital de Orbigo

Today we are off nice and early again but this is a day in which everything changes. Firstly, it’s quite cool at the off. Farmaicia signs say the temperature is down at 10/12 degrees, and we can feel the difference. Secondly, we are rolling off the Meseta plain today and into Galicia. Here we are going back into hills, the Mountains of Leon in fact and we have discussed our strategy for dealing with two major climbs that lie ahead. Today we have a fairly flat run as far as Astorga (about 25 miles on from Leon) but from there it is climbing. The climb is not steep to start with but we expect it be steep up to the Cruz del Ferro. Not just steep but also a long climb. So, taking all this into account, our plan is to take the lower and shallow part of the climb leaving the steep part for tomorrow and fresh legs. On that basis we select Rabanal del Camino as our target for the day as the guide book says there are several places to stay in what is only a small village.

Astorga - Bishops Palace

So we ride off into the last of the flat lands only noticing that the wheat fields of the Meseta have been replaced with vineyards and other green crops. We covered 20 miles by 9:30 and wandered into Hospital de Orbigo to see the long Roman bridge and for breakfast of coffee and tostada’s, or croissants for me, just for a change. The bites to my legs are still sore and one has turned into a blister that could win prizes so I use the break to apply some cream and put some plasters on the blister. From Hospital de Orbigo we start to climb gently towards Astorga where we find yet another stunning cathedral and a Bishop’s Palace built by Gaudi. We stop for coffee and have a quick look around and then carry on once more.

Rabanal del Camino - church

The climb ramps up a bit after Astorga and we are climbing steadily and into a headwind for the next 12 miles to Rabanal del Camino. By the time we get there we are pretty much running on empty at which point we remember that we have only stopped to eat the once, and then we had very little. At least the temperatures had stayed down and we had not had to deal with heat as well. The aubergue is very different to any we have stayed at before; it’s more like a wild west town as it is open to the skies but has a bar and a cafe as well as the dormitories and other facilities. I take a half hour break before I start the scrubbing up and clothes washing just to recover.

We ate in the aubergue and later went to a small and very ancient church where a group of monks sang vespers. The service was much shorter than others that we had attended and in its setting, it seemed to connect well with past pilgrims going back over the centuries.

We later had a discussion about progress as we knew that we had to get to Santiago fairly quickly if we were to get back to Bayonne in time to pick up the European Bike Express. Our estimate was that we had about 140 miles still to do and that we should be able to manage 40 miles at a minimum each day. On this basis we estimated Wednesday as our arrival day in Santiago and we knew that there was no room for any slippage.