Day 11 ~ 16th August 2000

Astorga to Molinaseca

The route from Astorga followed nice tree lined lanes, everywhere we saw signs saying "Leon solo", and in one place someone had written underneath "o con leche".

We had started very early, and reached Rabanal at 10am, we had our credentials stamped, and had a drink of fabulously cold water from an earthenware jug. We thought of halting here, with the thought of the hard climb ahead, then we decided to push on. The road now climbed, and climbed, and climbed, the temperature continued to beat down. We came across a fountain high in the mountains, into which I dipped my tee shirt, fantastic.

After a short rest we started the final incredibly steep climb to the Cruz de Ferro, it's hard to describe the sense of elation and joy that we felt.

However the final summit is not reached until the military station that is identified by it's radio mast, from then on a thrilling downhill lay ahead. After the first section we stopped at the refugio de Tomas, where we were given a drink and some sun tan cream.

From here we started the decent passing through the first village in "el Bierzo", called "el Acebo". By now the decent was so steep we were having to make stops to let our brakes cool down.

At the end of this glorious descent, we arrived in the beautiful village of Molinseca, where the river has been dammed to form a natural swimming pool.

Again it seemed we would struggle to find accommodation, but, following lunch, the tourist office pointed us towards La Casa del Reloj, which turned out to be amongst the best places we stayed on the whole camino. A hearty self service breakfast was included.