Camino Wander #3: Day 39
Rabanel to Ponferrada
One of the disadvantages of fast forwarding is that many of the old faces that you’ve just gotten to know, are behind you … like days behind you.
One of the advantages of walking slowly and fast forwarding is that many of the old faces that you did get to know, you’ve caught up to - but for how long?
I’m now safely in Ponferrada, away from all of the lavender. (I hope.) I took a taxi today. It was a 45 minute taxi ride down the winding mountainside, past incredible wildflowers, which I got to see it out of a window. To be fair I would rather be doing that than the alternative.
There were three of us in the taxi. The other two had physical injuries - one with tendinitis, the other with knee injury. As we all wanted to lay our stones at Cruz de Ferro, which we were driving past anyway, we asked the taxi driver if we could pull over to lay our stones. (*explanation at the bottom) She graciously did agreed. It was rather chilly at the top and so it was a quick moment.
To be honest, it wasn’t the significant moment that it has been in the past. As I’ve said before, my burden wasn’t as heavy as it has been before, otherwise I would have been a blubbering mess, all the way down the mountain. Since the clock was ticking on the taxi, we quickly took photos of each other, and scrambled back in. Even so, I was glad we could all still have that moment. It’s important to most pilgrims.
It was a gorgeous day today, although it would’ve been hot walking down the mountain. In Ponferrada I started seeing pilgrims coming in after a number of hours, and they all looked half dead. It’s one stretch I’ve never walked because of the lavender but from all I’ve heard, it is brutal.
I found my hotel easily - the taxi practically
dropped me at the front door. I could check in early and, maybe because of the amount of antihistamines I had taken, or just being wiped out from yesterday, I laid on the bed for a while. I may have fallen asleep.
And guess who I found here - Sarah from Lichtenstein! She was having a rest day in Ponferrada, so we caught up, had a late lunch together, then had a few drinks in the plaza, and people-watched. It was really nice afternoon. Sarah is hilarious, and we may have both agreed to get tattoos in Santiago. Yeah…We’ll see how that plays out.
Steps: 3120 steps
Distance: 2.1 km
Feeling: Like I’m doing something wrong, yet I’m moving forward … just not walking. I feel lazy!
* Tradition suggests that pilgrims leave a stone they’ve carried from home at Cruz de Ferro (Iron Cross), to represent a burden they no longer wish to carry. Many work the stone as they walk. Many place their grief, their trauma, their losses etc… into the stone as they travel, giving it more significance.
Looking relaxed with that glass of wine. Keep up your good work. You are fabulous xx
The Camino has a way of sorting things, sometimes for you, and sometimes for your fellow travellers. Perhaps this was the way for you to meet up again with Sarah, again, perhaps significant for her or for you. And yes, in avoiding the lavender, you have also perhaps avoided injury on the rugged descent into Molinaseca. Ponferrada is a great town - loved it on each of our Caminos — including the Bishop's palace (that the Bishop who commissioned it decided was too posh for him, so it became a pilgrim museum)