Wednesday May 29 Astorga to Rabinal del Camino

Today's song is Grahm Parker's "Howlin Wind":

And I know a howlin' wind runs through here blowin' every day

Yeah a howlin' wind runs through here takes my breath away

Nothing like a great night's sleep to revive flogging spirits.  Yesterday's wind really took it out of us (I would say it took the wind out of our sails, but that would be overkill!).  After a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, we finally left around 9 am to be greeted by a cool crisp day with a light wind.  As we were leaving town, we ran into our friend Annette from Washington, who joined us for today's walk.  After getting out of Astorga, that light wind turned into a very strong wind, right in our face.  This continued pretty much non stop throughout the entire walk of 13 miles today.  For the wind chill factor, the actual temperature is adjusted for the wind effect.  If there were such a factor for walking, I suspect we actually walked 25 miles today!

We had several terrific stops in small towns along the way, including one where we had a great lunch of fried eggs and chorizo sausage.  About 8 miles into the hike, it started to rain, of course into our face with a 30 mph wind!  After a few minutes of this, Linda decided to put her rain poncho on.  With the howling wind, Linda's poncho turned into a sail of sorts.  I was pretty sure she was going to play the part of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz and get blown away to Munchkinland!  After about 10 minutes, Linda decided to take her poncho off after the rain stopped.   Who needs the hassle!

Just as we arrived at the village of Rabinal del Camino, it started raining again and hasn't stopped in the 2 hours we have been here.  After walking through the very nice village, we arrived at our lodging for the night, the excellent La Posada Gaspar, a former hospital from the 17th century.  We have a very nice room and will eat dinner here this evening. Mi have included a photo of the Posada.

Tomorrow, we have a 17 mile walk to Molinaseca.  We also have a significant climb tomorrow,  and will go over a peak at about 5000 feet.  For those of you who have seen the movie "The Way", there is a scene  where they leave some rocks at a giant cross.  This is at the high point of the climb  and is called   La Cruz de Ferro.  Apparently many people bring rocks with them from their home and leave them at the cross.  This is representative of leaving your burdens behind, as you continue on the final leg of the journey.   After leaving this area, there is a very steep descent of almost 3000 feet in a 7 mile segment. These types of walks are brutal on the knees and feet.

We received a report that it was snowing at La Cruz de Ferro today, with a ferocious wind. So, it could be a very challenging hike tomorrow!