Day 23: climbing mountains smiling

Renay Weir
Sep 27, 2017
3 min read

Day 23: Foncebadon to Molinaseca

Today was hard but it was also one of those days where you just catch yourself smiling at things. No surprises here, it was mostly up hill and then the steepest downhill descent! It was hot! Blue skies, sun and the feeling like being on top of the world.

As we’d been up to the cross for sunset it meant a sleep in and we could watch sunrise from our albergue. It was stunning. The village was covered in fog amd as we walked through the sun rose more and burnt it away so our path was clearing ever so slightly ahead of us.

I put my rock down at the cross, prayed and we continued on the climb.

The landscape was stunning, green mountains, ground cover purple flowers, wind turbines on the hills and clouds rolling through in the valleys. You stand up on the tops and just look back smiling at where youve walked. It is such a sense of accomplishment knowing youve walked all across that land.

We then see Ponferada in the distance and note how steep a descent is ahead of us! It was steep and never ending! It took us a good few hours. And the later in the day it gets the hotter it gets.

We finally make it down and stroll into Molinaseca. A town known for its medieval bridge. It looked so nice, there was a nice river and cafes looking over it.

Waiting at the bridge for jess and anna to get into town i meet Colin Macdonald. An Irish man doing the camino by bike. Lots do. And ive spoken to lots of cyclist and heard them complain about how sore their bums get. Well not colins! Hes folded over a pillow and cable tied it to the seat. Genius! Colin loved a chat! His wife would have been 10mins ahead by now but oh how Colin wanted to talk! It was great

With another 7kms ahead to Ponferada we cross the bridge and stop in town for a cold drink. All 3 of us sit down, take our shoes off and just all look at each other and without saying it, we knew we werent walking any further. We were beat! So we just stayed there for the night. Had a lovely afternoon chatting with 2 brothers, a sister and a cousin from Brisbane. And boy they may be my favourite family on the camino. Im big in believing people cross your paths when you need them even if you didnt know you did need them. They were so chilled. David is a pallative care nurse, shane a guidance officer/head of senior school at a public school in the NT, the other brother is a teacher out at Longreach and the sister is a psychologist, about to be a pallative psychologist. The boys gave me lots of advice on their jobs and careers. It was like if there was ever a group of people i needed to talk to about future career options. That family was it!

Then, as i was walking down the street, i looked up ahead and saw Maria my german mum who i havent seen since the blister ordeal in San Juan. I thought i would never see her again! Maria doesnt speak english and i dont speak german but we work. We get so excited when we see each other, i always connect her phone to the wifi and she always greets me with a big hug! Today was no different. She couldnt believe it was me. We both stopped and stared wondering if it could be, and then ran at each other, squealing, making quite the scene for the locals! Stopping in this town was the best decision of the trip!

In the late afternoon sun anna and i went down and sat beside the river with our feet in the water. Annas fathers a minister and she grew up in church so we chatted about church life, family life and life in general. The perfect afternoon really.

We wandered the streets, visited the towns church before heading back to the river for dinner and having a meal of carbs carbs and more carbs. Bread, 16 crocquetas and a huge plate of patatas bravas. Disgustingly delicious.

Alarms set for 630am tomorrow to make up the 7km we didnt walk today!

R. X