Day 24 - Rabanal to Molinaseca

We had a really nice pilgrims meal in a restaurant up the road and bumped into John & Eileen, a really nice Australian couple we seem to follow along the way and bump into every other town. Bon Camino.

We leave behind Rabanal early to start our climb up the pass of Irago to beat the heat of the midday sun.

We are only ½ way up and the views back over to Astorga are stunning.

Well, we made it in 1½ hours, we were really motoring.

This majestic spot stands 1504m above sea level and a simple iron cross on a weathered pole has become one of the abiding symbols of the pilgrim way of St. James

Now we start our descent, not looking forward to it as it is physically harder downhill and uses muscles not used for the flat or uphill.

The path down is very uneven and its beginning to get hot and very dusty. It is also very busy with other pilgrims and bike riders.

The city you can see in the distance is Villafranca del Bierzo our destination tomorrow. You can also see the track below that we will soon be on.

We stop for a well earned snack in Acebo, a typical village of the region with one central street.

It's 8km into Molinaseca and its a very steep descent.














It's getting hotter still and the legs are taking a real pounding now on the very uneven path.

This section is renown as an accident hot spot due to it being so rough and slippery under foot on the loose gravel, and even worse when wet. We need to keep our wits about us and watch every step, I don't want a repeat of the first day at this point.

Seven hours later and our hotel is just the other side of the bridge and not a moment too soon.

That was a tough day but absolutely fabulous. Now for a long hot shower, wash our smalls (bigs in Tony's case),  rest, dinner and an early night. It's 31km tomorrow - 5km more than today.