thomryng | One Year Ago: “Is Spain”

(from my journal)

Cacabelos

23 April 2013

On paper, this should have been our easiest day. Unfortunately, it was 27° C.

We arrived in Ponferrada in good shape and only slightly behind schedule. But there was the Castle. We waited almost an hour for it to open at 11AM(ish), and we then spent over an hour exploring the structure and at the library display of medieval books and facsimiles.

The castle in Ponferrada – Castillo de los Templarios – is a Templar castle, eventually taken over by local gentry. It was originally built in the 12th Century, and expanded and modified over the next three centuries. Repairs and modernizations were carried out in the 19th and 20th Centuries.

It was a great deal of fun to explore, but it and a visit to the Basilica put us hopelessly behind schedule.

So we were walking in the heat of the day, and the heat was horrible. Francine proved quite susceptible to the temperature, and our pace, while never speedy, now became plagued with the need for constant breaks.

At one point in the village of Fuentas Nuevas, I became concerned that she might actually be suffering from heat prostration. We spent over 30 minutes in a bar while her temperature normalized. After that, it was an excruciatingly slow journey to Cacabelos, where we arrived at the albergue at nearly 7PM.

We showered and (for €6) gave them our laundry. At 8PM, there was a van pool to a restaurant for dinner. The food was terrible, easily the worst I’ve had in Spain. The first course was a tepid soup that was simply inedible, and the second was overcooked beef that was mostly fat and gristle. Apparently the hospitalero gets some sort of kickback for the arrangement.

About 10PM, I went in search of our laundry. It turns out the dryer is broken, and nobody bothered to tell us. Our clothes are damp, and all possibility of leaving early tomorrow to beat the heat is gone. The hospitalero merely shrugged, “is Spain”.

A terrible evening all around.

I despair now of meeting our schedule – we are only 193km from Santiago, and I now have no idea how to get there in time. We should have been at La Faba tomorrow night (the 24th), so as to crest O’Cebreiro on the 25th in the morning to reach Tricastela on that night. This is now impossible.

The best case now is to reach Ruitelán, and that’s only a vague hope. Trabadelo is more likely. Perhaps a bus from Villafranca to Trabadelo or Vega de Valcarce will put us back on schedule? I may just put Francine on a bus in O’Cebreiro to Triacastela to avoid the downhill trek. I just don’t know at this point what to do.

Oh, and tonight at dinner we met the Ugly American. His name is Rick (maybe), and he’s from LA.

The night manager put our clothes on a drying rack under a portable heater! Huzzah for Spanish ingenuity in adversity!

Santiago is with us tonight, as are Radek, Lana, and the Saskatchewan Kid.

Radek saves the day! We talk about geography and schedules over beer. He has convinced me that we can be in Santiago on the 2nd, just a day behind schedule.

Photos will have to wait. For some reason, I’m missing a week’s worth of photos on Flickr. Probably, “is Spain”.

EDITED TO ADD: SOME PHOTOS!