Camino Pilgrimage Day 2

May 16, 2016

Day 2 of our pilgrimage and the plan was to walk from El Ganso to La Cruz de Ferro (the Iron Cross), about 8 miles. After breakfast, we all loaded into the van for the hour and a half ride to El Ganso. Immediately after leaving Leon we began to see pilgrims walking alongside the road. Partway to El Ganso, we all heard a big clunk (thought we hit a pothole) and all of a sudden, our van driver couldn't shift gears and we slowly coasted to the side of the road. After a bit of discussion between David (our guide) and Pedro (our driver), they decided to call for a new van and we would start walking the Camino at this point, which was outside the town of Santa Catalina, about 3 miles from our originally planned starting point. Carol and David thought we would walk to Rabanol and then shuttle to the Iron Cross.

The terrain between Santa Catalina and El Ganso was scenic and flat and the day was already warmer than we had anticipated. I shed my jacket immediately and was soon trying to roll my sleeves up as much as possible. Lunch was in El Ganso outside a small bar/cafe. After lunch, we set out for Rabanol, about 4.5 miles away. This portion of the trail started out flat, but the closer we got to Rabanol, the hillier it became. Along the way we came to a portion of the trail bordered by a wire fence where pilgrims had woven various crosses made out of sticks or other materials. We each fashioned a cross and wove it among the others.

When we got to Rabanol, David was waiting for us and said the new van was there and we could shuttle to Rabanol. We were quite a ways ahead of some of the others so a few of us decided to walk on and the van would catch up to us further up the road. This new stretch of road was very hilly and muddy and we had to navigate our way around the trail in many places. When we finally met up with the van, we discovered that we had walked almost 11 miles total.

Accommodations and dinner tonight is in Villafranca. Our destination tomorrow is Triacastella, which will be a 13 mile walk. Our guides tell us that Internet will be spotty from here on out, so this may be the last post for awhile.