Distance: 20.43 miles/32.88 km
Elevation Gain: 803ft/245m
Time: 7h 58min
It was an early start for us on this 32km day (~20miles). We were up at 6am and out the door right before 7am, with the pueblo still in the dark. With headlamps on, we began our trek on open roads flanked by farm land: sunflowers and corn fields, mostly.
Because we left so early, and the Tylenol PM was still having an effect on me, finding coffee and food was our #1 priority. 2 hours later, a small town named Villavante came to the rescue.
We were feeling alive and the sun was just starting to hit our backs. We made it to Hospital de Órbigo, where a medieval bridge resides, famous for jousts on the bridge, organized by a man who was overly obsessed by the rejection of a woman he loved (he finally moved on, ~200 jousts later, apparently).
We passed through another small town around noon, having only a beer, orange juice, and olives (a mistake that we didn’t eat some more food than that, to be honest). We kept going with the sun and heat pounding overhead. We talked to some peregrinos (people also doing the Camino, pilgrims in English) along the way, which helped pass the time and ignore the heat and pain in my feet.
Along the long unshaded farm roads, we stumbled upon a rest stop/albergue named Jardín del Alma (Garden of the Soul), that provided donation based snacks and drinks and indeed had a soul-nourishing garden. The miles after that were incredibly tiring and rough, with the heat of the day at almost its worst, and the kilometers feeling never ending.
We finally made it to Astorga in the early afternoon, 9 hours total, ~33km (20.5 miles) completed!
We got to our hotel, took a quick shower, and walked over to explore el Palacio de Gaudí, a gorgeous Episcopalian church, built in 1889, designed by Antoni Gaudí (see: Sagrada Familia). We walked by the gorgeous cathedral, got myself a much needed bucket hat for the sun at a sports store, and had dinner at a local bar.
A tiresome, but fulfilling, day. This may be one of our longest days to come, but my dad insists it’s not yet the hardest (are you sure about that??). I’ll be soaking my feet in hot water in the meantime…
