Day 31, Ponferrado to Pieros

We set out at 6.45 this morning because the forecast promised worryingly hot weather and I was keen to get as much mileage under our belt as possible while it was still cool. Anna, who’d stayed in our dorm last night, walked with us for the first couple of hours. This morning’s wasn’t the most exciting route - we left the city and walked along a surprisingly busy country road for several kilometres. It would have been more relaxing if there’s been a pavement but nonetheless it was interesting to see how people live on the outskirts of a small city like Ponferrado. Lots of small holdings, some with a few sheep, many with great vegetable gardens; very little of it looked affluent.
After a couple of coffee breaks we were delighted to find ourselves among vineyards and olive groves and well away from traffic. This was an absolute treat, especially appreciated because we hadn’t expected it.
We stopped a little while at the lovely town of Cacabelos where we bumped into Anna again and ordered iced coffees (hot coffee plus a glass of ice) and a plate of Padron peppers. Fiona and I were both taken with this place and wondered if we should have stayed here, as Anna was doing.
Instead we pressed on to Pieros to our vegetarian albergue. The people are nice (mostly volunteers), it’s very cheap (20 euros for bed and dinner) but it really is in the middle of nowhere and I am seriously wondering if we haven’t made a mistake. Cacabelos was very appealing and the next town, Villafranca del Bierzo, is also supposed to be lovely. There’s nothing here but a closed-up church and some vineyards.
We had hoped to visit an old monastery which is 4 kms away but it proved expensive and precarious to rely on a taxi and neither of us were keen to add another 8kms of walking to today’s mileage given the heat. We were both feeling a bit frustrated until we learned we could catch a local bus back to Cacabelos where we could do wild swimming. This was just what we needed - it was cooling and lovely in the river where, apart from us, the average age of swimmers was probably about 12 years old.
Tonight we had a communal meal at our very quiet albergue - the two of us and a German man who we’ve met before but haven’t managed to speak to for lack of a common language (though he is friendly and often offers to take pictures for us on the route) and a German woman who we did manage to talk to a little with the help of Google translate.
I’m feeling full and tired and am hoping for a good night’s sleep because we are planning to leave in the morning at 6.30. The weather forecast suggests temperatures of 36 degrees by lunchtime so we need to have covered as much ground as possible before then.Read more