Walking Day 5 to Ponferrada

Dinner at the El Trasgu restaurant, We "salute" with a shot of scotch. We decided to start early tomorrow so we could catch the sunrise at the Cruz de Ferro, 2km ahead at the top of the mountain and at 4950' the highest point on the Camino. We arrived at sunrise and I put down my stone with all the others accumulated over the years. It's a sacred place. The next 8 or 9 miles we descended the mountain on the path of exposed mountain and rocks. I didn't have my poles today, because i left them in the store yesterday. I had to watch the trail carefully because there were many cliffs, fences and tripping hazards. The Montes de León were stunning. It was a cold and still morning with the sounds of cowbells and cuckoo birds. Most of the trail was quite narrow, so it would have been hard to walk beside someone, but i did meet Cassie from London and Taksu(?) a retired lawyer from Tokyo who was alone but his wife planned to join him in Sarria. We finally came into a village about 10am for breakfast and cafe con leche. The sun came out and i felt much better. A man was handing out cherries deep in the mountains, and stamping passports. The next village we had lunch. We almost always dine on the street. Then we raced to beat the thunder to PonferradoRead more