Day 28 – Rabanal del Camino to El Alcebo

Rabanal is one of several villages that seem to continue to exist only because of the camino – beautiful stone buildings, some old and some new and most dedicated to feeding or providing lodging for walkers. The two other villages we visited today, Foncebadón and El Acebo, are the same!

People seemed to be in a rush to leave today so they could see the Cruz de Ferro at dawn but we won’t fussed about doing so, having seen the real Cruz de Ferro in Astorga two days ago in the Gaudi designed Palacio! Nevertheless, today was a milestone day – we crossed the highest point in our walk and the third of the four ranges we cross between St. Jean and Santiago.

Once again we started just as the sun was rising and rose fairly gradually, first to Foncebadón (where we stopped for coffee) and then to the Cruz at 1505m. We skipped between the track and the road because, both in the ascent and descent, the condition of the track was amongst the worst, if not the worst, we have been on. Not good enough from communities that derive their livelihood from people walking on it, in my opinion.

The morning was shrouded in mist, so the views looking back into the sun, while spectacular, did not translate into good photos. All that changed as we descended slightly and passed the tiny village of Manjarin (one house and a farm) before ascending to our high point on the trail at 1515m. Again we skipped between road and trail because of the poor condition of the trail but even that could not spoil that mesmerizing views to our left and in front of us. While the trail may have been to worst we’ve encountered (to the point where I went over on a protruding rock, bruising my left hand quite badly), the views were definitely amongst the very best.

We messed around a bit at the top trying to find the Altar Mayor just off the trail and at 1535m but didn’t find it and so started the difficult descent into El Acebo. Again, a bit disappointing because the pain is self-inflicted by creating trails in difficult country just to keep walkers off the (perfect) roads, which no doubt follow the route originally taken by pilgrims! We too the original route for the most part!

You didn’t ask but… we discovered on arrival at our hotel yesterday why there was so much pandemonium yesterday at Bar La Barraca. There are a lot of walkers/pilgrims on the trail but they’re usually in ones or twos, occasionally a little more and as one or two arrive at any cafe or bar, one or two leave and it all balances out. However one tour company has decided to bring a guided group of about 25 or 26 “tourigrinos” from Astorga to Santiago and it was them that overwhelmed Bar La Barraca at lunch time and then our hotel (which was otherwise great) at dinner and breakfast!

We arrived a bit hot and sweaty at our accommodation (which is really nice) in El Acebo and guess what? The group had descended like a horde of locusts into the terrace for lunch! Anyway, we managed a few drinks, a mixed salad each and eventually checked in after the horde had moved on to their accommodation a bit further down the road – happy days!

Allowing for the stuffing around at the top, I’m calling it 17km today and 528km in total, with what I think is a fairly interesting video here.