Day 10 - Monday 9th May - Ponferrada to Villafranca del Bierzo.

Tell me why I don't like Mondays? This was always going to be a tough one as we upped our mileage significantly from an average of 11 per day to over 15. However, we hadn't bargained on both having a dreadful night's sleep. I saw 2am come and go before I finally nodded off. To be honest, our crappy hotel was on a busy city street in Ponferrada, so I think it was a combination of traffic noise and simply not being tired enough after having had a day's rest.

With the distance, ascents; and planned temperatures of over 28° we needed to be on the road by 6.30 in order to make for an easier day. At gone 2am I felt like packing up and hitting the road there and then. So after c3.5 hours sleep the 6am alarm going off felt like being hit by a freight train. Although I have to confess, that I have no previous experience of being hit by no such thing ever in my existence. So at precisely 06.33 we exited the hotel onto the dark Ponferrada streets. The silicon chip inside my head had not switched to overload, but it wasn't far off. We trudged towards to Rio Boeza to find the Camino.

Today was the first day that we'd gone for having both our rucksacks transported to our destination. Purists may view this as cheating; but as far I am concerned they can Foxtrot Oscar. Travelling lighter today proved to be a godsend; and fully justified our sexy Saturday evening soiree to Decathlon to buy a decent sized day sack.

With two bastard blisters effectively whispering, "go ahead punk, make my day", in my ears, today's footwear choice was harder than choosing between The Judean People's Front and The People's Front of Judea. Either way the losers in that choice would still need to come with me in case of problems. Anyway, the Meindl boots won, but I expected them to be substituted before half time.....leaving the fray like a petulant tart footballer - Ronaldo for example.

By 8.30 we'd covered 6 miles and had a deserved coffee in the faceless town of Camponaraya. An aged Spanish pilgrim begged €2 from us to buy a coffee. In fairness to him he shot straight in and got himself one. We bumped into him again numerous times on the walk, and each time he expressed gratitude. This reminded me of an excellent book I'd read years ago by a man who set himself "a quest". This was to walk from Cornwall to Newcastle with nothing more than a £5 note which was only for emergencies. It was a great read, showing the best and worst of humanity. But some great tales of generosity, particularly from those who could least afford it. Anyway, our good deed was done.

Now clear of Ponferrada, we were in vineyards territory. Mile after mile of them in all directions. But they seemed to me more higgeldy piggeldy than the robotically industrial sized operations we'd seen 3 years earlier as we walked across Spain's smallest Province, La Rioja.



We planned our second drinks stop just beyond the pleasant town of Cacebelos, but the café shown in our book was either well hidden or had disappeared without trace. We found a shaded spot and just rested, and did the stretching exercises that Cate constantly nags me about. She is, of course, right. They do help.

The next choice was to either to follow the official Camino route off into nowhere and via the village of Valtuille de Arriba, or the shorter route via the main road to our destination of Villafranca del Bierzo. Valtuille had a café/bar so got the vote. Well I can tell you now, I bloody hate Valtuille de Arriba! Up and down we walked along a shadeless track, only to find our expected refreshment stop to be closed. In fact, not so much closed, as deceased. In the world of Café bars it was the proverbial Norwegian Blue. It had "ceased to be". And so on we laboured - up and down through the vineyards with virtually no shade. Fortunately, the boots were behaving, and were going to play the full 90 minutes.

Villafranca del Bierzo was a shy little place, literally only just coming into view from about half a kilometer away. All plans to leisurely explore it were abandoned as, knowing that our Hostal was on the far side of it, we were too hot, sweaty and knackered to make the effort. We laboured through, stopping only to get our Credencials stamped. It looked very nice indeed, especially the inviting river! But our beds beckoned.......siesta time!

After the siesta we headed for Hostal Mendez to partake of their Pilgrim's Menu. Unfortunately, we arrived early so had to sit outside with a large beer. Excellent conversation with various other walker's  - Mike and Tom from (sweet home) Chicago, quiet Paul from Bath (originally) and a couple from Brent Knoll, which of course is near Taunton. So after many ooh aar's mines a zider etc  etc it was time for dinner. That's it. Your correspondent is mildly squiffy and now should sleep well.....as per page 3 para 2 of the Camino handbook, entitled ""Pain and Vino make the Camino"

Gruße aus Villafranca  as they say in Deutschland, Österreich und Schweiz.

How was your walk today? Electric!