Day 5 - Wednesday 4th May - Hospital de Órbigo to Astorga



An horrendous soft mattress resulted in me getting c5 hours sleep. Plus when I woke up my back was as stiff as a board. Merde! Although it's just an 11 mile stretch today there's no way I'm going to carry 10.5kg in my backpack over that distance. Fortunately, I'd picked up some leaflets for the marvellous luggage transfer service. A quick call at 7.30am and all sorted for just €5.

We set off at 7.50 with a very refreshing cold chill in the air, but a magnificent clear blue sky. The cool fresh air was absolutely invigorating, and my stiff back was soon forgotten to the extent that I was literally skipping along. Cate still had her rucksack on, but with much less weight in it, as we shifted a load of her stuff into mine to be transported. So after a grim start things were looking up.



However, within half an hour I was getting a pain in my lower back that was shooting down my right leg. I was really determined to just walk through it if possible, but in the back of my mind I was really starting to think "I could be making things a lot worse" by stoically tramping on. My mind was racing all over the place - seriously, what should I do? I carried on; and after about 5k the pain just disappeared. Maybe my muscles had just loosened up as I got warmer. Who knows?


After 6k we had a quick coffee at a very rustic Albergue, and then cracked on. We thought we'd stop again at a really remote place in a further 6k, but when we got there we weren't in need, so pushed on further. It looked a great spot on top of a hill - it even had hammocks and beds to lay on. 



Next planned stop was at San Justa de la Vega, about 5k from our final destination, Astorga. The cafés there were all next to a busy road, and we still weren't feeling hungry/thirsty. Instead, we had a look at the village church. It had a really ancient bell tower attached to a very modern church. An odd, but endearing combination, partly due to some nice modern stained glass windows.



Just before San Justa we got to the brow of a hill and could see both that village, and Astorga, looking surprisingly close. So with that in mind, and the less attractive cafés, we pushed on to Astorga. 



A ridiculous schoolchild error on our part. Not least, as we had both remarked how close Astorga looked, but "bet it's much further in reality, just like Burgos". A couple of kilometres on we could still see the huge cathedral of Astorga, but it just wasn't getting noticeably closer. So with the temperature rising, and bodies aching from c15k of continuous walking we realised the mistake we had made. The last couple of kilometres were bloody hard work, and probably shouldn't have needed to feel that way. Idiots!

We're in a nice hotel in Astorga right next to the Cathedral and Gaudi's "Palacio Episcopal" (Bishop's Palace). After doing some rustic  clothes washing by hand, we took full advantage of the rare luxury of an actual bath. Divine! Lying in our own dirty water; absolutely marvellous. After the ablutions, we went and visited the Cathedral and Palacio Episcopal. Terrific they were too. Although, Mr Gaudi clearly hadn't been overdoing the mind bending drugs quite as much as he had for some of his other buildings!! Still very characterful, nevertheless. Astorga is a really lovely town, built on small hill with city walls surrounding it. Worth a visit.

That's your lot for today. Astorga pics below.....









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Caucasus again

Image
Twelve months on from my first visit to the Caucasus region I’m heading that way again. Last time it was Azerbaijan and Georgia. This time it’s Georgia, and the perceived bad boy of the region, Armenia.     The one on the left is particularly popular with some of our thickest flags flyers! Why? You may ask. Well, the main reason is that I’m continuing my quest to have visited as many countries as I am years old. Current score on that front is 65, albeit by the dubious counting method of including countries that no longer exist. There are 3 of those; West Germany, Yugoslavia and Hong Kong. A more dubious methodology would include 2 more – Guernsey (could it count as a country?), and Kazakhstan, which I have skirted into on a vehicle, but have never actually set foot there. Anyway, for the sake of argument I’ll include the 3 “ex-countries”. So, the score sits at 65 which means I’m bang on target. Nevertheless, with another Birthday later in the year, I’ve got the chance to...
Read more

7th and 8th May – Getting to Georgia and a walk around Tbilisi

Image
Let’s start with a positive. The joy of a late afternoon flight leaving Heathrow meant that it was a breeze checking in and getting through security. The good people at Lufthansa weren’t striking this week (unlike 2 weeks ago when they nearly wrecked a boy’s football weekend in Bavaria) so, excuse the pun, I was off to a flyer! Ever since my truncated trip to Turkmenistan, I’ve become very wary about lack of sleep. As my onward flight to Tbilisi was effectively overnight, I took the opportunity of a very reasonably priced upgrade to Business Class for the flight from Munich. After about 17 free bottles of Franzischaner Weissbier, and several plates of free food in the Business Lounge I staggered onto the plane and slept like a baby until our 4am touchdown in Tbilisi. Alright, alright just 2 beers and a bowl of soup! And I didn’t sleep like a baby either. However, I did manage a couple of hours kip which undoubtedly helped. Obviously, in my less than deep slumber I dreamt longingly of...
Read more

Monday 11 May – Return to Tbilisi via Stalin’s birthplace

Image
I was awoken at 5.30 by the sound of heavy rain outside. By the time I eventually got out of bed an hour later it was still hammering down. Hardly ideal conditions for the challenging drive through the mountains and back down to Tbilisi. Also a timely reminder as to how lucky we had been with the excellent weather yesterday.   I was genuinely concerned about the journey back to Gudauri. Will there have been more snow and avalanches? Will there be hordes of HGV’s stuck on the perilous roads? Could the police have simply closed the roads? Well, I’ve no idea how they manage the traffic on this essential route but our journey up to, and over Jvari Pass (c7,000feet) was trouble free. Yes, it was a bit slow due to snow and ice, but we barely saw any vehicles coming in the opposite direction. We did pass a few queues of lorry's parked on the side of the road each stretching over a mile.     A few hundred metres past the peak of the pass we stopped at the Georgia/Russia Frien...
Read more