Today's 15-mile route from Ponferrada to Villafranca was a cake walk compared to yesterday's killer. Ponferrada is a good-sized city (pop. 69,000) and it took us quite a while to leave it and its suburbs behind. Once in the countryside again, we were walking through what I can only describe as scrubland: lots of grasses, shrubs and small trees. In the distance all around us were tree-covered hills and even some vineyards. What a difference from just a few days ago!
We're meeting new pilgrims we've never seen before: a mother and daughter on bikes who just started their journey in Ponferrada, Gerhardt from Chile who started in St. Jean on September 2nd, took a train through the wheat fields of the meseta, and is now finishing his journey to Santiago on the same timeline as us. The sad part is that I think we've lost most of the pilgrims we had gotten to know during the first part of our journey: Rio and her husband Peter from Columbus, Bob and Kevin from New Hampshire, and so many others. In fact, we met Bob and Kevin, recently retired friends who are making this journey together, the first day at the top of the Pyrenees. We left them yesterday in Molinaseca and I don't think we'll be seeing them again. They've decided to limit their mileage to 12-15 miles per day, so I think we'll be staying a good 5-10 miles ahead of them the rest of our trip.
We are now 8 stages, 8 days and only 115 miles from Santiago. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we will keep you in ours. Vaya con Dios.
Buen Camino
New waymark signs near Ponferrada
Walking with Gerhardt. Tomorrow, we'll be walking up those
mountains in the distance
An 18th century wine press
Our first glimpse of Villafranca
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