Sunday 2nd May 2010 (Rabanal del Camino to Molinaseca - total distance walked 497.81km)
Leaving at 6.30am this morning was a tad early.  It was still dark and there were no street lights.  So I donned my head torch - looked like a miner!  But it was not too long before it was light.  Anyway, Joy misread the reference book and was on the look out for wolves and bandits.  She was really terrified.  Then I told her that it was mentioned in the past tense so we are safe!  We psyched ourselves for a tough journey today.  The climb to Cruz de Ferro turned out to be rather pleasant, not extremely difficult.  What made it worth the climb was the beautiful scenery throughout our climb.  Every moment was breathtaking.  At Cruz de Ferro, we were at the highest point of our walk - 1504m.  Can you imagine being surrounded by mountains and feeling that you are higher up than all their peaks?  I have never climbed a mountain so high, so for a long time today I really felt on top of the world.  We took our time and averaged 3km/hr.  After Cruz de Ferro, we started our descent to Molinaseca (our destination for the day).  Some parts of the descent was gradual but there were several very steep sections.  What added to its difficulty were the uneven stoney paths.  We crossed streams, climbed over fallen trees (with branches of almost a metre in diameter) and needless to say had to constantly dodge poo!  The descent was tough on the knees but Joy and I came out ok today.  Aren't we lucky.  As we get closer to Santiago de Compostela, we cannot help but feel that the villages are getting rather touristy.  Gone are the quaint little villages that we enjoyed walking through or even staying the night.  Now the villages seem to have this air of affluence with more up-market restaurants and accommodation.  We miss the "kampongs" so we are hoping that there will still be some in store in the remaining leg of our walk.  We arrived at Molinaseca at 5.30pm.  It was a very long day but we have no new blisters and no aches so that is really wonderful.  We were able to cook our own dinner tonight at the hostel.  It was chicken noodle soup, macaroni with tomato and red peppers and tortilla.  Because we cooked so much, we invited Sabine (our new German friend who is walking the Camino with her father who looks so much like Donald Sutherland) to join us.  Coffee, tea and wine was on the house.  Joy has taken to drinking wine - and she gets very happy when she has a tad too much!  We are seeing more new faces on the Camino and less of the friends that we have made since Pamplona.  We wonder where they are.  We know that Annette (our French friend who was taken ill the same time that I was) has had to go home because she has problems with her legs.  Well, it is not unusual to miss someone for a while and suddenly you meet up again.  I hope we will get to meet them before the end of our walk.  Goodnight - it is bedtime!