Autumn Arrives!

Today everything suddenly got a bit more colourful around the Camino, it's as if the 'Autumn' switch has been turned on somewhere and all the trees, vines and leaves this side of the mountain went at it with gusto!

I remember the walk from Ponferrada (in fact from 6k earlier in Molinaseca) being quite dull and long in 2013, but with the colours today and a surprising number of cafes open along the way, I made it to Villafranca by early afternoon.

An added bonus on that is the delightful Albergue Leo where I'm resting my head tonight - €6 for washing/drying and they handle it themselves - take that 3* hotel in Astorga!

There are three routes out of Villafranca tomorrow (distances include the height gains):

1). Up the valley, following the river/road through small villages and then up to O'Cebreiro - at 33.4km it's the short one.

2). Over Pradela hill (as done in 2013), back into the valley at Trabadelo then onwards - that's 36.1km all told.

3). Camino Dragonte, or "The Dragon" as I've been calling it, which is a triple peak on the left, and 44km to the end.

Now, I like a challenge but 44km is a bit much. My current plan is taking on part of the Dragonte route, dropping back into the valley and then either stopping in Trabadelo or wandering further up to the cluster of villages at the other end.

Of course, if it's raining in the morning, I'll stick to the valley!

And as it was late going up, here is yesterday's Blip from the Cruz de Ferro, there was a lack of internet in Ponferrada!