[Astorga Cathedral]
Day 24 - Thursday, 15th May, 2014 - 21.4 km
[On route to Rabanal]
We felt fairly jaded after our 31 km hike the previous day and had chosen to start our climb to Rabanal, which would start us for our climb over the first mountain ridge. Jeff had decided that our pace was too furious for him and said that he was going to make his own way from Astorga. We left it that we might meet up with him later, but he generally wanted to take a slower pace.
[Storks on church tower - Santa Catalina]
[Distant mountains from Camino - Santa Catalina]
[Camino to Rabanal]
[Storks on church tower - El Ganzo]
[The German, Hans and his wit and wisdom concerning dormitory life]
We only had 21 km to make during the day and stopped off continually for coffee breaks. We met up with the same German man, Hans, who had taken a photo of us all and had caused us amusement with his wise comments on bunk living.
"Did you sleep well last night! you got a bottom bunk?"
"No I did not sleep at all; I normally pick a bed where I am far away from men of about my age, but you cannot control who ends up sleeping next to you and I was surrounded last night! It was impossible and my legs kept on walking, they must have walked another 30 km."
[Eila with Harris Hawk - Rabanal]
The previous night I felt that I had completely mastered the "Top Bunk" living mentality. I felt like one of the storks we see daily on their church towers. They have very big nests made from a large bail of wood and twigs and they make a kind of happy beak knocking noise with their beaks biting together to make this knocking noise. I had hung my bag of clothes from one bunk post, my washing bag from another and my electronics bag from the post by my head. My water bottle was on a ledge nearby and my camera battery was being charged by a plug down the corridor. When I woke during the night I reached for my glasses in my hanging wash bag and got my kindle out of my electronics bag - I felt totally in control and peace with dormitory life. All I felt I needed to master was the teeth knocking noise to let everyone else in the dormitory know that I was happy.
Buen Camino.
[Back in the dormitory - Rabanal]
