So this morning the super moon was supposed to be setting so we headed out in the dark again. The dark is quite easy when the sun doesn’t rise until almost 9am! We headed into town and passed the municipal albergue and caught a glimpse or two of the moon between the clouds.

It is often recommended to avoid this route however in reality it is quite interesting and a few kilometres shorter than heading out to Mazariffe. I prefer it actually.

The second Hungry Man passed by again and said hello with google translate.

Then we headed into Hospital de Orbiga via a back way across some interesting farmland.

The Lady from Atlanta was stopping in Hospital de Orbigo and jumping forward a couple of days to meet her flight home so we had breakfast with a couple of Canadians when we arrived there and I said good bye and headed over the very long bridge into the old town. It was quite a pretty town with storks on the church towers and a beautiful river but I was cold and wanted to keep moving to Astorga.

I headed out of town and across a flat plain as the wind started to pick up and my nose increased its capacity to liquify.

I passed through another village and up over the hills and, although I only had a few kilometres to go, I knew I had run out of batteries. I poked my head into a parochial albergue and thankfully was able to sit inside out of the wind and drink an Aquarius and wait for a taxi.

Not exactly the way I wanted to walk the camino but this weather was playing havoc with my health.

I really wanted to visit the Cruz de Ferro or Iron Cross and put a stone there so I didnt want to skip forward too far and stopped just up the road a few kilometres in Astorga for the night. This time I of course had another visit to the farmacia and I bought Vicks vapour rub, paracetamol, more tissues and a nasal spray. I also did a covid test which proved negative.

Astorga has some beautiful buildings so I rugged up well and walked around looking for the best spots to find the moon later and chatted to the information centre about catching another cab for a few kilometres in the morning if I was still unwell. I couldn’t have a rest day without skipping something so I thought it was best to rest for part of the day and hopefully feel better by the time I made Rabanal before heading to Cruz de Ferro.

As it turned out I was feeling too under the weather to go too far away and find a good shot of the moon rising so I grabbed a meal and headed back to sleep in readiness for the walk up to Rabanal on the morrow.

Buenas noches