Rabanal Del Camino - Acebo 17 grueling kilometers

I had a lovely siesta from 4 to 6, then did my shopping for tomorrow's walk.
We're heading to La Cruz de Ferro at 1505 meters, (4934) above sea level.  It's one of the famous symbols of the pilgrim way of St James.  This is where I will be depositing the rocks I collected.  it's a big ascent that will require some determination and lots of rest stops.  The decent is probably the pretty grueling too.

The Knights Templars are thought to have had a presence here as early as the 12th century, ensuring safe passage over the mountain.  Apparently the parish church of Santa Maria was thought to be build by them.  Monks have taken up residence now and offer a pilgrims blessing.  One of the pilgrims I met a couple days ago did the reading, it was about Jews and circumcision.  At the end of the service I patted her on the back and said nice reading, she laughed and said what was all that circumcision talk about we laughed at the penis reading.  Baahaaa

Just relaxing and gonna turn the lights out.. Big climb in the am.  I hope it will be sunny.
We left at 7am, it was pitch black, I was only able to use one pole as I needed to hold my torch.  It was interesting watching all the pilgrims weaving there way along the path, silly lemmings!  We reached our cafe break at Foncebadon, 5.3km into the climb. I had a freshly squeezed orange juice... OMG is that what orange juice is suppose to taste like!

After 2km We reached the Cruz de Ferro by 10am. Apparently the tour buses arrive at 11.  It was a teary eyed moment.  The sun was shining a beautiful day.  We carried on down the way to Manjarin; a funky Albergue run my a modern knight hospitalero Tomas.

When we reached the down, it was pure goat trail; very thankful it was sunny, it could have been disastrous in torrential rain.  It was like walking in a down hill creek bed. I'm sure gel inserts had no effect!  We reached Acebo at 1pm.  I had to stop for a cerveza before finding our fancy ass accommodation.   It's the last alberque heading out of town, it looks like a resort.  It has a pool but it's not heated... Hmm how cold would it be, were in the mountains in Spain.  Anyways I'm cleaned up, sitting on the patio enjoying the view with Janis and having some much deserved libations.

Buen Camino 👣👣👣👣