Day 28 –  Rabanal Del Camino to El Acebo

June 3rd – I’m hiking my backpack up onto my shoulders, ready for another day on the Camino, when I hear someone call out my name.  It’s Estelle from Canada walking up the hill.  We start out on the path and find she and I are both fast walkers keeping pace with each other.  Today is considered a challenging walk with both a steep ascent along with a subsequent downhill.

As soon as we leave this charming town we are in beautiful open mountain countryside. There are gorgeous wild shrubs in colors of yellow, blue and white that Mother Nature has so beautifully painted against the backdrop of mountains.  We can hear cowbells below us and them we come upon some grazing here by the path.

I only have a little over 10 miles to walk today but I am stopping so often to take photos that it may take me awhile to get to El Acebo.  This is what I see all around me.

Walking the path day after day is not a ‘normal’ way of life.  I want to hold onto the beauty here for the rest of my days.

We arrive at Puerto Itago, 1505 meters above sea level where the simple iron cross, Cruz de Ferro, stands.  This is where people leave rocks or items of importance – tokens of love – and witnessing the reverence is very special.  Unfortunately I felt some of that lost when I climbed to the top trying not to trample on these tokens, which was challenging.

Only a little further down the path we come upon the most unusual Albergue, Manjarin, with this fun sign posted out front – Jerusalem 5000k, Rome 2475k.  If it’s correct Santiago is only 222 kilometers away.

After another short up and down we reach the high point- 1515 meters – for more stunning views that include the larger towns yet to come.  For now I have reached El Acebo.  The mountain villages and these hills are gifts for we pilgrims that makes the path a joy to walk.