Day 26 - Rabanal del Camino to Ponferrada

What a great day in so many ways.

We enjoyed the greatest scenery that we have seen to date in Spain and took some 200 photos.

It rained the previous night and there was some residual cloud this morning  As a result the temperature for most of the journey was cool, 12 degrees when we set off and 32 degrees by the end of the journey. Ideal for such a long walk as we had today.

Vicki, being a geologist, kept stopping to look at the structure and lick the rocks!

We walked 43,755 steps, 35.5km, according to our GPS, with a total ascent of 565m and a total descent of 1200m. For me this equated to 3,000kcal or 20 glasses of beer. Excellent!

The highest point in the mountain crossing was 1501m, according to our GPS, at Cruz de Ferro, a tall cross which marks the highest point on the Camino Frances.

As is tradition, we had carried a small rock from Australia and laid this at the base of the cross.

The total walk took 7h13m for an average pace, door to door, of 4.9km/hr. Pace was moderate due to the number of coffee stops (3) and the number of stops to enjoy the view and take photos.

The colours today were excellent and it was really difficult to sift through all of our photos to distill the many photos we took to ten that best represented our day.

Most of the day our track was along narrow pathways through the woods and across the mountains. Some was very well maintained and some was like walking across a rock pile at a quarry.

All was enjoyable and, touch wood, we have sustained no injuries.

We could see Ponferrada from the top of the mountain - many kilometres before we actually got to walk into the town.

Our arrival in Ponferrada marks the end of the sixth stage of our eight stage journey from St Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago de Compostela in NW Spain. We now have 211km remaining to walk before we arrive in Santiago de Compostela.

Ponferrada has one of the best kept medieval castles in Northern Spain, El Castillo de los Templarios. The castle was held by the Templar order who protected the Camino route in medieval times.

During the Roman Empire times the area was important as a mining centre. The most famous being the ancient gold mines of Las Medulas.

Tomorrow we walk 24km to Villa Franca del Bierzo and then on Wednesday 31km to O'Cebreiro. The walk to O'Cebreiro requires an ascent of 920m. We can't wait!

We have a great hotel in Ponferrada, the AC Marriot, who have kindly upgraded us to a Junior Suite with a KING size bed. First in Spain.

We are now off to hobble around the city to do some sightseeing and eat.