Josh Capaldi's Camino/Adventure Blog: Day 22 - Astorga to Foncebadon

Last night the Camino Bambi's were in full force. Talking in the bedrooms loudly after 8 pm when most peeps are trying to sleep. Then a couple woke up at 4 am with full headtorches shining in everyone's eyes whilst repacking their full bags. It's generally accepted you get your stuff and leave and pack in the corridor and use red light.

Due to this me and Yasser were wide awake so left at 5.30am. Astorga at least is a fairly easy city to get out of fairly quickly so we had made great progress before light. Around 9km in we found a coffee and toast spot, always a good start to the day.

Progress was mighty and swift as this morning was quite mild so made the walking much easier. We got a bocadillo and aquarius at the 20k mark by 10.30 am, this is the town most were stopping at today but we planned to hit the extra 5k up the mountain to stay at Foncebadon which is 2km from the Cruz De Ferro in the morning. This will also make it much easier tomorrow for our next stage.

Fuelled well and watered we powered up the hill, we are certainly noticing we are physically way more strong now. We overtook a lot of people.

We arrived at 12:22 only to discover we were the first to the albergue. It's a really nice albergue, lots of space, good showers, soap dispensers, heating, but we were both allowed bottom bunks. Normally harder to get than you would imagine.

After a shower and chores we checked out the town and found a good restaurant and shop so maybe one for later. Yasser had chips and ayoli and the chips were very good so fingers crossed the perigrino menu would be off the chain.

Emily and Cali arrived also impressed by the town and their albergue. We did spend a lot of time figuring out days left and plans. Cali having realised she is too early for her pal coming to join here and us formulating where we may part and rejoin at the end, we even booked a hotel for Cali to wait amid tears the wheels will fall off the wagon soon.....only to get the news Jane can no longer make it.....so it's all back on.

The albergue's hammocks made a good place to draft the blog, it's really been a good day all over. So that Perigrino menu, it was top tier. 15 euro well spent and the Vino Tinto was lovely.