Cherries to Ponferrada – Day 14
February 25th, 2008 Posted in Spain, To Be A PilgrimYesterday’s soaring temperatures have left us feeling washed out, so thankfully it’s a much needed shorter day today, giving us the luxury of a lie-in in our quiet, comfy bed. The Sierra is now behind, and the undulating countryside ahead is carpeted with vineyards and cherry orchards. Everyone seems to be out at work. By every group of trees there are couples with ladders climbing up and picking the cherries. It seems much drier here than Galicia, with irrigation channels running down each side of the track and through the fields. Other families are damming up and opening the channels with soil so that the water flows to each row of plants in turn. It looks like backbreaking work.
The suburbs of Ponferrada, the first large town since leaving Santiago, are grim, modern and industrial, with busy roads. But once we pass over a bridge, we find the centre of town: much older, and more interesting. There’s a giant Templar castle, but only the lower parts of it are original, the upper sections being restored in a rather fantastical medieval style. There’s no concern for health and safety laws here; families let their children climb all over the walls and battlements above huge drops with no railings in sight. It makes a strange contrast to the paranoid laws we discovered covering the purchase of fruit and vegetables, since surely an eighty foot drop is more dangerous than touching an apple you’re about to eat.
We wonder around for some time before finding the pilgrim hostel. It’s stylish, purpose-built place, and we’re greeted with tea and biscuits by a group of pilgrims soaking their feet in a water fountain. The staff are incredibly welcoming and aren’t the slightest bit bothered that we’re walking the wrong way. In fact they are so friendly that I become worried that they’re softening us up ready for an attempt to convert us to Catholicism later.
We go straight back out to stroll around the town and visit some cafes. Helen is feeling uneasy for some reason, and I sense it and soon feel worried too – it’s disquieting after feeling so positive a couple of days back. Perhaps we’re just tired mentally – in future we’ll have a lie down and siesta on arrival and hopefully this will make the uneasiness go away? Once we’re back at the hostel, a thunderstorm brews up. Hopefully it won’t last or we’ll be in for a tough day in the mountains tomorrow, the highest day on the Camino.
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