May 14, 2022
Camponaraya
It was pretty clear and warmer than usual when we set off this morning although Leigh had mentioned something about "scattered thunder showers" before I fell asleep last night. We climbed and dipped continually for the first fifteen kilometers until we arrived at the statue of San Roque. Born in Montpellier in France and buried somewhere in Italy he is the Patron Saint of bachelors, diseased cattle, dogs, falsely accused people, invalids, Istanbul, surgeons, tile-makers, grave-diggers, second-hand dealers, pilgrims, apothecaries and possibly a lot of other dodgy professions.
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As we were about to start the descent down to Piedrafita del Cebrero the sky closed in and the heavens opened. We took shelter twice for about half an hour each time but eventually realized we would just have to brave the conditions. Exiting Piedrafita del Cebrero we expected to carry on along the N-VI but it was closed to traffic heading in a south-easterly direction. The motorway was open in that direction but was closed for traffic heading north-west and of course for all cyclists. We wasted another half an hour trying to find a way out and eventually decided to ride against the traffic on the N-VI. All fine for a while but suddenly it spat us out onto the motorway. There was no way to turn back (well, there was but we weren't about to climb a few hundred meters back up the hill to be stuck in Piedrafita del Cebrero again). So I am sorry to admit we charged down the motorway against the flow of traffic until we were able to exit it at the bottom of the hill, far too many kilometers (and a few years off our lives) later. The route was then through a lovely valley spoilt by the obviously still-under-construction motorway.
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By this stage all we wanted to do was reach our digs after wasting so much time earlier on. In rained for most of the way, not heavily but enough to keep us wet. Thank goodness our digs for the night had a very good laundry service. They didn't have a kitchen but the restaurant attached to the albergue served up a good menu del peregrino which we enjoyed with a few of the other pilgrims her.
Another hard climb lies between us and Astorga which we will now probably not reach by tomorrow given that we are a bit tired after today.
Today's ride: 62 km (39 miles)
Total: 1,738 km (1,079 miles)
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2 years ago