Day 36 – Astorga to Rabanal – Camino Frances Blog & Video

by Rob | Apr 29, 2023 | Camino Astorga to Ponferrada, Camino Frances, Featured, Journey, Videos | 0 comments

Day 36 – Camino Frances Day 1 – Astorga to Rabanal

Day 36 overall, and my first day back on to the Camino Frances, and it was a relatively short flat day. I was only walking from Astorga to Rabanal, which is just over 20 kilometres. I left very early, I think I left at about 6:15 AM.

Leaving Astorga at 6-15 am

There was a couple of reasons for leaving early. One, I didn’t want to feel rushed in the walk and I was going to stay at a Donativo in Rabanal. I wanted to try Refugio Gaucelmo, that albergue I heard so much about and because it’s a Donativo, you can’t book it. I was a little bit concerned that there were so many pilgrims on the Camino Frances that it might be popular so I thought rather than rush, I’ll just leave early.

Also it was potentially going to rain heavily by midday, so that was another reason to leave early. I left with a headlamp light, I needed that for the first 30 minutes or so.

And thirdly, one of the places I really wanted to drop into again was the Pilgrim Memorial Grove, which is just west of Astorga on the Camino and particularly, I wanted to pay my respects to the memory of Denise Thiem. I was walking my first Camino when Denise went missing. This was partly the reason I joined the Camino Frances at Astorga. I stopped at the memorial grove just as dawn was breaking and then set off west on the Camino Frances heading for Rabanal.

Pilgrim Memorial Grove – Plaque for Denise Thiem

Of course, it was a novelty to pass through three villages with open cafes where I could get coffee or breakfast. I had left Astorga without breakfast knowing I could get something along the way. There were so many Pilgrims! In this photo alone there are as many Pilgrims as I met walking the last 35 days on the VdlP.

Lots of Pilgrims on the path heading West from Astorga

I actually stopped in Santa Catalina for a great breakfast, which was interesting in two respects. One, I could get some bacon and eggs if I wanted it, but I stuck with my normal breakfast of coffee, juice and toast with ham. It was interesting that it was double the cost that I’ve been paying on the Via de la Plata, it was €10 instead of the normal 5 or so that I was used to.

The other thing that was surprising was that there were more people in the cafe than I had seen in the previous month in total, so many pilgrims.

Santa Catalina de Somoza, with bars and albergues lining the Camino Francés west of Astorga.

What was quite fun, was the guy at the next table thought he knew me and then said “Oh I know who you are Rob, I watch your YouTube channel”. So that was mildly embarrassing, but we had a great chat. He and his sister were really nice to meet and chat with. It was nice to hear they enjoyed the videos and found them useful. (I think I met 12 subscribers in the next 2 days)

I don’t know what it is, whether it’s the energy of the Camino Frances or the fact that I was on familiar ground, or that it was a relatively short flat day but I just felt so much more energetic and I was walking fairly quickly. I had a quick breakfast stop. I had a very brief coffee and toilet stop. And I found I was in Rabanal by about 11:15, much quicker than I had anticipated.

Refugio Gaucelmo beside the Church of the Assumption in Rabanal del Camino

I was actually second in the queue for the Donativo and I had time to visit the church then finally, the Donativo was open at 12:30. I have to say I really enjoyed staying at Gaucelmo. It was a really nice reception from the two hospitaleros. Whilst there was no communal evening meal provided, they do provide afternoon tea at 4:30, which is very nice. We all sat out in the garden and had tea and cake and biscuits and chatted with the other pilgrims. Very British!

It was very different for me from the VDLP because most of the pilgrims were under 60 except for the three of us, (Frank, Tom and I) and there was a lot in just in their 20s. When we first checked into the albergue, there was only 5 of us. We went out for a nice lunch. By the time we came back from lunch, it was almost full. It was an interesting experience. I expected, you know, with all these young people in the dormitory that there wouldn’t be a lot of snorers, but there were! Young folks snore too LOL There were lots of snorers so I didn’t get a great night’s sleep.

Another interesting element of staying in Rabanal that I hadn’t experienced before, but I wanted to, was going to vespers at 7:00 PM just opposite at the Church of the Assumption. They had vespers at 7:00 and 9:30 PM and three monks from the adjacent monastery coming to the church who basically sing/chant the service. Whilst it was all in Latin and incomprehensible to me, it was a very nice service to attend and something fairly unique that I hadn’t seen before.