After a rest day in Leon, we realized we wouldn't have time to walk the 4-5 days from there to Ponferrada, where the Camino Invierno begins, and still make it to Santiago on time. After spending the morning and early afternoon chatting with some new friends who are doing a stint as hospitaleros at an albergue in Leon, we took a bus to Ponferrada. We had a couple of hours there to explore the old city and tour this old castle, which was first built by the Templars, subsequently expanded in later centuries, and recently restored.
We also spent a little time in the afternoon visiting at the pilgrim office in Ponferrada. When we told the man there we were planning to start on the Invierno, he initially tried to talk us out of it. He explained how the stages are long and without services at intermediate spots along the way. I guess the concern is that pilgrims might be expecting something more like the Frances, where there are generally services available every five or ten km. After we talked for a while, and described our experience on several of the other less-traveled caminos, he started to open up and gave us good detailed information.
Next morning we headed out on our next camino, the Invierno, which splits off from the Camino Frances here. This is the first marker on the Invierno, steps from where it begins. Before we'd walked a block, a woman came running after us to tell us we were going the wrong way. By the time we'd left town, three others had stopped us to make sure we knew where we were going.
This day's stage was along small lanes and roads, through mostly grape vineyards, small orchards, and little villages.
Lots of "buen caminos," little chats, and helpful pointers from people we met along the way. We were missing that sort of interaction this year on the Lebaniego and Vadiniense; it really feels much more like being on the Camino again.
As the day went on it became quite warm, and we were pretty beat after we'd made our second long climb of the day to the small town of Las Medulas. It's the site of Roman gold mines, and they used 60,000 slaves basically demolish the mountains; all that's left is mounds like this one.
By the time we'd had a bite to eat and headed back to our hotel, the almost full moon was coming up.
The next day started with a long descent from Las Medulas to the small town of Puente de Domingo Florez. We had a bite to eat there, filled bottles, and from there on our path roughly followed the Sil river valley and the railroad line that runs through it. There are a series of small dams and reservoirs.
The main industries here are slate mining and wine. Some of the slate mines are very large, and resemble open pit coal mines.
This section of the path passes through very few towns, so we are carrying extra water and snacks. We stopped for a mid-afternoon snack at the small town of Sobradello. The proprietor of Bar Mar there is very hospitable to pilgrims and brought us a large plate of meats, cheese, and bread.
Again, a very hot day and we were pretty spent by the time we made it to O Barco. The path took us through town for about a couple of km following the river, where there's a very nice riverside park. As we were walking up through town toward lodging, we stopped for an ice cream. Chatted a bit with the young man in the shop, and while we were still finishing our cones he brought us a fancy cupcake as a gift. Everyone has been very friendly here, and because there's a wine festival in the town we decided to spend an extra night to stay and enjoy it.
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