After a quick breakfast of croissant and coffee in a little cafe and a short stop to admire San Marcos it was on to the next destination. Internal facilities used for the first time which nearly cleared the car park!
Shortish journey to Astorga which was delightful. This is where Moore made his decision to split his force to ease his administrative burden at the expense of his fighting ability. There was a plaque to commemorate Moore at Astorga on the city walls as well as a slightly puzzling statue of a British Lion with its foot on a French Eagle commemorating the brave locals who had defended against Napoleon. Impressive though.
Tourist office inconveniently shut so we decided to press on having been given the info that there was a campsite at Santa Colomba de Santoza 15km to the west. This was in the right direction so we pressed on following the Campino pilgrims´route. The pilgrims seem mostly to be middle aged men and fewer women plodding their way westward to Santiago de Compostella. Unfortunately, the campsite was derelict and closed so on we went to Ponferrada (still on Moore´s retreat route). Lovely rolling foothills of heather, broom and other hardys with the Galician mountains still with vestiges of snow getting ever closer with occasional sightings of storks, raptors and quick footed lizards speeding across the road in front of us. The climb was followed by a long descent down into the surprisingly large city of Ponfarrada where the Turismo office next to the impressive castle gave us a good steer to a site near Carracedelo where we are the only visitors. Plenty of space to choose from and all the excellent facilities to ourselves!
BBQ not allowed so M2 improvised to produce a chicken stew with mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, salad etc which we would have been pleased with even had we had to pay for it in a restaurant.
A better regime established for use of mobile phones to minimise offence to M2!
Shortish journey to Astorga which was delightful. This is where Moore made his decision to split his force to ease his administrative burden at the expense of his fighting ability. There was a plaque to commemorate Moore at Astorga on the city walls as well as a slightly puzzling statue of a British Lion with its foot on a French Eagle commemorating the brave locals who had defended against Napoleon. Impressive though.
Tourist office inconveniently shut so we decided to press on having been given the info that there was a campsite at Santa Colomba de Santoza 15km to the west. This was in the right direction so we pressed on following the Campino pilgrims´route. The pilgrims seem mostly to be middle aged men and fewer women plodding their way westward to Santiago de Compostella. Unfortunately, the campsite was derelict and closed so on we went to Ponferrada (still on Moore´s retreat route). Lovely rolling foothills of heather, broom and other hardys with the Galician mountains still with vestiges of snow getting ever closer with occasional sightings of storks, raptors and quick footed lizards speeding across the road in front of us. The climb was followed by a long descent down into the surprisingly large city of Ponfarrada where the Turismo office next to the impressive castle gave us a good steer to a site near Carracedelo where we are the only visitors. Plenty of space to choose from and all the excellent facilities to ourselves!
BBQ not allowed so M2 improvised to produce a chicken stew with mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, salad etc which we would have been pleased with even had we had to pay for it in a restaurant.
A better regime established for use of mobile phones to minimise offence to M2!
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