Today is the penultimate etapa for me on the Camino Olvidado. There are 22 etapas published, the last three head west to meet up with the Camino Frances in Villafranca (my favorite part of the Camino Frances). But I am headed south to Ponferrada tomorrow where I will cross the Camino Frances and start the Camino del Invierno – or the Winter route. This route was used in the winter (bet you didn’t guess that) when the high passes on the Camino Frances were snowed in. I’ll give final personal stats on the Camino Olvidado tomorrow when I complete it.

So with today’s etapa, as I mentioned yesterday, the etapa used (arguably still does) to go through Labaniego – where there are no services and just a shelter – less than an albergue. The locals decided to reroute the two etapas that finished and started in Labaniego so that they finished and started in Noceda. What this did was to cut 4km off yesterdays etapa and add about 6km to today’s etapa. We actually cut 5km off that by making our own alternate route so we came in at 20km door-to-door.

Today took us through coal mining villages where the mines have long since been abandon and are ghost complexes now. Trees are growing back where there was once bare rock and the mining facilities and equipment are overgrown and rusted.

We were treated to green pastures, oak and pine forests, babbling creeks, chaparral and some ups and downs. Most of the walking was on dirt roads with about 6km on asphalt. The hiking was rather pleasant overall with the chaparral being hot-hot and shadeless. Good thing as we got to the top of the climb, the breeze from the reservoir below hit us and cooled us off to a nice stroll down the hill through vineyards to the town of Congosto.

Tomorrow is a short day, only 12km or so, but that will give us kind of a down day and in a city with enough services to get my phone fixed (SIM card not working) and laundry done.

On to the pics…