Day 22 - Foncebadón to Molinaseca
Well, last night was certainly one for the books. We nearly had an albergue mutiny on our hands when our hospitalero (let’s call him Capitan Bligh) and a fiery, Spanish-speaking Italian (let’s call him Fletch) almost came to blows. When we arrived we were told that we had to help with dinner preparation at 6:30pm and that dinner would be served at 8pm. Sounds good. At 6:30pm all the good little pilgrims asked how we can help. We were quickly dismissed from the kitchen by Capitan Bligh in no uncertain terms. That’s cool, if he wants to cook, I’m happy with that. Just before 8pm we all sat at the table and awaited our Bligh-cooked meal. When he entered he told us all in rapid-fire Spanish that we had to move down the table. We did. Not satisfied he told us that we now had to sit on one side of the table only, Last Supper-style. We did. STILL not satisfied he dismissed us all to the bunk room for reasons known only to himself. It was like he was attempting to organize his own surprise birthday dinner and expected us to burst out yelling “Surprise!”, but in Spanish. At that point, Fletch had enough and an argument erupted which saw Capitan Bligh run from the room, slamming the door, and Fletch trying to encourage us to report him to the Civil Guard. I said that I just want to eat, go to bed and then get the hell out of this Fawlty Towers sketch. So at the stroke of 7am, that’s exactly what I did.
If you use the words Cold, Wet, Foggy, Steep, Slippery, and Slate all in a sentence, whichever way you arrange them adds up to a pretty sucky sentence. This was my morning. I forced my way through a pea-souper to Cruz de Ferro, placed my rocks at its base (making my pack 10 grams lighter. Yes!), and then made the perilous journey down Alto Altar Mayor to Molinaseca where I decided to finish for the day and spoil myself with a private room. I think that after last night’s would-be coup, I’d earned it.
Distance - 20.3km
Difficulty - ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Camin-Oh no! - Attempting to put a poncho on in high winds.
Camin-Oh hell yeah! - A cheap, private room with a double bed!
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