We hardly slept the night before partly due to excitement and partly because it was hot! We were glad when the morning arrived. We showered, got our backpacks ready and left our suitcases at the front desk to be transferred to our hotel in Rabanal. Oh, did I mention that 'Walks in Spain' organized our hotel bookings, luggage transfers, maps and walking notes! They did an excellent job and more of them later. We tried to keep our backpacks as light as possible. We filled the hydra packs with water, a set of extra waterproof clothes, poncho, socks, snacks, tums, aspirin, blister plasters, Vaseline, sunscreen, money, phones, maps and camino notes. Breakfast was a delicious spread of toast, cheeses, smoked meats, preserves, eggs, fruit, juice, yogurt etc. Then we made our way to the Cathedral Square and with trepidation and excitement followed our first yellow arrow out of Astorga and into the camino. We were on our way!

Our first 4 km were uneventful. We met our first fellow pilgrim, a jovial American from Las Vegas who had started all the way from St. Jean Pied de Port in France. Stay tuned for our one and only camino miracle that involves Mr. Las Vegas!

We took a detour to see the pretty and well restored traditional Maragato village of Castrillo de Polvazares. This added a couple of km to our day’s hike. Rejoining the camino took a while, as we probably got lost and may have taken a wrong turn somewhere. At El Ganso, we stopped at The Cowboy Bar for our first beer on the camino. Over the days, beer would become a food group and fuel us through the hot and dusty afternoons! As we walked, it got hotter and in the distance loomed the Leon mountains which was our destination tomorrow. We were climbing gently and we were starting to feel the fatigue. It was our first day of hiking on rough terrain and in such high temperatures and we were starting to feel it in our legs, knees, feet and muscles. As we negotiated the last few steps to La Posada de Gaspar, our refuge for the night, we were ready to call it a day! My left leg was in agony – all the way from the knee to my heels.

Later that evening I realized my left leg was so bad, I could not walk down the stairs. I was drenched in panic and despair - will I be able to complete the camino that we had spent years planning? After a few phone sessions with our younger son who is a Chiropractic Doctor and encouragement from my husband, I decided to take it one step at a time all the way up to 1517m the next day and then all the way down to 610m and our destination – Molinaseca.