Via Lemovicensis: Up to Rabanal

12 June 2026 Thom Pilgrim Reports, Via Lemovicensis

It felt strange this morning packing up and leaving alone. Herve has been part of the Camino since Périgueux, which was back on May 2. A little bit more than a month ago, and it seems like a lifetime.

But he must rest, and I must walk today. We shall meet again in Santiago, if not before.

I was out the door sometime around 6:45. The air was not as cool as it has been the past few days and there was not a cloud and I could see in the sky, except a few fluffy ones behind the cathedral. It was going to be warm today, no doubt.

As the Camino wound its way through the city of Astorga, my first objective was simple: breakfast. I probably could have found an open café by backtracking slightly through the city, but at the time I set out I was not nearly awake enough to think of that.

By 7 AM, I passed a thoroughly modern church, San Pedro de Rectivía. It looked almost Scandinavian. The façade was decorated by some truly beautiful mosaics.

The Camino passed numerous cafés, bars, and restaurants – not one of which were open at this time of the morning. By just 7:05, the city had started to run out of buildings. I could already see open countryside ahead of me to the left. I was walking on the sidewalk next to two-lane highway.

When I passed a horse grazing in the yard next to me, I realized I would have to reset my morning expectations. The Camino is all about confounding expectation. Really, you could say that about life in this world in general.

Just a few moments later, the road signs told me that I had left the city of Astorga and entered the suburban village of Valdeviejas. The Camino continued on the same sidewalk. The buildings now were pretty far apart, and they tended to be larger two-story houses. Through the long gaps you could see the countryside beyond.

Before long, the houses stopped entirely.

At about 7:20, the village ended at the little 17th-century Ermita del Ecce Homo. I have fond memories of this place from past Caminos. I stopped in to pray and to light a candle for Francine.

The Camino continued on the sidewalk. I crossed over a highway bridge with a narrow pedestrian passage. A pilgrim had stopped in the middle of the bridge to re-tie her shoe, and I had to squeeze past her, right up to the railing. My vertigo really kicked in at that moment.

By 7:30, the Camino had turned off the sidewalk and onto a gravel path paralleling the highway. This would be its path for virtually the whole day.

After just a kilometer so, the Camino crossed the highway, eventually taking me into the village of Murias de Rechivaldo. Here I found a café, though it wasn’t scheduled to open until 8 AM. This was only about ten minutes, so I decided that waiting was worth losing a kilometer.

Katie soon arrived and joined me, and she was just the first. By the time the café opened, there was a crowd waiting. There was quite a queue for breakfast, and it took some time before everyone was served.

By 8:30 Katie and I were walking the endless gravel path through open fields, and increasingly trees and hills. She and I had one of those wide-ranging deep conversations that only seems to happen while you’re walking on Camino.

At about 9:20, Katie and I walked into the village of Santa Catalina de Somoza. We stopped in Bar Susana, where three years ago I had spent an enjoyable hour with the owner Kai. He remembered me, but this time our interaction was brief as he was baking in the kitchen most of the time I was there. We stayed about 30 minutes.

This place has the best carrot cake to be found anywhere, and everything they serve is in generous portions. The owners are amazingly open and friendly. If you ever find yourself here, do stop in. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Katie and I walked on, and the kilometers flew by in conversation. We entered the storied village of El Ganso at 10:30.

And of course in El Ganso, one must visit the Cowboy Bar. It was a little early in the day for beer, so I opted for Coca-Cola. We were joined by Frederick from Denmark, and we ended up leaving at about 11:10 AM.

The gravel path continued, winding now into a road. For a long time we walked with a pine forest to our right, and across the road were meadows and distant forested hills.

Just about noon, we crossed a road and there were two signs indicating our destination, Rabanal. One of them said 3 km. The next one, perhaps ten meters later, said 2 km.

Camino Rule 1: all distances are lies.

Shortly after this, the gravel path left the road entirely and began making its way uphill through the woods. A chain-link fence to our right had crosses woven into it using twigs.

It was warm enough and the path was steep enough that for the first time today I began to sweat.

Eventually, the path narrowed and returned next to the road. Now it really was just a footpath, climbing ever upwards.

We walked into Rabanal del Camino at about 12:30 in the bright sunshine. I stopped briefly in the Iglesia de San José to pray, while Katie continued up the hill through the village to the albergue.

My albergue of choice, Refugio Gaucelmo, didn’t open until 1:30, so I left my bag – number four in the queue – and went back down into the village for a cold drink.

After check-in and the usual pilgrim chores, I went across the street to the little monastic church to pray and to light a candle for Francine.

On our two Caminos together where we stopped in this village, this little church was a refuge for us, and a major influence on us, both on our prayer life and our liturgical outlook.

This place is the first place I ever sat in choir with monks to pray Vespers, and I think it’s safe to say it changed the trajectory of my prayer life.

This is also the place where we had a profound encounter with the Latin Mass parts, and how they could bring people from all over the world together in a profoundly catholic way. Regardless of nationality and language, all of us could pray together. It was somehow undoing the Tower of Babel.

Inside, the church might not be much to look at – bare stone, sometimes plastered, an altar carved from a solid block of stone, and old choir seating clearly taken from another church – but everything here is lovingly maintained, and it shows.

It is a simple and elegant witness to the Benedictine charisms.

After this, I spent some time writing in the garden in back of the albergue. It’s been a while since I’ve had dedicated time like this. It’s one of the reasons I love this place.

Early tomorrow, I will pass 1700 km on this pilgrimage. Tomorrow is also the day I will pass Cruz de Ferro. It is a place of special significance to pilgrims on the Camino.

It is the custom for pilgrims to bring a stone from their home and to lay it at the foot of this cross, which marks the highest altitude of the Camino in Spain. This is meant to symbolize the laying down of burdens, that the pilgrim may approach Santiago with a lighter heart.

In addition to a stone of my own, I am laying down a stone for my sister. I also brought a laminated version of Francine’s funeral card to place there.

It’s worth mentioning that the stone that I’m laying down is not one I chose, but one that was chosen for me. This seems right.

Back when I was training for this Camino, I would often take long training hikes down the Tacoma waterfront. My initial plan was to take a pebble from the beach – for Francine so loved the sea. But the day that I planned on doing this, I neglected to check the tide tables, and the beach was well underwater when I was there.

After walking along the waterfront, I went to pray in my parish church of Saint Patrick. There, in the middle of the carpeted narthex floor, was a small stone. I have no idea where it came from, but it was clearly meant for me. This is the stone I will lay at Cruz de Ferro.

At 5 PM, tea is served in the garden in Refugio Gaucelmo. This is a wonderful custom of the English Confraternity of Saint James that operates this place.

Then, at 7 PM, Vespers in the monastic church. Then dinner somewhere in the village. Then Compline at 9:30, followed by a pilgrim blessing.

If I am to post this today, however, I must try to do so before Vespers. My signal here is terrible, and there’s no Wi-Fi at the albergue.

Date: 12 June 2026