Watching the sun rise is such an effortlessly beautiful experience. It only takes a matter of minutes, but sometimes it can feel like an eternity. Waking up early took little convincing from everyone the night before. We had gotten used to rising before dawn. It started out as an excuse for doing most of our walking during the hottest parts of the day, but it soon became the natural way of the Camino, at least for our group.

Today we were going to make our way past Cruz de Ferro and the ever growing pile of rocks at its base. Why do some consider this pile more important than any other pile of rocks along The Way? It’s meant to be a place of casting off your burdens. It’s tradition for a person walking the Camino to carry a small rock in their pack, and this rock is meant to symbolize any mental or emotional burdens you might have.

Cruz de Ferro was the first stop of the day at the top of a hill and we arrived just as the sun was striking the cross. The others didn’t know about the tradition with this cross, so I quickly tossed my stone onto the pile and we kept going. I thought I would have felt something, but it didn’t feel as emotional as I was expecting, nor did it feel symbolic. It just felt like tossing a rock onto a pile of other rocks.

We had taken the paved road up to the cross but the trail crossed over the top and down the backside of the hill, and now we started our slow and awkward descent. The terrain was similar to that of the way from Roncesvalles to Zubiri back on day two. I’m glad that I have the knee brace on!

On the way down we came to the town of Manjarín, where an old man lived who claimed to be the last of the Templars. Whether or not his claim is true, he had some neat looking artifacts hanging from the walls, and his home was rather humble in appearance. Well, it had to be since it was built out of stones and partly carved out of the rock.

We marched under a sunny cloudless sky through rolling green hills that slowly transformed into rocky mountains. Breakfast was in a town called El Acebo. We bought breakfast at one place, but decided to eat at the tables in the shade of another. The owner of that second place did not like that since we didn’t buy from them, and promptly kicked us out. So we sat at the tables in the sun of the place that we had purchased the food from.

After another hour and a half of nearly all downhill walking through hills, under bridges, and along streams, we stopped at a town that had a river that you could swim in. The water was ice cold, so I only put my feet in. It was a relaxing break before walking to Ponferrada. Some in our group grabbed beer and ice cream.

The walk into Ponderrada took another hour and a half. Today was the hottest it’s been so far I think. We were all dying from the heat, even when we were inside buildings. And the Albergue wasn’t much cooler, especially after 5pm. This was going to be a clothes-less night while sleeping, I can feel it already.

We checked in, picked our beds, did the laundry, and went to the super market to get stuff for making dinner. Once all of the chores were done, we decided to take a tour of a restored Templar Castle, which was pretty freaking cool! There wasn’t much to see inside of the castle beyond some props set up with plaques describing life inside the castle, but it was neat being able to freely walk around every nook and cranny.

There was a small cafe just outside the castle where we had a snack. It was too hot to do anything else, so we retreated back to the Albergue for some reading, chatting, and dinner.