Bus, Santiago Compostela to Oviedo
I had my shower and breakfast and walked to the main bus station. As I bought my ticket I was told, it was better not to catch the 2.30 pm bus to Oviedo as I’d planned but to catch the later bus, leaving at 4 pm. as it went direct! Having time to kill I found a restaurant and a cheap menu del día. The meal was very good and I was able to take my time and enjoy it with some good wine. Back at the bus station I chatted to a pleasant Mexican lady who was catching the same bus. She knew the system and we went down to the lower level and the bus arrived and we boarded. The tickets are numbered as are the seats so I lost my acquaintance and sat alone for a while till a young man got on in one city and I passed some time chatting to him. The coast wasn’t quite as exciting as I had hoped to see but it looked ok and the sea blue. Unknown to me I had made my usual stuff up with Vigi, this time when I had rung her to ask if I could stay again I had said in my bad Spanish that I wanted to come to Orense! Why I used this town name instead of Oviedo I have no idea! But luckily I had continued saying that I would like to come to her home and would arrive at approximately 8 pm. today.
Arriving in Oviedo I received a text from Vigi to say she was with friends in a bar and I was to wait at the bus station and ring her when I arrived and she would pick me up. This I did and soon her car pulled into the taxi rank and I put my rucksack in the back jumped in. She told me how confused she had been as Orense is way over the other side of Santiago way down on the Vía del Plata. I apologised profusely saying she didn’t have to collect me I could have walked.
“You would only have got lost” she stated, laughing and she put me at ease and told me it didn’t matter,
“You’re here now,”
She drove us to her flat and parked the car. Parking a car in her underground garage is a work of art that necessitates a reverse shunt on a steep slope turning left with centimetres to spare. I take my hat off to this charming lady driver. I had thought her town driving great but believe me SHE’S GOOD. I would have stuffed it up with a far smaller car.
In the flat I was shown my room again and Vigi made a salad and warmed some other dish for supper and we ate. Vigi had to go to work next morning so she showed me where the coffee was and where everything was kept in the kitchen. I had already said that I would cook dinner for us tomorrow, now I was not so sure of my abilities!
One look at the cooker and I flipped, real space age stuff, no knobs just a touch screen built into the glass cooker top!
Arriving in Oviedo I received a text from Vigi to say she was with friends in a bar and I was to wait at the bus station and ring her when I arrived and she would pick me up. This I did and soon her car pulled into the taxi rank and I put my rucksack in the back jumped in. She told me how confused she had been as Orense is way over the other side of Santiago way down on the Vía del Plata. I apologised profusely saying she didn’t have to collect me I could have walked.“You would only have got lost” she stated, laughing and she put me at ease and told me it didn’t matter,
“You’re here now,”
She drove us to her flat and parked the car. Parking a car in her underground garage is a work of art that necessitates a reverse shunt on a steep slope turning left with centimetres to spare. I take my hat off to this charming lady driver. I had thought her town driving great but believe me SHE’S GOOD. I would have stuffed it up with a far smaller car.
In the flat I was shown my room again and Vigi made a salad and warmed some other dish for supper and we ate. Vigi had to go to work next morning so she showed me where the coffee was and where everything was kept in the kitchen. I had already said that I would cook dinner for us tomorrow, now I was not so sure of my abilities!
One look at the cooker and I flipped, real space age stuff, no knobs just a touch screen built into the glass cooker top!
7th June
Oviedo
Vigi was up and called out that breakfast was ready and I went into the kitchen. Hot coffee and toast and jam was all set for me. The cleaning lady arrived as Vigi dashed off as soon as she could, saying she would be home at 2.30 pm.I joked about the space age cooker with the cleaning lady saying I had better get it right as I had to go and buy the food for dinner as I’m cook today, and I had better buy a pair of new trousers in town too.
“Where do you think I should try first.” I asked
“Wait till I have finished this ironing and I’ll show you,” she kindly offered.
In town I was shown the trouser shop then the brilliant food market. She was buying fish and I decided to buy two pieces of fillet steak. Nobody seemed to have any steak at first but with her help we soon found some.
“How much” said the woman behind the counter.
It was a big piece of meat and I said two slices and held out my fingers to show how thick. I got enough meat for four people that was swiftly weighed and shown to me and wrapped before I could change my mind.
“Oh these foreigners love their meat,” said the woman as my cleaning lady guide showed her surprise at the quantity.
I was now left to my own devices to get the veggies. Easy I thought. I had been buying lovely French beans for my own dinners as I had travelled, now I needed a few potatoes, she weighed them up.
“Oh nice little new ones” I said spotting another shelf, and I made the stall-holder change them. Then a few mushrooms, now what for starters prawn cocktail? Ok the prawns were no problem, large and already cooked I bought them and the mayonnaise too. Now all I had to do was remember what Maisie used to tint the mayonnaise and give it that particular taste I liked. But I couldn’t remember the name as I tried and tried with no success.
“It’s red sauce, very hot in a very small bottle” I asked, searching the shelves of the stalls.
Hot chilly powder was the nearest I got until one stall-holder asked a customer and she came up with “Tabasco.”
“Yes” I said delighted.
“Oh sorry we don’t have that, you will have to find a supermarket.”
‘Ok on the way home I should find one.’ I think.
Next what for sweet, something easy, a pile of giant red strawberries looked delicious in front of me, great they will do fine.
Next trousers, I find the shop and place my bulging plastic bag on the counter, and find a suitable pair and say to the girl I will have them if they can shorten them before one o’clock this afternoon.
“Not possible” says the manager but as I went to leave the sales girl is sent packing to take them to the tailors.
Ok, I had now to find a supermarket. You never see one when you want one, and I had to ask a woman in the street and eventually found one some distance away and searched for the Tabasco, a sales girl showed me where it was kept and I dashed off back to the flat. Only stopping to buy a piece of gorgeous looking strawberry cheesecake. All the veggies were prepared and the meat seasoned the prawn cocktails made and strawberries halved and sprinkled with sugar. The trouble now was when did Vigi want to eat? I was unsure. Still it was all ready and should all cook quickly. I now went out again to collect my trousers. I picked them up and hunted to find something to make the table look nice. Candles, I decided, that was something I knew about,‘vela’ but not for the church, for table decoration I tried to explain to several people, and have to explain I’m cooking dinner for a special friend. Eventually I was sent to a shop full of incense and glass beads and candles, big ones, small ones and most expensive ones. Hunting through the store I found just the thing, a nice thick pink stubby candle. Time to take a beer at a table in the lovely square where Vigi had said she often enjoyed a coffee. I watched the people and enjoyed my drink in the shade, until I thought I’d better get back to the flat. Arriving back I suddenly realised I had no bag with the trousers or candle! I dashed back and saw there was nothing on the table where I had been sitting. I went in and asked a waiter he took me over to a cupboard and unhooked a bag from the side.
“Yours” he said.
I was very pleased as you can imagine and gave him a tip for his trouble. Then ran back to the flat.
Vigi arrived and asked where her dinner was!
Can’t smell it? She said a little puzzled.
Yes I had stuffed it again we were supposed to eat when she came in!
The lovely girl took it in her stride as I attempted to switch on the stove. Of course she had to show me how to do it again! Well while all was cooking we ate the cocktails, I did forget the lemon slice but we enjoyed them and the wine I bought was good, a bottle of Ribero. I was then able to drain the potatoes and butter them and the runner beans
“Never seen beans sliced thin like that,” she said, peeping past my shoulder. I promised to send her a bean slice.
I fried the steak and served it all. Vigi was thrilled and declared the thinly sliced beans great, the steak tender and delicious, and much more than we could eat. My setting out of the strawberries in the glasses very professional and topped with a piece of cheesecake very yummy and the glowing pink candle fabulous. I was so pleased my dinner had been a success! Vigi had done so much for me now I had at least shown her my appreciation.
Now Vigi had a surprise for me, we were to meet friends and go to see a well known Spanish poet launch his new book …………
I had seen it advertised and had thought it would be nice but not dreaming I would go! We met the two girl friends inside the library. I really enjoyed it and followed the poetry well. I chatted with Javier Reverte the poet afterwards and found he spoke better English than I did Spanish.
We said goodbye to the girls and found the cider bar that we used before. Here we enjoyed egg, chips and Iberian ham and I steered clear of the cider and drank white wine.
Arriving back at the flat we watched television for a while and chatted. I decided that I should move off in the morning as I now had a map that would do I thought, and
Vigi said I should have no trouble getting a bus to Gidjon on the coast.
8th June
Oviedo to Bañgues
Vigi took me to the bus station and saying goodbye for the second time this year I bought a ticket and joined a long queue and waited for the bus to arrive. The trip was uneventful and I got off at the main bus station and asked a few people the way out of town towards Candas.
I soon found an arrow and knew I was going in the right direction. On the main road a iris flower blew off a hearse and landed in front of me and I picked it up and wondered if it was an omen, it was 12.30 pm. Arriving in Candas I looked round the church and lit a candle for everyone. Then I sat on a stone bench in the shelter of a wall on the harbour quay and ate a sandwich.
On the way back up from the harbour I stopped for a coffee and the waiter hit my bag with his elbow and a jug of hot milk went everywhere, all over the bag, hat, chair and some on me. Well maybe that was the bad luck I had predicted I thought as we mopped up the mess.
I knew I had left the Camino now and was following a map with the idea of walking closer to the sea because Vigi had said it was pretty from Candas up the coast and around the point Cabo Penas and then down to Avilés. It is, but the map had shown a lot of tracks and I thought they would be dirt tracks but all were asphalt minor roads. I for the most part walked on the main road the AS 29 almost to Luanco.
Here I took a minor road and cut away from the sea across a point arriving on the other side at the tiny village Bañugues and a camping ground. It had been a bewildering day and the map that had looked so detailed was pretty useless.
Just before the campsite I stopped and cut a stick for a tent pole, earlier I had found an aluminium handle of a sunshade for the other one. It was too short but I cut another piece of wood to jam in the end to lengthen it.
It was sunny but a cool wind now blew in from off the sea as I came down from the hills to the coast. I saw the campsite with lots of very old caravans all huddled tight together with a small piece of grass left in front for tents. I went into the office and had to pay seven Euro to camp.
Now the fun started, the soft aluminium pegs would not go far enough into the hard ground. When I did get the tent up, the wind pressure snapped the pole I had cut, like a rotten carrot. I tried again binding the broken piece together with a few bits of split cane. It did it again andthe pegs pulled out. The chap who had taken my money now came across and gave me six steel pegs made from reinforcing iron. Well that helped, after having another go at binding the pole together it stood up but the wind was blowing the side in so there was little room inside. I took what I thought I should need out of the bag and put it inside, forcing the bowing tent side over a bit and holding down the flapping ground sheet. It was the best I could do. I took my washing gear to shower. They were dirty and only cold water. ‘Bother!’ I said, ‘this is not my day.’ Shivering I returned to my tent. The shop had little to offer as food. I ate the last of the cold meat and food Vigi had insisted I take with me and I was very glad of it now. I managed to make a warm cup of coffee but spilt some all down me. Fed up I went for a walk through the camp and found it had a miserable café with no food, just three people playing cards but nobody spoke. The barman too gave me my coffee and returned to watch the telly. I stood it for a while then left and went to the beach.
Quite a nice bay but too cold and no one about much. I found further up on the right hand side of the bay another café with a few more people sitting on an outside patio. I ordered a beer and sat in the weak sun. Thinking things could only get better - or would they! The tent still had to last the night and I had no food for the morning!
9th June
Bañgues to Piedras Blancas
The cold wind blew steadily all night, bringing a few rain showers. The weak broken pole was at the open end and was threatening to give way so I used Carol’s staff propped at an angle, sloping back into the tent to help it. This staff got in my way badly and my elbow would knock it down every hour or so if I did fall asleep!
I slept with my head at the open end, mainly because I wanted to know where the escape hatch was should the tent collapse! This meant my head got cold as the wind blew in that end. I solved this by putting my hat over the top of my head! The hat then kept coming off!
The pole at the other end was also too short and I had solved this problem by propping the pole up on my Spanish dictionary. In the moments I was asleep, my feet would knock it off and the tent would then flap about until I woke up and put the book back!
When the tent flapped, it touched the rucksack and me so that when it rained the water dribbled in. I then used the silver thermal sheet to cover me and the rucksack to keep both dry. This then rustled every time I moved and kept me awake!
By six thirty I had had enough and went for a pee and a cold wash. I made a coffee with the last of my powdered milk. I forgot to put a little cold in first, the water was too hot and it curdled and looked and tasted horrible I used a bit of condensed milk to sweeten the mess. Yuck! I drank it and set about getting away before it rained. It took me one and a half hours to pack up in the wind.
I set off along the road that ran across the end of the bay and up the hill and away from the sea again. It was a hard walk with few markers and bad maps. I stopped for a coffee at the first cafe but I would not see the beach or the sea until some time later. I was in fear of getting run down, as there was no hard shoulder to walk on.
To get away from the traffic I took the road to Verdeció then down to San Martin.
I came in view of the San Martin Church then tried to find the most direct route to Avilés that was the GO-13 and 12 till I hit the AS-238. It was nice country all the way with some odd places of interest
until I came to the industrial area of Avilés this side of the river, and this seemed to go on forever and was extremely dangerous walking.
I now arrived at the 633N, turned right and crossed over the bridge, over the railway lines and into the city. Now I was really lost as to where the albergue was and asked people where the tourist office was. After trudging into the beautiful old city centre I found it but it was shut!
Suddenly I saw a small painted arrow. Normally the albergue was on the outskirts, going out of a city. I was tired but if I followed the arrows I’d come to the albergue I reasoned. Loosing the way again I asked a man on a bike. While he is telling me, another chap joined in the conversation and asked me where I was heading for. I said
“I’m looking for the camino in hope of finding the albergue.”
“Back the way you have come” he said “I will take you.”
The man in his seventies came with me all the way back to the ‘Plaza Mayor’ and then down another street till at the end we found the albergue. This rather strange windowless building was not open now, but it might open at eight pm. if the walking season had started, we gathered from paper leaflets pasted on the wall. There was nothing to say when they thought the walking season was though! We tried round the back, shouted to an elderly lady across a courtyard the other side of a locked wrought iron gate. She could not help us she said. I told the man I would eat in a café and try later on and thanked him for his kindness and he left me to walk all the way back.
I crossed the road and went in the corner café and put down my rucksack and staffs. I ordered a piece of cold tortilla, as it was not late enough for a menú del día. I sat wasting time and had a couple of glasses of red and felt refreshed. I decided to take a chance and go on.
I walked all the way back and found the place I had asked the way and met my guide, and set off in the direction the first man on a bike had indicated. I found some arrows and came out onto the N-633 at almost the same spot where I had first entered the city after crossing the bridge and railway. I now turned left and followed the arrows and shortly left the main road and climbed up and across a hilly country road and a small hamlet.
I came to a track into woodland and down a steep track into Salinas. Here I walked through the resort to the far side of the bay and turning off the marked way for about fifty meters. I stopped at a cafe about five o’clock for a coffee.
The chap behind bar informed me there was a Hostel at the main road, but that would cost me about twenty-five Euro a night. Alternatively I could follow the yellow arrows taking the road that cut across the corner. When I got to the main road, turn right and I would arrive at Piedras Blancas. Here I would probably find a cheaper one.
“It’s not far perhaps two kilometres” he assured me.
I had no way of telling how far I had walked but my tired body knew that I had already walked more than a normal days walk. I thought he was probably right, by getting away from this little tourist town I might just find a cheaper place. Another two kilometres wasn’t far.
The main road was quite busy and for the most part straight. I walked on and on then saw houses and tall apartments in the distance. They seemed to never get any closer, as is often the case when you are tired. At last I got to them but there was no sign of hostels just workshops, garages and furniture shops. The road went on over the brow of a low hill built up on both sides. As I came down the other side things looked more promising, on the corner stood an old building with a Bar and a rooms sign, ‘Habitaciones’. I went in and it was pretty quiet, only a lady and a guy at the counter and the barman. I asked if they had a room.
“Probably we have” said the barman. “I will have to ask the wife and she’s out.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know, will have to ask the wife later.”
“How much later?”
“Don’t know probably about seven.”
“I’m tired and want to wash and shower surely you can give me some idea?”
“No! Have to wait for the wife.”
“Is there any where else I might get a room?”
“There’s a hotel farther down the road.”
I left and headed down the road past the square and came to a baker’s shop and went in. I bought a ‘Barra’ bread and a cream cake, I needed the sugar! I asked if there were rooms anywhere in town.
“You have to go back to the bar on the corner opposite the green building. It’s the only one, or there’s the hotel, but that’s expensive” they said.
I sat in the park and ate the cake. I knew I was too tired too go on, so gave up. I would have to wait for the bar lady and pay what ever she wanted for the room, I decided. I had a drink in the bar and got him to stamp my credential and waited. The wife turned up with a miserable face just after seven.
“Third door down the street I’ll unlock it,” she said going back behind the bar and into the kitchen.
In the street I walked past two doors and tried the third as the second one opened.
“Three” she said pointing, obviously counting the bar door as the first one. I followed her in, banging the narrow door with my rucksack. She turned to glare at me and I started up the old staircase, grabbing the rail to help my tired legs. It came sideways to me and almost came off in my hand. I let go immediately and stumbled and tried again without its help and climbed the wooden stairs. At the top in a dark passage she opened a door and said
“This one” and moved forward “Or this one might be better. It has a single bed,” she said pointing and making it clear I was to take this bed! I was tired, either would do. I followed her into the second room.
“The bath room” she said opening a door and daylight entered the room and I could see better.
“Buen’ good, how much” I said
“Fifteen Euro a night, no food.”
“I’ll take it.”
She nodded and walked out.
I dumped my bag on the floor, put a towel over the second bed and lifted the bag back up, and put it on the bed and opened it and spread some of my things out. I needed a shower to revive me, I was thinking as the door opened
“The money for the room?” she said holding out her hand and then glared at my gear all over a bed I would not be sleeping in.
I gave a weak smile and took out my wallet and paid her. She took the money and asked for my passport.
“Err I’ll have to find it” I said pointing to my clutter.
“Leave it behind the bar later, and when you leave in the morning pull the street door closed behind you, it will lock itself,” she turned and closed the door.
This peregrino was not going to leave his passport anywhere! I had paid and would be leaving early!
I was busting to use the loo and thought I’d better close the window first if I don’t want to be seen by the entire street below. The window sash would not catch and when I let go it swung open wide again. B….! I turned my back, had my pee then got my walking staff to prop the window shut for other occasions.
I showered and to my surprise there was hot water and I started to do my washing in the sink but found if I put anything down, there was a layer of soot on everything and I needed to rinse it all again. So I had no alternative but wipe the entire bathroom down first.
‘The wide-open window of course, that’s why there was so much dust in the bathroom!’ Mind you this room could not have been used for weeks let alone cleaned. I went down and sat in the bar with a beer and watched the TV, but very few people came in.
Back in my room I looked at my maps and decided tomorrow looked hard, some thirty-two kilometres, my pedometer said only twenty-six for today. I felt sure it was wrong because this afternoon I was having trouble with irritation and chafing caused by sweat in my jocks and I now greased this area while doing my feet against blisters. I had after all walked from eight in the morning till five in the evening with at most an hour stop in Avíles, it had to be more? 8 hrs at 4 k = 32. I text Maisie and Jo and phoned Vigi to say thanks for her help and said not to walk the coast as I had, as I thought it a waste of time, better done in a car.
10th June
Piedras Blancas to Soto de Luiña
I plodded off down the main road and the first part had a new path almost completed. Then I crossed a traffic island and now it was traffic and no pavement and this went on for miles. The traffic got terrible and I stopped and rigged the tent pole with a red nylon bag as a flag on top, to stick up above my rucksack. I was hoping drivers would notice me a little sooner now.
I came to a busy roundabout and I could see an arrow, but was not sure which road it pointed at. I waited for a break in the traffic, hurried across to look at it and walked back a bit to try to work out where it pointed. In the end I decided it meant the main road, down a hill and round a bend. I had arranged with Josie to order flowers for Maisie’s return from her bowling holiday. Luckily I had forgotten to switch off the phone. I was walking round the bend with no pavement or shoulder and getting blown about by the wind off the big trucks that roared by missing me by inches when the phone rang in my pocket. I grabbed at the flap and jabbed at the buttons and to my surprise hit the right one.
“Hello it’s me, Maisie”
I was standing on the yellow line on the edge of this race track, one hand over my left ear and the other with the phone covering the other, each hand also clasping a walking staff. The noise was horrendous and Maisie could hear the trucks and cars go by as she thanked me for her flowers. The wind was threatening to blow me into the ditch one second and suck me into the path of a semi-trailer the next. It was great to hear her voice and my spirits climbed as I put the phone away and headed off down the hill once again.
I got off the main road near Muros de Nalon.
I now followed a forest track to Cudillero and came out of the forest near a posh looking but old school building. A little further on, an open café stood beckoning me EL PITU’ said the sign. It was twelve o’clock as I walked in toting a red flag to the amusement of the locals. I laughed and spoke in Spanish and they were taken by surprise, as I’d obviously understood their ‘bromo’ about the cavalry. I ordered a coffee as I dumped my bag, then noticed the menu was only six fifty Euro. I asked the young man behind the bar if it was too early to order a meal.
“I’ll ask” he said and left making my coffee and went into the kitchen, soon returning and said I could go through to the dining room or the terrace if I wanted.
I chose the dinning room, a small but cosy atmosphere even when I was the only diner.
The wine was good and my choice for starters was a mushroom dish I didn’t recognise on the menu, this turned out to be a mushroom omelette without really whipping the eggs too much. It certainly tasted good and there must have been two eggs at least and plenty of mushrooms. I ate it all and could have walked out, my hunger satisfied but now came the main course, two large pork chops on a large oval plate piled up with chips. As the waiter placed it in front of me he said,
“There is another chop when you have finished those if you want.”
He even repeated it twice more to make sure I understood his Spanish.
There sure wasn’t room on this plate at the moment!
I hadn’t eaten like this for a few days and I cleared the plate and he asked again, did I want the other chop as he came to take the plate away!
On my refusal he asked if I wanted a sweet and reeled off four choices of things, pointing to the glazed sweet cupboard. All looked delicious and home made. I chose the cheesecake with almonds. It was a good inch and a half thick and nearly the size of a paper back novel. It was delicious and again I managed to put it all away but boy was I full! He returned and asked if I wanted a coffee. I said while I would love one, first I needed a siesta.
“Is there anywhere I could doze outside for half an hour without being a nuisance. I’d come back in later for my coffee.” I asked.
“By all means,” he said and went outside and round by the window and there set up a large sunshade and two chairs. He came back in and said all was ready for me if I would like to retire to the patio!
This was five star treatment, I went out and made myself comfortable in the shade and fell asleep. About half an hour later I returned inside and went through to the bar and got my large ‘Con Leche’ and felt like a million dollars. I asked for the bill,
“Six and a half Euro and one for the coffee.”
I don’t think I have ever had such value in a meal. This had to be a special meal for me as a Peregrino, how could I thank them? I would try my four leaf-clovers. I had seen the two lady cooks in the kitchen as I had gone through to eat. I gave the waiter two clovers from my book, where I kept them,
“Please give them to the cooks and thank them and say it had been the best meal I had in my time in Spain and I have walked over thousand kilometres.”
He beamed and showed half the bar before taking them into the kitchen and returning with the ladies and they thanked me personally. The bar folk all waved me off as I loaded up and set off again with my red flag flying, out the door and down the road.
I had about 10 kilometres to do I thought, it was pretty well all asphalt roads. I came onto the main road and crossed the highest bridge I had ever crossed in my life, it went from the top of a hill across the valley to the hill the other side.
Walking across it was quite terrifying and I thought of Brigitte my Swiss friend from the Vía Plata, she would have hated this. I was sure I should have taken a small road at the start of the bridge but there had been no arrows anywhere. It was spitting with rain and I was wearing my rain cape, every time a truck went by you felt you were going to be blown off. Half way across I stopped and took it off. Better to get wet if it did rain I decided. I got across and a little further on found an arrow painted on the left-hand side. I crossed over and climbed over the steel barrier and up an old track but the area had been recently logged. It was hard to follow the track and several new ones appeared on it that I ignored. Then I came to a place where I had a choice of four tracks. I reasoned that the oldest one would be the camino, the one with least tractor tyre marks. This I decided was the one, left of centre. I followed it and it went down into a gully then up the other bank and appeared to run round the hill in front of me. While obviously old it now looked like a walking track with overgrown saplings on either side growing from old stone walls. I kept going although there were no signs. Eventually it became a wider track and then it entered a small hamlet. I started to pass the houses and music blared from an upstairs window. I called out in Spanish and after two or three tries the prettiest of heads looked out of the window. I was dumb struck for a moment, Rapunsel smiled and asked what I wanted.“Is this Soto de Luiña?” I stammered unable to believe my eyes.
“No it isn’t,” she assured me “this is …… de Luiña.”
I was sure she said the same village name again but later I found there were several villages with Luiña in the name in the area. She went on to say Soto de Luiña was another two kilometres further on. I thanked her and blew her a kiss. She smiled and waved. In every other tiny hamlet like this one the young have moved out and left the wrinkled, weather beaten old folk to till the land. Out of the hamlet and soon into another, I asked a man. This time pointing across to a village over the valley, I asked
“Is that Soto de luiña?”
He shook his head and gave the same reply
“Two kilometres.”
Off I went and the track turned to the right and climbed the hill, I could see now it never went near the village I had pointed to. The road had become asphalt now and at the height of my climb, it turned right again, here was an arrow pointing left down a forest track but most surprisingly two men with rucksacks were walking to the same corner from the other direction.
“Hola Peregrinos” I hollered.
We met on the bend. They said they had been following the arrows.
“So have I,” I laughed “Whatever, we now go down there” I said pointing.
I discovered on asking where they were from, that one was a Dane and was walking from Irun, and the other had walked from Switzerland and that both spoke English. I had been a long time on my own and was pleased with their company as we headed off into the woods. As usual the two kilometres was three or more but they seemed to go quickly now I had company. In the village of Soto de Luiña I looked around for someone to ask about the albergue and saw the church was open. I went in, partly to look round as churches are kept locked most of the time. It was a lovely little church and two ladies were arranging flowers.
I asked about the albergue and was directed to the bar across the square. The two others joined me there, the girl behind the bar got us to sign the book and stamped our credentials while I sipped on a vino and the other two drank beers.
“Where is it?” I asked.
“Down the street, turn left opposite the Hotel and you will see it on your right.”
Well it was opposite the hotel but hidden behind a block of flats but there stood the old school building nicely painted in two colour blue.
We found the door and went in and selected our bunks. I chatted to a German girl who spoke English. Clean and chores done I went with her to shop and went back into the first bar. Here I met another German guy who chatted to the girl and the Dane, who also spoke German, so I got a little left out of the conversation. Sitting there I suddenly noticed some other people come in and I knew them!
For a moment I could not remember where, then the penny dropped. It was the barman and the two lady cooks from the bar ‘EL PITU’ that I had eaten so well at and given them the four-leaf clover. Well I suppose what had taken me most of the day to walk only took a few minutes in a car! I tried the hotel beer then I went back to the albergue and ate a banana and yoghurt, text Maisie and off to bed.
11th June
Soto de Luiña to Almuña near Luarca
The Spanish in the group were away by five thirty and the woman had snored as badly as Jake the German did.
The German girl and I were the last to leave, I left her sitting at the outside table and headed off but the bar lady had said use the roadway, not the mountain, but I was still unsure which way when the girl caught me up. We walked together till about ten thirty, then we came to a junction. We were following the arrows and here the track entered some fields and dived into the valley. She wanted to stay on the road. We both felt sure that it must meet the track further on. We asked some folk in a garden and were told both ways were ok, so she decided to go back and join the road while I took to the fields.
It plunged downward and across a stream then ran round the hillside through a dense forest. The path was very overgrown and I had to force my way through stinging nettles in many places but it was beautiful. This was real camino trekking and I loved it even if there were no signs.
At last the path crossed another stream and turned left up the steep valley wall and up a shoot onto the road. The sun was brilliant after the shadow in the thick forest.
Across the road in a field was a lady scything down grass with an old hand scythe. I called to her and asked if she had seen the girl yet as I felt the road had detoured much further inland to cross the main stream. She seemed pleased to stop and chat and told me she had not gone by. I asked her about the soil here and she informed me of how no one wanted to work the fields these days, saying everyone is making more money by selling the land and cottages and pointed out houses and the price they had been sold for. She was amazed how much Spanish I spoke and said many of the new comers could speak nothing but German or English. Then my walking partner came round the bend and the old lady went on to tell her how she had said she had not gone by and must turn up. We got away at last and walked on the quiet country road for an hour or so.
I found a number of wild strawberries that were nice. Much of the time I walked alone because she walked slower than me and I thought her talking English all the time might be tiring. We decided we would stop for a sandwich if we could find a suitable spot. In the next village we came to a nice green grass area with some fruit trees. The apples and quinces were not ripe but the shade was lovely. I pulled out my cape and settled under one tree and she under the next. It was a great place and we chatted and she said that she was having trouble with her ears and would like to find a doctor.
“Not much hope today, its Sunday” I said “but if we see a chemist sometimes they are open and can give advice.”
We left our spot with some reluctance and as we passed a bus stop she asked the women waiting if there was a doctor anywhere.
“Oh no dear, he only comes once a week.”
On being told the problem they went into great detail how to wash and clean your ears out! The young girls Spanish was pretty good and she turned to me and in English chuckled
“Did I hear that right she just told me to wash my ears out?”
We came to a café and went in for coffee. She asked again about a doctor but got the same reply.
As we sat down she said,
“I feel sort of off balance, I think I’ll try to get a lift to the next albergue.”
“You will be much more likely to get a lift if I’m not with you,” I answered and she agreed with me.
“Ok I’ll leave and go on first then.”
Jake the German arrived at the bar and downed a beer. I got up to go and he joined me and we left together leaving the lass still sitting at the table. I said goodbye, and set off again, this time with this big tough looking German guy.
We followed the road for miles. It was a nice walk for some time, with shady trees and nice views of the sea in the distance at times. Then more inland and tired we came into Piedras I think it is called. Here we asked for the albergue and were told to ask in a restaurant they said it had only cold water and few beds. We ate in the restaurant and met again the Spanish couple and the other Spaniard who seemed to always be with them. The meal was good and I felt refreshed but I did not like the idea of waking at five in the morning, which was the time they said they would leave. I turned to Jake
“I’m going on. It’s only twelve kilometres further, about half of what we have already done today. Then if the girl turns up, there will be plenty of beds” I added as an excuse.
Jake agreed to come too and we got up, paid and left. As we got outside the girl had appeared and was talking to the Spaniards, although I never discovered if she had walked or got a lift. We said goodbye and hit the road again. The first five were all right but then we began to get tired. On and on we went and started to ask the distance and so often got the three or four kilometres. We came to the coast and here we had three choices of track all marked. We took some photos of each other with the beach behind us then chose the beach way.
It proceeded to fork again and we chose the hill and forest way. Very steep and poorly marked we scrambled up banks and came onto the road again. We turned right, then Jake saw the track on the other side of the road. He shouted to me and pointed. I shouted back
“After that last forest of brambles I’m going to stick to the road!”
I was sure it must pass our destination. He turned and followed me up the hill as a stream of traffic came down the hill towards us. The black car that was leading passed me then opposite Jake it suddenly, with a squeal of brakes, slithered to a stop, while the other cars piled up all around it. The drivers proceeded to untangle the mess as the black car backed up to Jake and opened the front door and the rear windows wound down and arms came out waving apples! They gave him two lovely large ones and probably asked if he had enough water, I think. Jake speaks no Spanish and pretty poor English come to that so I’m not sure. Jake came on up to me carrying the apples beaming.
“Look” he laughed holding up the apples and passing one to me.
Meanwhile the car slammed its door and started to drive off and we both waved our thanks and they waved back. We stood there quite amazed that people would stop regardless of their own safety, and give apples to two scruffy looking Peregrinos!
“Must be my four leaf clovers again” I said, I had already given one to Jake earlier. We carried on and for the most part it was on the main road with little detours off that usually meant more distance to walk. We asked an old couple at one point. I was just about beaten.
“See the pines over there in the distance. You go the other side of them and turn left” they said “Two kilometres!"
Here we go again I thought! I was now power walking, jabbing my two sticks into the road and belting down the hill knowing that when I stopped this time I would be on the point of collapse. Jake was having a job to keep up, I saw a couple walking out of a turning and asked them the way and they directed us. They said
“Two kilometres!” and I gave her a four-leaf clover. She was thrilled with it and both came along and twice put us right. We left them at a street marked with an arrow and waved goodbye. We went through the village and out the other side, with me head down in the lead. There I could see the albergue painted blue again, on the other side of the motorway bridge.
A young man met us at the top of the steps and we went into the hall and filled in the forms and stamped the credentials, as I flopped into a chair. I must have looked nearly dead, I sure felt it!“Glass of water?” asked the girl with a worried expression.
“Thanks” I gasped while Jake filled in his name and details.
“There is no shop in the village, only an expensive
restaurant. Do you want to share our meal? We put in five Euro each to cover the cost.” said the girl
“We’d love to.”
“First you wash and rest” she said leading the way to the rooms.
The bathroom was just that, a normal house bathroom but no hot water. God it felt freezing to my hot body but I did it and felt better for it!
My pedometer was normally giving shorter distances than I had thought correct but after we had arrived it said twenty-one kilometres instead if twelve! We had a lovely meal with them and I sat watching the glorious sunset with the young lady hostelera and her friend afterwards. Suddenly I remembered I had not taken my pills this morning so went and took them and hoped for the best. Then they suggested if I wanted to leave a little later, that I should move to a different room where I could sleep in. I moved my gear out and slept well.
12th June
Almuña to Piñera
I left about seven thirty and felt very tired and slow. My hip was aching and I felt exhausted. It was probably missing my pill and taking more this morning that was the trouble. I came into a village before Pinera and stopped by a church to eat and sleep. Then the track left the road and went down into a valley and came to a very old washing trough hut, all over grown in a thick wood. There was a stream running by it, I turned left, and got over a fork of the stream and up the bank without falling in but the track just fizzled out. I looked around and decided to go back and look around the washing trough hut again. Sure enough on the far side of it a stone slab acted as a bridge and a narrow path went off to the right then up the hill. I came out onto the road between some cottages. On passing through I saw a lady on her porch and she told me to go up the hill to the long roof that we could just see and there I could get the key to the albergue. When I arrived I saw the three Spanish people, the early risers and they came with me into the house and the woman there stamped our papers and took our details. The others had been here earlier and had arranged to eat here. They said afterwards that it was one of the best meals of their camino. I took the key and walked quite a long way up and round the village then down to the old school that I now found on the main road. In the albergue I washed and showered and strung a line for my washing. I felt better now and thought I would go for a drink or a coffee. I walked back up the main road this time, but the only café was closed for good and when I got back up to the first cottages again I asked the same woman, who was now chatting with some others, where I might find a bar.
“There is none I’m afraid” she said “it closed some time ago.”
I walked back to the old school and let myself in and made a coffee then made vegetable soup and ate that. The Spaniards came back but they were not very talkative I thought. I had the feeling this was a pilgrimage for them and them only.
13th June
Piñera to Ribadeo
I was disturbed at four thirty as they left then awoke about six thirty and hit the road at seven ten. It was cool and cloudy as I plodded down the main road all day. I made good time and stopped at a big garage and used the toilets, I was having trouble with sweat and chafing in unspeakable places. A little Vaseline did the trick. I put on my big army rain cape that makes me look like batman, as it had and still was threatening to rain. I then spotted a two star hotel. As there were several trucks outside I presumed the food would be good and went into the foyer. My! I suddenly realised it was posh! I asked the woman in the reception if I could have a meal. She looked me up and down, raised her eyebrows a little but said yes, go through to the dining room. I removed my cape, dumped my rucksack and staffs in the corner of the entrance foyer behind a door, and went into the dining room and was shown a table. I had a very nice meal amongst the other businessmen and their secretaries.I asked the garage attendant if I could cross the bridge at Ribadeo just in case it was a motorway bridge with no pedestrians. He confirmed that I could get across. So now I knew that when I came to the big junction I should turn right, as that way was considerably shorter. Both ways were main roads and I hadn’t seen a marker for a long time. I stopped in one little village for groceries and a coffee in a little shop and eventually crossed the wide river bridge into Ribadeo.
At the end of the bridge I found an arrow to the right. As the town was on my left I asked at a small workshop where the albergue was, I was very tired, I’d done about thirty-six kilometres.“It’s five hundred meters further on, on the bank of the river” he said pointing to a side road that ran back towards the river.
The albergue was great, facing the beautiful river and estuary that looked like a large crystal lake. The place was filling up with pilgrims of all races. Jake was here and the Dane and the Swiss chap. Later came a elderly English couple, in the corner next to us were two Spaniards, on top bunk a green peregrino starting out and underneath was a man from Galicia. Two French ladies who I would get to know well later on arrived, that meant all bunks were taken.I had taken a top bunk over Jake. I showered, washed my gear and hung out the washing only to have to dash out again and put it under the shelter of the building as it suddenly poured with rain. It soon stopped and I went then into town to get films onto disc. I saw Jake in a bar with the other two as I waited for the disc so I had a beer with them. It rained again and people were walking down the old street with coloured umbrellas and I took some photos as I left. From there I got the credential stamped at the tourist office by a lady that the Dane said I could not make smile, he won that bet. But I did get her to speak about the massive model frigate that stood behind her!
I picked up my films and returned to the albergue, two more had arrived and a bit of argument about beds. The bunks were terribly rickety and all were on the point of collapsing, I had heard the ladies say they would prefer to sleep on the lounge sofa, anyway the men took the bunks. I had my own problems as I had lost my hat and couldn’t find it, I dashed out again, and asked in all the places I had visited only to return to find it in my bag!
I lay down to rest and was disturbed by the Galicano as he came in with his friend and I had a few strong words with him. He came into the dormitory talking with his Spanish friend, telling him what to do. He acted as if he knew how to behave in an albergue, and stated in a loud voice that he wasn’t going to bed till eleven o’clock tonight, waking everyone who was resting in the process. I informed him that some of us had walked thirty-five kilometres and were entitled to some peace and if he was going to chat, the lounge was the place.
When he did return later he was much quieter but then snored like a steam train all night
