Today was 20 miles, giving a total of 352 miles walked. While a very long stage, the countryside was beautiful and the coastline was visible just a couple of miles to our right hand side, so we enjoyed most of the walk. To be fair, the last few miles were mostly about where IS this place we’re staying at?

Two things to note. When walking on the Camino, it is very important to keep your head up and look for signs of where the Camino goes. It is very easy to miss an indicator that the trail goes to the left or to the right, etcetera. Here’s a photo of a Camino indicator which can easily be missed unless you’re paying attention. For the last three hundred miles I’ve been thinking of photographing some of the poorest signs, and haven’t done it. So we’ll have to settle for this one, which is really not too bad.

The last thing is all about horreos. During the Middle Ages, when rodents or a significant problem, horreos were a great idea. We have yet to see a rodent, chipmunk, squirrel, or any animal like that in Spain in eight weeks of walking. Yep, the Spaniards continue to build horreos. They do look pretty interesting, though.

The internet is not good, so I will stop the post here. Thank you for being a part of our journey.

Another 10 miles in the bank, bringing the walking total to 332 miles.  A quick note about this Strava screenshot, it appears that I am not the only one using Strava on the Camino Del Norte. If you look just below the map on the screen shot, you will see one other person noted. Apparently this other person recorded their walk, which was the same as Diane and my walk, on Strava today.

Today was a short walk, and an easy walk. Not a lot of elevation change nor 20 miles to cover. After reading this post, it occurs to me that any hike that burn 1700 calories cannot be considered an easy hike. I guess we have become numb to the distances.

The route traveled through forested hills,  and then into open meadowland,  and then the spectacular view of the coast as we approached the town of Luarca.

It appears that we have only two more days of walking along the coast and then we turn south towards Santiago de Compostela. We will do our best to enjoy the coastal views while we have them, and look forward to our midpoint between the coast and Santiago, Sarria, where we meet Willow.

We just finished a wonderful lunch. We have become rather accustomed to finding a local grocery store and purchasing a baguette and some local cheese, some turkey and something to drink. With these, we make an outstanding lunch in about a quarter of the time it takes to order, eat, and then pay the bill at a restaurant. While we enjoy the restaurants here, day after day waiting for the bill can get a little long in the tooth.

We hope all is well with you.

12 miles hike today, bringing our total to 322 miles hiked overall.

If there is one feature that describes today, it would be up and down. We followed the coast for many miles.  Rather then tracing the outline of the coast, we dropped down into each cove. It really was beautiful, as each cove had a stream flowing into the ocean. It did however, make for a very interesting elevation profile. It looks like the teeth on a buzz saw. That profile is the reason why we ended up with nearly 2300 feet of climbing in only 12 miles. Several of our fellow peregrinos made the decision to stay on the road at one elevation rather than dropping down into the coves. While it no doubt saved them some climbing, they missed sights such as this.

One of our fellow peregrinos who did hike down into these coves agreed to capture a picture of Diane and I crossing one of the streams at the bottom of one of these coves.

And like the story that won’t go away, the effects of the rainfall and flooding last Thursday are still evident. Here is another large tree that fell down across the trail.

And a final note to our friends Doug and Kathy Brownell, who joined us in France for the trip on the River Lot. When we left the boat, we took the last can of tuna. After carrying it for over three hundred and twenty miles through Spain, Diane and I finally opened the can and enjoyed the tuna. Here’s to you, Kathy and Doug, for letting us have the last can of tuna. And more importantly, for joining us on that wonderful Adventure in France! 

So ends another day, our chores await. You all are in our thoughts and prayers.

7 miles of hiking today, by far our shortest day. Our total of miles walked is now 310. Here’s the map in the stats: 

If you are a detail minded person, you may notice a bit of a zigzag in our path from Cudillero (to the right) to Soto de Luina (to the left). Here’s the story: Cudillero is not actually on the Camino. Therefore, this morning we needed to free-form from our hotel to the Camino. We could just backtrack, but that would be too simple. It would also require about 2 extra kilometers from what should be the most direct route. In looking at the guide book map in detail, and our GPS function on Bill’s cell phone, we were able to come pretty close to where the Camino should be. Thus, the zig zag you note, is Bill searching for indications of the Camino. With a little patience, we found it and we were on our way on the correct trail.

Before diving into the day’s hike, there are some highlights from Cudillero we should note. Almost immediately out of our hotel was a tunnel that was dug through solid rock. This 200 meter long tunnel redirected the local stream to the seashore,through the tunnel,  and allowed development of the former stream bed for town use. Alongside the stream is a very limited walking. Here’s Diane working her way through that tunnel:  The local coast and town, in typical Spanish fashion, are beautiful.

Now on today’s hike: one feature we’ve noted in many of these beautiful valleys we travel through in Spain, is the use of Viaduct  to level out  the freeway which passes nearby. While freeways in themselves are not beautiful things, the viaducts are actually very impressive as they cross above the valleys . 

Because we are still near the coast, the Camino must pass by an obligatory Coastal View which is spectacular.

And of course, the occasional stream should be highlighted, too.

And just to demonstrate that there really were two of us hiking, here is a selfie: 

So, what do we do with the extra time when we have a short day? We doing laundry, we wash ourselves, and we walk about town. Actually, Diane typically tracks the distance we walk after we get done with our daily walks. We average almost 3 miles of walking in the evenings. Not so bad after an average of 16 miles per day of walking!

We hope everybody is enjoying this beautiful Sunday morning. See you Monday.

Another 18 miles today, making the walking total 303 miles overall. So, here are the stats on today: 

It was interesting to look at a map of Spain to see how much of the northern coast we have covered. Below, is a map of Spain. The red dot indicates where we started in Irun Spain. The blue dot indicates where we currently are.

Today was an example of how to get lost in Spain. The Camino passed immediately below our hotel. We know exactly where to find it. Or so we thought. Yep, within a hundred yards, we were lost. Fortunately, the combination of the guidebook and Bill’s Google Maps on his phone allowed us to relocate the Camino about a half mile from where we lost it. No awards for that maneuver.

The rainstorm from 2 days ago continued to be the number one topic on the Camino, both for pilgrims and for locals. This photo shows the washout on the trail from the rainstorm, and two downed trees from that storm. It definitely was a significant storm on Thursday.

Thank you for being a part of our adventures so far. We are now going to search out an evening meal and find out where the trail starts for tomorrow. Hopefully we can follow it for more than a hundred yards before losing it!

Greetings. Today was a 16 mile hike, and giving us a total of 286 miles walked so far. Here’s the data: 

We delayed the start of today’s hike until 9:30. The hope was to avoid the lingering rain. As we stepped outside, this is what we saw: 

Yes indeed, it’s sunshine! Just to make sure we didn’t get too cocky, about 15 minutes after this photo it rained for about 10 minutes. That was it for today. What a gift!

The views through this region continue to be beautiful.

There are some unique architectural features in this region. The first is an Horreo. This is a building built on stilts, with very narrow tops set on platforms and is used for storage of grain. The intent was to keep the varmints out. This Horreo  has been modified with a staircase accommodate varmints, or in-laws who decide to visit. 

The second architectural structure is a lavadero. This concrete structure serves as a community clothes washing room. 

One other thing of note is this unusual flower that Diane found on the hike. If any of our readers know what type of flower this is, please let us know.

Yesterday, revisited: After spending hours upon hours trying everything that we own last night, Diane and I had a conversation about what worked and what didn’t work yesterday. We both really felt exhilarated with hike, and the dynamic weather, but decided that a little exhilaration goes a long way. Yep, we will enjoy the next time it happens, but we will also not hope for the next time too soon.

Our second observation has to do with the nuclear option. You really have to have an ultimate weapon, when all else fails, to rain of yesterday’s intensity. Diane carried a poncho but didn’t use it. Bill does not currently own a poncho, but will buy one for occasions like that. Both of us have vowed to use the Poncho when weather conditions are like yesterday.

We continue to meet very interesting people on the Camino. Diane and I call them God’s appointments. Someday, we will tell the stories. Today is not that day.

Hope all is well for everyone at home.

18 miles hiked, for a total of 270 miles hiked, overall. I will try a new feature here. I will include a map of the route we walked and some of the statistics.

The forecast for the last 3 days has been for rain. Originally, Thursday was supposed to e the day it started to ease. We woke up to the following forecast: 

It did not disappoint! It rained all but 15 minutes of our 7 hour hike. At one point, the wind on the top of the ridge was over 40 knots. We thought we were back on our sailboat!

As we approached Gijon, the deluge let loose. It rained buckets and the streets were flooded, and our shoes were working unsuccessfully as boats, fording the streams. And then, with the hotel in sight, the rain stopped! We saw glimpses of blue off to the horizon. 7 hours of rain and now it wants to stop?

Diane and I were mostly prepared for this weather. For the first time in the hike we chose to use our rain pants. Diane is convinced that in addition to her rain pants and rain jacket, next time she will be using her Poncho. Without question, this was the most significant rainfall we have encountered in eight weeks of hiking on various Caminos.

It wasn’t all about the rain. Villaviciosa is the Apple capital of Spain. We hike through Orchard after Orchard of beautiful apple orchards, and gorgeous valleys. I risked my phone in the rain to capture this shot.

It doesn’t do justice to just how beautiful these valleys are.

One other note, during our hike we reached the junction where the Camino Del Norte splits. If you go straight you will reach Santiago by way of the Del Norte. If you turn left, you will travel on the Camino Primitivo. If you miss this Junction, you may find yourself in a place you never intended to be!

We are slowly warming up after the long soggy day. We hope all is well with you.

We are still at 252 miles hiked. Today was our scheduled rest day, and we are working hard at doing just that.

In planning the next day’s hike, there are three things that we typically do. The first is to review the guide book to better understand what course is ahead of us and any special planning we might need.

The above is a snapshot of the primary guide that we use. This is supplemented with an online guide written in Spanish (Gronze.com) which is very helpful also.

The next thing we do is look for the location of the hotel at our next stop, using Google Maps. While we do not have a data or cell plan for Europe, when we are near the internet (wifi) we can access more complete map information from Google Maps. One feature of Google Maps is that, once the info is seen, it then stores that more detailed information in local memory which can be accessed even when on the road. Below is a snapshot of Gijon and our hotel location. 

As we approach the town, Bill pulls out his phone and uses the GPS locator as a tracking device to match our location with a hotel location. Normally, it works very well.

We say normally, because every once in awhile there is a town that Google Maps hasn’t quite figured out. Celorio was one such town. The snapshot below shows what Google Maps believes to be the roads around our hotel Pension Mariaje.

As we approached from the right of that screen shot, it looked like we had many possibilities to reach Pension Mariaje. In fact, most of the roads shown did not exist. And many others that aren’t shown did exist. And those that did exist are only slightly larger than goat trails. We ended up having to go to the major highway (below) which we knew existed and then come around from the left. It worked. And, one error out of almost three weeks is not too bad.

The third thing we do every evening is to stake out where the Camino leaves the town. It is challenging to wake up in the morning all dressed up to hike and no idea where to go. Net, we always look for the arrows out of town. We are blessed in that this hotel, Carlos I, is right on the Camino. In fact, the Camino indicators are literally right at the hotel.

In closing, this has been a good stay in Villaviciosa, which is celebrating this week. In the main plaza they had local dancing. it was very fun to watch.

Tomorrow we resume the hike, and we expect a great deal of rain. We still intend to thoroughly enjoy yourselves.

Hope all is well with each of you. God bless, Bill and Diane.

Today was 23 miles covered, but 0 miles credited. Our total remains at 252 miles hiked.

Well, the bus is not a bad way to see Spain, though it doesn’t allow much in the way of photo opportunities. Because of the challenges with Bill’s foot, we took the bus to allow 2 rest days. Net,  we are now in Villaviciosa, without breaking a sweat.

We learned something else: The value of our labor.  The train we took in Santander cost about 1 Euro for 10 kilometers traveled. Our bus today cost about 4 Euro for 40 kilometers traveled.  Net, walking 10 kilometers is only worth 1 Euro. Now,  10 kilometers is about 6 miles,  which take us about 2 hours to walk. Doing the math, our walking time is worth about 0.50€ per hour! Maybe we need another profession!?

God bless, Bill and Diane

Today was 16 miles, bringing the total to 252 miles. That is a bit of a milestone as it is roughly halfway to Santiago.

The Northern Camino has many distinct features. One is the presence of numerous Coastal villages. It makes sense that this is where many of the new world explorers came from.

Another feature of the North Coast is the constant presence of the Pico Europas, the mountain range that separates the central portion of Northern Spain from the rest of Spain. It was this mountain range that provided pilgrims protection against the Moors during the early centuries of pilgrimages.

Ranching is extremely important in this area of Spain. You go nowhere without seeing pasture lands. 

And of course, these are always occupied by cows, sheep, horses. here is one peeking over the bush, looking for a handout!

Yet another feature is that it is occupied by signs of interesting pilgrims. We have met a host of them on this journey, and sometimes they leave their mark.This is apparently the mark from several pilgrims.

You are never far from the train on the Camino. The route taken by the pilgrims through the centuries favored the easiest path. Not surprisingly, when Spain determined to build their rail system, they chose a path not far from the Camino. You are never far from the Train. If you look carefully at this picture, you will see the yellow arrow indicating to get off the track!

And of course, what would the North Coast be without beaches. As we arrived in Ribadesella, we were greeted to a phenomenal beach at the river’s mouth to the Sea. 

Regarding Bill’s foot, it made the 16 miles today, with Diane and Bill hiking about 10% slower to reduce the stress on the foot. However, it definitely needs a rest. The plantar is acting up and if it gets worse there will be no more Camino. As a result, we will take the bus tomorrow to our next stop. The day after that is our only scheduled rest stop. That will give two days off his foot and hopefully it will allow him to recover and continue the journey. There are no promises on the Camino, but there are gifts. We have enjoyed the gift of this Camino so far.