7th June

7th June
Vilela - Lourenza 21k

Well last night was hilarious.  We thought we were at Fawlty Towers.  It turns out our Albergue was also run by the bar/restaurant.  This was almost the only building in town and no where else to go so we were stuck there.  The bar owner finally processed the 16 of us who were getting cold and hungry into the albergue that could have done with a good clean.  Then we waited until 8pm to order dinner.  That's how it is in Spain and this part of the Camino is not so 'pilgrim' friendly so that's when dinner so we have to like it or lump it.

We went through to the dining room which was quite pleasant in comparison to the rest of the place.  Our waiter ran around in and out if a flapping door dumping plates in front of us taking orders and rushing back to the kitchen yelling frantic orders.  It was very funny.   Our food once delivered in a flurry of activity was actually quite nice.  We then hurried back to the Albergue that was behind the bar to go to sleep. 

We woke and put our things away before starting out on a nice cool day.  We're in the mountains now so we did quite a few climbs.  There were no bars to stop  at along the way so we had breakfast in a little grotty park and a bit later some snacks by a graveyard.  After about 14k we found a bar and had the best coffee we've had in ages.  It was our first for the day and it was lunch time so of course it was good.  We had a nice bacon baguette (bocadillo) before heading off for the last push to where we are tonight.  It's clean, we've showered and I've fumigated everything so things are looking up.  I should say that our walk today was lovely even with all the climbing and lack of bars. We had some lovely views when we weren't in the forest, a eucalyptus forest actually, but that's another story. Jon joined us again today which was lovely and our German friend Biata has just arrived.  We'll find the others later and we'll see what happens tonight. 

6th June

6th June,
Tapiia to Vilela.  20k

We had a lovely dinner last night even though we had to wait until 8.30pm.  This is how it is in Spain.  We have been lucky mostly and been able to get dinner at 7.30 but not the last few nights.  Anyway while we waited we were gradually joined by more of our Camigos until there were 10 of us.  So we didn't notice our stomachs grumbling and eventually enjoyed a very nice dinner before heading home to our donativo albergue where we had a fairly good night's sleep.

We woke to a wet and windy day so popped on our rain gear and headed out.  Our new friend Jon joined us today and it was lovely to have his company on our walk.  We had to backtrack a bit and take a main road due to some interesting way marking but it was all ok in the end.  The toughest part for me was walking over a very long 500m and very high bridge in very strong wind.  I thought that would never end.

We have arrived in a little town and we're in another albergue with 20 beds which is starting to fill up with Italians.  Dinner is at 8pm so we're feeling lucky.

5th June

5th June
Navia to Tapia 20k

We started out on a drizzly day.  It wasn't enough to really even get wet to start with just enough to keep us cool.  The rain eventually got heavy enough to put on our ponchos but not for too long so the conditions weren't too bad.

We did a lot of  walking on the road today which was better than muddy slippery paths.  Along the way we found a bar/restaurant and decided to stop for lunch.  We had the menu of the day which consisted of a lovely vegetable soup for me and a chicken broth and pasta for Fuzz followed by really nice meat balls in sauce with chips (everything comes with chips here) followed by a very nice cake and wine and water all for 8 euros each
What a bargain.  The problem was we still had to walk 7k more to reach our albergue.  Which is in a great location on top of a cliff overlooking the sea.  It's a shame the only windows are too high to be able to see anything from and we're sharing our room with 30 others.  It's going to be an interesting night.

4th June

4th June Luarca to Navia 21k

Last night was an incredible evening talking with our fellow pilgrims over a lovely dinner.  We shared some wonderful conversations with our Camino friends... Peter from Germany,  Tighe from Ireland, Jon the Vicar from England and the German girls who we get to know a little better each time we meet.  There were some very deep conversations and we were so engrossed we almost missed the lock out time for our Albergue where we stayed which is 10 pm.  We rushed home like guilty teenagers.  Phew we just made it in time.  Our room had 24 beds and it was reasonably quiet through the night.

Quite a nice day walking in the countryside.  A few rolling hills nothing too major.  Just as it started to get a bit too hot a nice breeze turned up in the nick of time.   It was mostly rural no views if any note but a pleasant day.  We found our accommodation without too much hassle and we're very grateful to have a nice place tonight as we're very tired.  It wasn't long until the predicted thunderstorms arrived.   Just as well we didn't linger too long this morning as some people will be out walking in this.

3rd June

3rd June
Cadavedo to Luarca 18k

Last night ended brilliantly.  After a nice dinner in a bar with some pilgrim friends we headed back to our accommodation.  The lovely lady who looked after us there was disappointed we hadn't made our way to  the Hermita and the beautiful view.  She bundled us up in the car and drove us the 1k so we didn't miss out.  It was 10pm and still enough light so see the incredible view. We're so glad she insisted we go as we really would have missed out if we'd hadn't  gone.

This morning started off with a scrumptious breakfast prepared by our hostess before we headed out on a pleasant walk through the woods and lanes.  It wasn't long before we came across Peter from Germany who works for the same company as me there.  Then we came across Tighe, our Irish friend who we'd met last night.  We all walked along together chatting and passing the time until we arrived in this seaside town.  It's not particularly pretty but interesting enough.  We got ourselves settled in our relatively new albergue and now we're just chilling.

2nd June

2nd June
Soto de Luina to Cadavedo 22k

Back to the sea views today and muddy forest.  We had quite a bit of climbing and descending on what would have been lovely forest paths had it not been for yesterday's rain.  It made for muddy slippery paths a lot of the time but some of the views were very worth it.  At one stage we had the option to take a 1k detour to Playa del Silencio.  It was an amazing view and I'm glad we took the extra k's to see it and as usual the photos don't even come close to what we saw. 

We  did some more muddy climbs and descents before we came to another secluded beach with more visual delights.  Climbing back to the road from there was an adventure.  The path was barely visible it was so overgrown with weeds and stinging nettles.  It was after that we decided to keep to the road before we arrived at tonight's accommodation.

Tonight we learn about life in Spain as part of a Spanish family and this is a lovely place with very lovely people.   Watch this  space!

1st June

1st June
Soto de Luina.

It was lovely to arrive here.  It was a wet day but had dried up and the sun was trying to break out when we got to our lovely accommodation.  We had no wifi and no mobile signal so we were totally 'disconnected'....fantastic.  we sat on our little balcony looking at the swaying trees listening to the birds and a babbling stream.

We went to dinner and found Natas a Spanish pilgrim we've been seeing from the beginning but lost almost a week ago.   We also found an older German guy who we've also seen and lost but not had much of a conversation with yet.  His name was Edgar and a nuclear physicist.  We also shared our table with an IT guy called Peter from Germany who works for Bayer.  Small world eh?  He thought I was joking when I told him that I too work for Bayer.  I just love this stuff.