Month: June 2014

30.06.14 Monday Barro to Ribadesela.
The morning surge of energy and speed is a bit limited by photo ops today ss some nice reflections of a church and village catch everyones eye. A shrine to St Roche prompts Ray to ask why in different bits of statuary dotted across the landscape he is not consistent in the leg (left or right) or even the thigh or shin for his plague induced sore. One of his stories is being fed by a all dog while recovering from plague. On recieving no adequate response Ray labels him a hypochondriac or even a lead swinger. He is demoted in our personal pantheon.

The day progresses scross the 10-20 wide shelf og farmland between the sea and the start of the Picos. The first of these rise to about 500m hiding mostly the still snowy peaks behind. We pass an albergue with a distance to Santiago 405 km a reminder of only 3 more weeks to go.
A ruined monastry is atmospheric with back lit early sun and a large wall piece of ceramic tiles catch the eye.
We get to Ribadesela in time for a good 10 euro lunch and cross the modern bridge to the campsite which in contrast to last night is virtually deserted.

A bit more than expected 27km not a lot of up and down.

.06.14 Sunday Perdueles to Baro..
We are up at dawn the rain stopped in late evening and the night was fine and dry. Druy tents whooo! Today is Sunday we are gradually realising its Spanish significance. Unlike France shops are often not shut along this coast though since campsites are often week end chalets snd permanents there is a general exodus in the evening and camp bsrs snd shops tend to shut early. There are several villages and a decent town on our route todsy so we have light packs to start with. The air is clear and the Picos de Europa are very clear some ggreat views slong the cliff top path. This limestone country snother similarity to Somerset as well as a cider making heritage. We are alertred to the main attraction of the day by a booming noise. The Bufon de Arenillas blow holes and sinks in the limestone permit the swells grom the Mar Cantabrico or Bay of Biscay to surge up enlafrged cracks in gthe 20m cliffs and produce this noise. Even today with a calm sea it is very loud. With a rough sea waves must surge out of the holes with a noise audible for a mile or more. The route is along the e9 waymarked in the GR style and a grand march across cliff tops it is. We soon get to Llanes a town noted for some Spanish clonial architecture and get coffee and shopping. We intend a menu de dia and a snack evening some shopping is done. And a few more kms and we reach Celorio wirh two campsites within a km or two. The restaurants are set to cater for the sunday trade and we fail to find one that suits. Some more shopping and we are set for anevening meal some two good menus appear. Suddenly we are on a campsite, it is where we are heading. We go to reception and fill inpasport forms etc and get sellos (stamps) for all. We are then told there is no charge for those on foot on Camino. Tony and Tim have only encountered this once before in northern France we express gratitude and thanks and are shown a tight little pitch it is about all that is left on this site of permanent caravans. But hey its free, but the hot water for the showers is not! Some tough it out others get tokens.
22 km less than 600m up and down

28.06.14 Saturday Pechon to Perdueles.
Today we don’t want to go too far Ray needs a recovery day, there are limits to what Voltarol and Compeed can achieve. Heavy rain is forecast for the afternoon and it is always nice to have a patch of dry ground under the tent. So a merr 18 km is arranged the site has 2014 prices on the internet so it probably exists. The night was dry the tents nearly and Ray feels good so off we go. We can see the edge of the Picos de Europa and rapidly cross over the border from Cantabria to Asturias. It is cloudy and cool so us northern Europeans are racing along. The coast route not only hasthe Camino and the littlwcaostal slow train that brought Geof to us yesterday but until today there has also been a new motorway. The current extent of this has now been reached and we pass under a new bridge not yet in use on an old bearing the camino. Bridges as important in this part of Spain as ever.
Betsy biys a new mug. Up till now she has been using a beaker bought early on our Via de la Plata trip but it is tapered and tends to fall over in the mornings. She hopes to find it a home at a spring/fuente along the Way.

We arrive by 12 at the first possible campsite it is open and in its own little cove. Apparently more costly than the next but Ray needs consideration and the rain is on the way. As ever drying washing is the problem and it becomes a fine judgement when the washing on the line under the tree is getting wetter or dryer!
A lovely site pity about the weather.
16 km a little bit of up and down

To make clearer the reference to duck kennels yesterday.

27.06.14 Friday. Comillas to Pechon.
Sad to leave Comillas a very nice place with excellent sardines. Quite apart from the architecture. Geof is in Bilbao and will meet us tomorrow evening. Only problem is even we dont know where. But hey we set off following the nice yellow arrows an concrete stones provided by Cantabria and soon point a Germsn girl in the right direction. First rule of pilgriming always make sure you know where you are syarting tomorrow. We are ok thete its the finish that’s a problem. We know where there are stations Geof can arrive at and where thereay be campsites. Fortunately texts and good fortune stitch it all together and by the second third campsite ( first two closed for good as suspected for first but only dicoveted for second in a bar 500m away). Still three is good and had a shop and good wifi even if their pricing sustem means its a bit dear. Most of the day again on tarmac and over two significany estuary bridges one dating from15thC.
We see some renovated old churches and a bolas arena. Bolad seems to be a popular village sport played with skittles snd large wooden balls the arena belonged to s top legue te and it seems popular round here. We saw man making the kit in his garage yesterday.
Another echo from yezterday were the greylag geese and other waxers in the estuaries and reserves we crossed compared to the duck kennels of the day before.

All in all a tough day and Ray is suffering with a large bister and an opposite shin splint, both dealt with by typical medical self prescription. It’raining here now and not a Wimbledon how wrong is that?
Eventualy 31 km and less than 1000m up and down. Oh and Geof arrived in time for dinner with beer and a new sleeping bag liner for Tim. Thanks to all involved in getting it here. His feet no longer stick out the bottom end.

26.06.14 Thursday Santilla del Mar to Comillas.
After a good night with a quiet site which switched out its lights at 11pm we are up and off by 0700. A day of mainly tarmac ewith occasional steep slippy concrete plus a coouple of short grit tracks, not great walking but enlivened by the gastropods all out after the nights rain, and sightings of what we all now agree are cattle egrets. These small white herons have extended their range from central Spain up to the north coast.
Along the way we pass a large ecclesiastical building of some importance with an interesting pilgrim statue, a Carmelite barefoot convent and a lovely little chapel dedicared to St Roque our saint for the journey. When we arrive in Comillas we find it has a small lighthouse just outside an expensive bar and a Guadi house. His first we later discover covered in sunflowers. Before that there is the possibly best graveyard ever on the top of a hill constructed from the remains of an old church and some great marble sculptures. All this in a small seaside town, back to camp for a rest.
20 km less than 500m up and down

25.06.14 Wednesday Mogro to Santilla del Mar

We were left completely to our own devices last night our rooms on a converted stable block and a courtyard. The staff took the night off! Up and off by just after 7 with only 20km to cover to get to the Caves of Altamira just outside S del M. Those with a working knowledge of human prehistory our the 70s band Steely Dan may recognise these as some of the finest paeleolithic cave paintings in Europe. Sadly too much interest started to dammage them and the originals are now sealed but an excellent museum and identical reproductoon onsite is well worth a visit.
The walk to get there was nothing special mostly tarmac anfd a grit road alongside a pipeline probably gas from the port on the coast, 10km away even with the name. The 12thC Abbey and older remains of christian roman parts is also worth a visit though the thin marble windows are not as fine as those in Aragon. The campsite materialises on time and in town as well as many excellent Menu de Dias a shop for replacement pilgrims feet, well this is an old and important pilgrim town!
20 km little up and down.

24.06.14 Tuesday. Santander to Mogro.

Geof is joining us tomorrow and flies today. We are organised in that we have 40plus km to the next campsite, and that is really too far for one day. We have booked by, Tony via internet a posada ( small country b&b) for tonight. We do not expect a great day, having most of Santander and its outskirts to traverse from the campsite by the lighthouse on the tip of the peninsular. The route once we have found a cafe open at 7.30, and negociated downtown Santander and found a few yellow arrows, flows smoothly. A second coffee, and a pastry for Betsy and we are through the industrial sector and on country lanes, crossing the small gauge coast railway whose drivers make a practice of cheerfully hooting at pilgrims as they pass. Our only other interedt the quality of the manhole covers with even the newest ones boldly imprinted with the coatof arms of Santander. The two UFOs in the sky are the heads of two third century martyrs associated with the city St Emeterio and St Celedonio ( we had never heard of them either).
This railway provides a shortcut and a little entertainment for the day as its bridge cuts 5km off our route, no trains perturb our passage and just as we arrive in Mogro and Tim gets a text from Geof who is at the flight gate in the UK and has just learnt his flight is cancelled. To soon to say when he will join us but possibly not tomorrow.
All in all a fairly benign stretch of tarmac and arrrival at 1230 for lunch in a nice bar restaurant followed by some small difficulty finding our lodging which eventually appears up a hill to one side of the small town. The humidity is rising and we are glad to stop for the day.
24.5 km and less than 400m up and down

23.06.14 Monday. Campsite near Bareyo to Santander.

The only thing wrong with the campsite which saw great use on Sunday afternoon and everyone going home in the evening from the large field of static caravans and chalets was the lack of water in the toilet block in the morning we were not alone and s native soon had the camp team out on the yellow quad bike sorting it so Betsy at least had hot water before we left. An easy 9-10km down country lanes with the occssional school bus and a stop outside a nice little chapel sees us on the cliff path to Somo where another little passenger ferry (our third on this coast) takes ud over to the city of Santander. We start to walk in the direction of the the campsite hoping to see a tourist office but are soon in the metropolis of Santander. On our way through we get a fair 9 € three course lunch with vinho and press on to the campsite.
This is by the park beach and lighthouse at the end of the peninsila on which Dantander stands and does not allow dogs and had a separate area for those without vehicles. An excellent site.
The sea cliffs and little coves in the 5km streach of cliff plus the 4km beach are lovely, clean with clear blue water. Tim wants to go diving. But has to be content with a 4km paddle.
An easy 28km with maybe 6km by boat across Santander harbour no real up and down but 700m logged on GPS

22.06.14 Sunday Domingo. Laredo to Bareos.

A pleasant day that has gone to plan, well almost. The most efficient of the routes forwardto Santader is to the end ot the peninsular or sand and hotels that is the northern extension to Laredo and catch the little passenger ferry over to Santona and along the coast first road and then over a steep headland to the long excellent beach leading to Noja. It is anice day and Sunday the beach has a great nber of people enjoying it but since it is about 4km long it cannot be crowded, a majority are in the end near the town and much fewer in the larger part over the small stream flowing across the sand. The only hitch was the ferry did not start until 9am not 8as we had optimisticslly hoped.
We see occasional black kites and coffee and beer are available at stated intervals. After getting bread in Santona and some sandwich filling we are organised for a Sunday walk in Spain. After lunch in the shade by a restored hermitsge we press on the last 5 km to the campsite. An unexpected bar gets us a beer it would be stupid tp refuse in Ros Tavern witha lot of diving memorabilia and some noyices in English. We do not inquire after Ros but hurry on to Los Molinas campsite which is open and has a pool for Ray.
Three thirty in a campsite after a Geoffrey has our luck changed?
24km less than 500m up and down on a dat with temps only in the low twenties