Sunday the 17 Jun - Tapia to Ribadeo

Woke up at 2:30 to use the washroom and didn't get back to sleep until 4:30. There were  couple of big snorers in the refugio. Oh well. Woke up at 7:30 and Surprize.... Maureen was already up, along with almost everyone else in the place, and almost ready to go. I was up and ready to go by 8. It worked out well.

Nice morning. Sunny. We followed the road 2 kilometers out of town to the highway and then looked closer at the guidebook and realized that the road out of town would take us inland to the old original camino. Maureen wanted to follow the coast trail so we walked 2 kilometers back into town which didn't bother me as it was a beautiful morning and we passed a few things that most tourists might not see, like the cemetery.

Maureen was upset but she got over it soon enough. There were not alot of shells or arrows in town but we did find our way to the trail.
A nice walk up to and along the sea walk, past the very impressive beach, down the road across the river?, it was the smallest river I have ever seen, small creeklet  (is that word?)  a wet ditch maybe.  I don't want to insult anyone who might be proud of their river, but.... really? We followed the route E9 which according to the guide book was the leisure road, the pretty road, the quiet road. And so it was.
The trail was lovely, almost all on quiet back roads, through hamlets and farms and clearly marked with yellow arrows if there were no shells.

The road was alternately flat with fields on either side and no trees or gently curving roads winding through little hills with lots of trees and bush.

We saw herds of dairy cows quietly chewing their cud. One cow came running across the field and followed us for the length of the field. A very curious cow. The whole area seemed to be a dairy sort of place. Lots of small farms with milking barns and all of the accompanying aromas involved with that industry. They do have great cheese in the area.

Actually, everywhere I have been Spain has great cheese. Happy curious cows make great cheese.
 Some bikers passed us and disappeared very quickly. There are lots of ways to travel the Camino. Bike, horse and walking.  So far we had seen bikers and walkers but we never saw any horses that were part of the camino. The countryside of the north coast is very pretty.

 Lots of narrow roads with forks in them to make us wonder which way to go but our friendly arrows and shells kept us on course.
There was an old monastery but i don't know if it was still active as a monastery as it was all locked up.

 We passed some german pilgrims who had left the refugio a little earlier than we did. They had stopped to take a break  at a little collection of houses/farms. I could not see a refugio or cafe but there was a bench.
 We only saw one or two pilgrims on the first two days of our walk and today we were seeing lots. We made plans to meet at a restaurant on a beach and I walked ahead.  I did not get very far ahead though as I kept stopping to take photos.

I went over the rise of a hill and there was this huge bay. The road went down to an estuary, marshy sort of area with a boardwalk.  I took the board walk as it looked like it was going where I wanted to go. The boardwalk came to, crossed over and followed for a short distance a stream with frogs. Hundreds of frogs.

 Very fun. Maureen caught up with me on the boardwalk at the frogs. We followed the boardwalk to a little cafe/store at a campground/ RV park where we had a  bit of a break. The young man was very friendly and happy to serve us . We were his only customers at that time. A bite  of toast and some tea at the cafe and plans to meet at the refugio in ribadeo as I was going to walk ahead at my own pace.

The walk continued through the country side. Small hamlets without any signs to say what they were called.   Narrow lane-ways with high walls on either side that opened up at the gates into farm yards with cows and dogs and cats and old trucks. There were also some pretty nice houses with new shiny cars and beautiful gardens. One had a bird of paradise plant that was huge. There must have been twenty flowers in bloom.
There was one town with a memorial sign /crest of the city? but no shells or arrows. The crest says something like "The past heros of the trade unions gave us our independence in 1776". I could be wrong and probably am so if you can come up with a better translation let me know. I got a little concerned about m direction so asked an old man on a bench "Perdon Senor... Camino? and I pointed the  way I thought it would be.

The old man on the bench nodded so I  said "Gracias" and continued and hoped that he wasn't misdirecting me. He was not.  It is all a matter of trust. The Spanish people seem to delight in assisting pilgrims. Quite extrodinary really when one considers how many pilgrims pass through their towns.
There was more country and there were more cows and then goats.  really pretty goats with nice colours. The country side was lovely and quiet.

Then came the highway. The "Autovia" and the bridge. There is a bridge to Ribadeo across the "Ria" (river) Eo from the Asturias and into Galicia. This bridge is high. This bridge is a Mile long. This bridge is really a test for anyone who is afraid of heights. It is not that I am afraid of heights, I am afraid of falling off and getting killed. Heights are fine with a handrail.

This bridge had a great handrail and a wonderful divider between me and the traffic on the Autovia. It even had a yellow arrow on it, the handrail that is. Yes you have to cross the bridge. It was very windy and long, did I mention that it was long? Did I mention that the traffic on the Autovia is about two feet away from you on the inside, and that even though there was a dividing fence of sorts between you and the traffic, there was still the air pushing you as the larger vehicles went by and there were lots of them. Kind of an odd feeling of the wind pushing you one way and the passing vehicles pushing you another way. I thought of my 4 year old grand-daughter Mary who told me once on the high level bridge that if we fall we will break our bones.

Probably halfway across the bridge I was in the Province of Lugo in the state of Galacia.
I got to the other side with out being blown off, or losing my hat and found my way to the refugio just on the other side of the bridge.
 It was very, how shall I put it, unclean.  Maybe no one had cleaned it yet from the night before but I would not stay there even if it was only 10 Euros.  In case Maureen was game to stay,  I left my knapsack and hat/poncho on two lower bunks and went outside to wait for her. there were maps to another hostel in town with directions so I took one and made plans to check it out.

I had a bit of lunch that I had picked up in Tapia the day before, quinao salad, while I waited and got a nice  picture of her crossing the bridge. When she got there we decided that we would in fact not stay there and that we would go elsewhere in town, but not right away. I went for a wander while she rested after her walk.
The refugio is right on the bay right next to or maybe part of a large park. There was this great observation dock extending well out away from the shore which I went out on. Great views of the bay and the shore.

I followed the path along the shoreline to a fort .  Fort San Damian is a small Forte  with 12 canons built  around 1624 to protect the town from seaward invasion. It obviously worked as Ribadeo is still there.  Ribadeo faces Castropol (in the Asturias where we just came from), across the inlet of the river Eo.  I don't think that the fort would have protected Castropol but maybe it did.

 It was locked so could not get inside to see but it looked very cool from the outside. the path turned into a small road and I followed it for awhile but it did not seem to reach anywhere. I found a map that showed me this little road followed the coast for miles.  I stopped and turned back. Beautiful tall eucalyptus trees with lots of birds that I have never heard before. I could not see them only hear them.

Wandered back to Maureen seeing a giant sun dial on the way. The town itself is built on a steep hill with the old town more or less at the top of the hill and lovely promenade and marina down by/ in  the water.we headed into town to find the hostal. when we were almost to the hostal, Maureen said she wanted to go to information to find out if there were other places to stay. So off we went.  

We reached the Plaza de Espania which  is surrounded by some wonderful old turn of the century buildings. the square had a park with trees and benches and a fountain. There were coffee shops and gifty kinds of shops all around the square but it was not very busy. We found the Information building on the far side of where we had come into the square.

The Information girl was very helpful. Maureen had her call several hotels to see if there were rooms with a view of the water available and then give us directions to the one down by the water that we thought might be the best one. They had a model boat in the foyer that was to scale and very large. If we were so inclined I think we could have rented bicycles there too.

We wound our way back down to the water front through some wonderfully narrow streets and lane-ways. I found my favorite door in Spain so far, just a delightful marvel of architectural splendor.  a few more streets/ back lanes/sidewalks and stairs gong down  and we  found our hotel, Fogar de Marinero, which was pretty nice for only 60 Euros. We settled in pretty quick and went out to get some lunch.

The weather had been getting cloudier all day and as we were going for lunch it started to rain.  Luckily the restaurant, Restaurante Bar Marinero, was right next door so we did not have to go far. Our timing was perfect too. We ordered right before a very large, noisy party arrived and placed their orders. Our conversation slowed considerably as we could not hear each other until thier food arrived and got down to eating.

After lunch Maureen decided to have a siesta and I donned my rain poncho and went for a walk. My mission was to find stamps, a post office or mail box, the bus station and to just look around . There was this very large building on the waterfront which did not look like it belonged there, so of course I went to look at it. Turned out it was an elevator to take one up to a street that was almost level with the square, almost. I wandered back up to the square  past a lovely little old fountain in its own little square. made my way up to the park and found a kiosk who opened just me to buy some postcards but no stamps.  The Post office was closed till monday.

It was raining quite hard so I ducked into a coffee shop and had a cup of tea and wrote postcards and did some journalling.
got directions to the bus station and found it after a bit of confusion. could not make heads nor tails of the schedule as it seemed that the bus from Ribadeo only went back toward Oviedo. Odd. Figured that we could figure it out tomorrow. headed back down to the hotel. It was pouring rain by this time and I was pretty much drowned up to my knees.

Maureen was up and going through her things to try and lighten the load. her backpack was way too heavy she said. We had a good laugh over that and disposing of extra weight. Went for a quiet supper. Maureen managed to get on line and talk to her daughter Teresa. I read and then went to bed early. Nice and warm and dry.

Saturday 16 jun - Navia to Tapia de Casariego

Woke at 6 to darkness so thought maybe I could go back to sleep but no. Quietly got up and dressed  and started to go out but realized it was raining out so changed my fleece for my rain poncho. Good thing too as it was raining pretty steady.
Walked down to the park and across the grass to the lagoon.

Followed the path around the lagoon to the boardwalk and crossed the lagoon on the rather cool wooden bridge. Very long, out to the really great beach. On a sunny day it would be even better.
The rain was coming in off the ocean with mist and wind.  A Light house up on the cliff  was just visible and houses across the bay from the lighthouse must have had a magnificent view on a clear day.

Spent a bit of time out on the concrete wall that keeps the river from washing away the beach or maybe the beach from clogging up the river.  I was the only person out there.
Walked back into town following the river walk. There were the oddest fish I have ever seen. They were slowly swimming upstream in the river with their mouths open just above the water line. It looked like they were catching anything that might be floating downstream. Very odd feeding behavior.

 There were birds. small brown birds and gulls of course. I only saw one boat go out and that was earlier, not when I was walking back to town by the river. Walked into town and it wasn't as far as it seemed the day before. Aaw some young revelers out closing a night club or something.

All dressed up and nowhere to go and they were not drunk. They went into a bar and ordered coffees. I kept going I was looking for the bus station to see what time the buses left. After asking a cab driver where the bus station was I found it. Could not make head nor tails of the schedule though. (maybe 1225 and 1925 to Tapia) went back and found a coffee shop , the Bar Antolin, that was also a  bakery and a chocolate shop. Those are the best kind of shops to find.
I had a tea and a fresh croissant, bought some chocolates for Maureen and I later, used the washroom, wrote in my journal and some postcards.

I found the remnants of a medieval wall that was very interesting. I found the  cathedral which was very cool but locked. I found the Post office after wandering around for about 30 minutes. It is behind the information building about two blocks and is closed on sundays. But I did find a mailbox and mailed the postcards that I had ready.

Went back to the hostel  at around 920 only to find Maureen was locked in the room?  I had taken the key so I could get back in not thinking that one would need a key to get out. We had a breakfast of semi burnt toast and tea, got our credentials stamped and paid for our stay. La Hostal Restaurant La Mariana might have been recommended in the guide book but I think that I would recommend it for large school groups as there are lots of rooms.
The bill worked out to only 62 Euros for 2 which is cheap enough for what we got I suppose. the beds were comfy and dry.

We walked into town  past the ugliest duck I have ever seen. Walked up to the ALSA station and decided that we did not want to wait for the bus so headed back into the center of town. The Cathedral was now open so we went in. I said a few Hail Mary's and lit a few candles for Bill.  got some pictures.  Nice church. We went into town to catch a cab to Castro de Coana and made arrangements with the cab driver to come back and pick us up at 2 to take us to Tapia de Casariego.
Castro de Coana is about 5 km south of Navia.   Castros  were the most common type of celtic/Iberian settlements at the end of the Bronze age, consisting of  80 circular dwellings  arranged haphazardly over a hillside surrounded by moats and palisades in the Navia valley. It dates from the Iron age,  pre roman, with the first archaeological digs taken place there in 1877.

We got there and it was still misting out. Paid our 7 euros left our packs behind the counter and walked over to the settlement. It was so cool.
None of the buildings had walls touching each other. Some had little kind of entry areas before the main circular interior . Of Course none of the buildings had roofs but I could imagine what it must have been like. It was very Conan.
Then too, the people were smaller then so the walls would not have to have been as high as for us today.
We went through the on-site museum which had many of the finds that had been unearthed there and showed what the site would have looked like and what they would have been doing in the area for the last 2500 years.

 it was very interesting. We picked up a few things a the little gift shop. I got a bracelet with a stone from the area. Very cool.
While we waited for our cab I sprinkled a bit of M&D there. They would like that.  Our cab came and took us to Tapia. the rain stopped and about 1 kilometer from town Maureen asked the driver to stop and let us out so we could walk into town? OK.
Tapia is another lovely little fishing village. I have to admit not as lovely as Luarca, but very nice.

We had to find the police station to get a key for the refugio. the guide book said it was by the harbour. so we walked all around the harbour but could not find the police station. we must have looked like we needed help because two young teens came up and asked  in english if they could help us. of course we said yes. Gillermo (William) who was 16 and Maria (Mary) who was 15 checked with their parents who seemed to think that was fine and so they took us to the police station which is up two roads from the harbour.

We never would have found it easily. It seems they spend every summer here with family . They are from Gijon. (Pronounced HHeehon) I never did get the pronunciation right. They interpreted for us our requirements to the police man.  The police officer had to call someone who had the key and asked Guillermo and Maria if they could show us where the refugio was. they happily took us there. they were great. I am sure that they must have an assignment to write when they get back to school on how many pilgrims they helped over their summer holidays.

Maria helped me with my spanish . when she found out that I was a vegetarian she wrote it down for me what to say so that the servers would understand. "Soy vegetariana, no quiero carne, ni pescado. Estaria bien ensalada o pasta, como arraz. vedura, queso a huevos." which means I am a vegetarian, I do not eat meat or fish. I will eat salad, pasta and rice with vegetables, cheese and eggs.
they took us to the refugio and said "buen Camino".  there were two floors  to this refugio.  the main floor had 6 bunks , two washrooms one guys, one gals with showers and sinks and toilets enough for two or three to be busy at the same time.
Upstairs were 7 more bunks. We each got a lower bunk  on the main floor and  I took the pasta and sugar that I had carried from Madrid and put it on the kitchen table.  We got changed into dry clothes as most of what we were wearing was damp from the rain that morning. Hung things out on the line to dry.
The refugio is located at the edge of town right on the ocean with its own stoney beach. Absolutley breathtaking. The sun was now shining and drying everything up very quickly. we walked into town t find a restaurant on the wharf. I had tomato ensalada with ewes cheese. very yummy.

Wandered up to the sea walk above the town, well actually the town was up there too, all along the ocean. Stunning views and lots of little beaches. there was a naval memorial and a salt water pool right on the ocean.  I had to use the washroom so Maureen and i split up and I went inland while she went along the wall back the way we came.  I found a washroom, a store where I purchase some fruit and postcards, a church with a very cool stained glass window and on the way back to the refugio, an optical illusion sidewalk.

I went down onto the beach and made an inukshuk and sprinkled a bit of M&D there. Maureen showed up just when I was finishing the inuksuk so we poked around the beach and collected sea glass. very small pieces of sea glass, not big enough to make jewelry . maybe a mosaic, a very small one. we will see what I can think of. When it started to get dark we went back up the stairs to the refugio and i wrote postcards and read Wicked.

fell asleep pretty quickly but did not get a real good sleep as I was woken up by snorers. I had ear plugs in when i went to sleep but for some reason when i woke up in the middle of the night to use the washroom I took them out. not smart.

Friday 15 Jun - Luarca to Navia

Woke at 5 but  black as black outside so went back to sleep till 6. the sky was just starting to lighten I was ready by 615 and was writing in journal while Maureen who hates getting up early was getting ready. by 630 we were on the Camino. we thought we found the stairs that our hotel lady had told us about, just up the street and around the corner, but we were wrong. one small false start and then we found our first yellow paint arrow and were on the right track. 

The climb up the stairs/road was as bad as we thought it waa going to be. We did stop a lot to “take pictures” and it was very picturesque with lots of flowers, cool doors, ocean views  and old buildings. I figure we went about 1 kilometer in the first hour and it was all-uphill.

Once we reached the top we increased our speed to Maureen’s’ walking speed of about 2 kilometers an hour.  She has short legs.  Another part of Luarca is on the top of the plateau. not for too far though. 

We continued through the country down small country roads/ byways/ paths.  We passed an old ruin of a church and stopped to take a few photos. . We felt great and there were good signs most of the way.   We paid attention and followed our guidebook from the confraternity of St James. Sometimes the little guidebook was a little confusing  and as there was construction of a new highway and so some of the landmarks/turns/ paths were not there or detoured from it made for a few challenging places to figure out which way to go.

 We passed many little farms and forks in the road. our guidebook told us of a restaurant that we could get breakfast in so we found that had a mother nature break and a bite to east. we had arrived just minutes before a busload of elderly tourists so beat them to the food and the washrooms. 

We went back where we departed the trail, not so far, and  continued our walk past farms and fields and another pilgrim (our first pilgrim that we had seen) came by who volunteered to take our picture. thanks. He walked a lot faster than us and so was gone from our sight in just a short while. our walk consisted of looking for arrows and shells. in the province that we were currently in you were supposed to follow the direction the base of the shell was pointing in. luckily there were arrows as not all of the shells were showing us the right way.

The markers were sometimes very different from an arrow painted on the road, a shell  or arrow on a wall, to a cement block with shell and arrow and milage.

We found the roman road that was very cool. and definitely a walk in the woods. Some bicyclists passed us riding down a steep gravel path. 

I know I could not do the Camino on a bike. My anatomy would hurt too much and I would be walking the bike more than riding it I think.

After the roman road it was a little scary. as we had to walk along a pretty busy highway that had no shoulders!  At first I was very reluctant to go at all but then a pilgrim came walking down the side of the highway (facing Traffic) and after “Buen Caminos” continues on his way. we followed him. Somehow in my brain, dieing on the highway with someone else was OK. 

Maureen went first and I took up the rear but Maureen walks with her head down and so when Maureen followed the inside rocky path along a cement divider with the highway on one side and big rocks on the other (the fellow up ahead followed the highway side and followed it around a curve and was soon lost to sight) I mentioned that maybe this wasn’t the best way to go and that we should go back to the highway and go on the highway side. “It was not far”. Maureen said “ we just have to go a little ways over these rocks and we can go around the end of the divider and then walk along the highway again “ 

Almost right at that moment, she fell, twisting around, falling and landing on her backpack, in-between the big rocks and the cement divider. I was in shock it happened so fast. She had not twisted or broken anything and did not seem to be hurt at all. I pulled her up and we continued on our way over the rocks and around the divider.  I think that if she had been walking alone she would still be there, wedged in-between the rocks and the divider, out of sight of the highway traffic. 

She was so lucky not to have hurt herself and to have been traveling with someone. She scared me to death.

We continued on down the highway to the path that cut back up the hill and took a break at the house that loves the Camino. Maureen met the lady from Austria who had walked very far on the Camino. The path continued through the country. we were off the highway and that made me happy. The trail wove its way back and forth through the country, often beside the highway and then veering away from it again. 

But none of the highway walks that we did from here on was as scary as that first stretch.

We stopped at Villapedre for water and a break at a cafe that was very used to pilgrims. At this point Maureen said she was ready to stop. I asked how far it was to Navia and was told about 5 kilometers. mostly flat, no big hills, very pleasant. Convinced Maureen she could do it and off we went again. It was noon and I figured that if we could go a little faster, we could get there in about an hour and a half.

We followed our signs down into a wooded valley and came to a stream. I thought “ this isn’t too deep and it is not very wide so we won’t get very wet” Maureen says “why don’t we take the bridge?”  Bridge? What Bridge? There off to my right, just in the shade of a big tree is a little bridge across the stream. We took the bridge.

On through the woods we persisted, passing farmers fields, walking small country roads and into some woods again. As the day progressed the wind had started to pickup. 

We continued along the trail through small groups of houses, not towns, across a train track, past some orchards(? ) over another train track and by the time we had a break  at 2 pm behind an old church building, out of the wind,, it was practically at gale force.

Came to the highway again and followed it till we found our sign.  we passed some what appeared to be bus stops and Maureen said she would wait there for the bus if she knew what time the bus was coming. 

We went down a dry trail to  another stream but the bridge this time was some  stepping stones. It was very cool and out of the wind too. Up the other side to the farmers field and when I went to take a picture of the small dead black snake, right when I snapped the photo, my hat blew off. It was so funny.

 At 215 when Maureen said that she had to slow down as she was so tired, I left her. We were only a little ways from Navia and I told here I would meet her there. I could not walk any slower.

 I scooted off and it was a nice walk  but very windy. Reached Navia in about 30 minutes It was a ghost town Had the plague hit ? Had the town been evacuated for some disaster warning? No, it was siesta time. I found the info place and I found a cafe that was open. I took off my pack that I had carried for 8 hours and had a coke. I figured that I needed the sugar to replenish my stores and give myself some energy again. 3o minutes later I walked back to the road that I had followed into town and there came Maureen. 

We went to the Information building and got the directions for the Refugio that we wanted to go to. it was another 10 minute walk through town to the beach. We proceeded to the Refugio.  I walked ahead and went in to see about getting a room. The woman  who did not speak any english and couldn’t understand my spanish said I should wait. Wait? OK, not sure what that was about but went out to wait.  When Maureen got there went back in and again asked for a room for the night. Then she understood understood. I was not here to eat, I wanted a room. 

She took us to the second floor of the three story walk up to the farthest corner of the building away from the stairs  and gave us Room 207, a small clean room with a view of the soccer field and skateboard? park. Once we threw off our backpacks Maureen said she wanted to lay down immediately for about 30 minutes until I mentioned there was a tub.  

 The sky was starting to fill with clouds and it was still very windy but  after showered/bathed, we changed into something more comfortable and went downstairs around 6 to have some wine before dinner. 

We sat outside, as there really was no where to sit inside, and  had wine, out of the wind somewhat.  We thought that they knew we wanted dinner but they did not bring us a menu, just wine, so at 8 oclock we asked if we could have dinner and they set us up a little table in the dining room. There was no menu and when I said I was vegetarian they brought me chicken soup with big bones still in the bowl. I had a salad with canned tuna mixed in and Asparagus soup that I believe was a knorr instant mix.  

I picked out the tuna  and finished my dinner and went to upstairs to bed around 930. Just as I was falling asleep idreamt that Maureen goat a strap of her packpack caught in something and she started to fall off of a high bridge. I woke up screaming NO. I did not get back to sleep right away as my heart was hammering out No! No! No! No! in my chest. 
It looked like it ws going to rain. around 10 I fell asleep and slept very well.