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.