Fuente de Cantos

Hello, everyone.  

Today we took a wrong turn and walked about 5cextra kilometers. It happened when we crossed the line between Monasterio and Fuente de Cantos. There were large flocks of arrows, most pointing to the right along a road. There were also these spiffy granite cubes that had arrows and a graphic sculpture of the Arch of Caparra and their arrows pointed straight ahead into a pasture. Whoops.

In the end we found ourselves walking along a (newly asphalted) road for about 9 kilometers into Fuente de Cantos, our stop for the night. Strava tallied our walk as about 26 km, about 5 extra kilometers,  and we learned from locals that if we had followed the spray painted yellow arrows we would have had only the scheduled 21 km to do, and skipped that last hot stretch. 

Apparently the powers that be have been investing in marking a new, different walk that is said to stick more to the old Roman road, but adds mileage and also has some really long stages.

One of the granite cubes of the new version of the walk. It was explained to us that the new version is Via de la Plata, and the old version remains Camino de Santiago. 

Today, while we saw a lot of cattle and sheep--actually, cows and some calves and sheep--we didn't see pigs. We also left behind the beautiful Dehesa that reminds us so much of the Texas Hill Country.

Staying at a shared apartment in the beautiful Zaguan de la Plata in downtown Fuente de Cantos. 

Recap of Primitivo, Days 3 and 4 (updated: Days 4 and 5)

 Hello, everyone.

Today, since much of what was to be said about the walk to Campiello has already been said, I thought I would combine that with the following day from Campiello over the Hospitales route to Berducedo.

First off, the walk to Campiello was deliberately a short day. We got there about noon and immediately had a coffee with a egg-and-chorizo bocadillo tapa. Then we got with the people about a bed to sleep in and the washing protocols (bought tokens) and got after the laundry. Then we had a snack of "seafood-rice salad" from their little grocery and finished off the laundry. At suppertime we ate a pizza in their cafe and also got jamon and cheese bocadillos for the next day's picnic lunch. These turned out to be huge.

A bit of scenery after leaving Tineo. (By the way, Tineo had installed street lights on the walking trail out of town. By the time we ran out of lights there was starting to be walking light from the sky.)

I think pictures from the Albergue Casa Ricardo in Campiello have already been included in the en-route post about this stage.

The next morning, we left before actual light, but there was no traffic on the road and we were able to follow it.

The sun came up while we were walking. (Actually that tends to happen with us. Even more so when we walked this time, into the shortening days.) 

We passed through Borres and didn't locate the little bar. Well, we passed it, but after considerable discussion didn't try the door to see if it was actually open or not. After Borres we came to the split in the routes. A number of the people who were walking at that time had mentioned that they were going to take the low route, as it has a lot more facilities en route. They were still going to end up in Berducedo, probably as there is precious little in the way of lodging along this stage this year. (I think there may have been an option to sleep in Pola de Allande on the low route, but as we took the other one it didn't matter to us.) The low route has more kilometers and, significantly for us, a lot more climbs and descents according to the information we had. We went the high way because once we got up there is would be mostly ridge walking. Which is fairly even. And it was.

Y'all will note that while there is a real slope here, the trail isn't sloping a whole lot.

That little grove of trees in the background, and the famous ruins, are about the only place one could take shelter from a big wind up there. And with the said wind, the pine branches might fall on one's head. Other than that, it's a whole lot of open area.

This is an interesting bug that we saw along the way that day. It looked a bit like it was laying eggs in the grass. We had never seen this critter before.

Later we passed along the very dooryard of a farm in the hills, large friendly dog there, and through the village of Lagos, lovely water fountain at the church, no bars at all, and arrived 5:30 in the evening at Berducedo, for a 30 kilometer day. We were so tired. We ate the remnants of our bocadillo picnic sandwiches (most of them, we had only nibbled at lunchtime) for dinner along with a bottle of Spanish wine from the little grocery there and went to bed.

Recap of San Salvador, part 5

 Hello, everyone.

After our rest day in Pola de Lena, we set out bright and early in the morning en route to Mieres del Camino. This was a short day, because the "standard" day goes all the way into Oviedo from Pola, and that's over 30 kilometers. Mieres breaks the day in half, and has places to stay and to eat.

A view of part of the trail; it wasn't difficult and was pleasantly shaded for some parts.

Santa Olaya, a lovely church in a town just before Mieres.

The priest was in and he stamped our credenciales. He also said that we were welcome to visit the interior of the church.

There was a bakery near the church so we got to sit down for a little coffee and rest.

This is the info sign about the church. I believe the second language here is Asturian but I don't know for sure.




















When we got to Mieres, we had a pleasant walk through much of the town to our hotel, and then we went out for a glass of cidre. 

Recap of San Salvador, Part 4

 Hello, everyone.

We woke up in the albergue at Llanos de Someron, ate a bite of toast, and headed out. We encountered a sign at the edge of the village, just before beginning to walk downhill on a small, paved road. It had a map, with two routes on it, going down from Someron to the next village, Fierros. The left line was marked 5* on difficulty and the right line was marked 1* difficulty. We were beat, and so we began walking the easy way down. About 3/4 of the 4 kilometers down, we saw the cut-off for the hard way. It went uphill steeply and after the previous two days of hard walking it just looked like too much. Besides, we were on the easier way and they would both go the same place, right? Famous last words!

At the bottom of the mountain, we followed the arrows past the train station and through a protected sidewalk. The village looked like very few people lived there. There was no bar to stop and chat at if we had any questions. Arrows seemed to have stopped at the end of the sidewalk. At the end of the village we followed the road and one arrow. It pointed around the side of a little chapel.

We followed the arrows and they led us around a little house and began climbing up over rocks, then leafy dirt, and the path became very overgrown. When we encountered a tiny bridge over a tiny stream, DH asked me to wait as the route was becoming questionable to us. He found a missing board in the bridge--note well, you need to use poles! His poking the pole where he proposed to step prevented an injury--and after crossing followed the tiny path around a bend. A few minutes later, he came back and said that the path had grown more overgrown, seemed not to have been walked on at all, and possibly was an old, no longer used route. So we made our way back down and went back to the sidewalks, looking carefully for arrows. The arrows had fled. Or so it seemed to us. After much back and forth over the half kilometer or so of Fierros, we went to the train station. Which was one of the self-service variety with signs of the schedule and no way to go inside and pay the ticket. A man was pacing on the platform and he told us that the system is to pay when you get off the train when you board at a station like this. We decided that we would hop the train for a few stops and re-join the route farther on.

At the second stop we were at where we had planned to sleep for the night, Pola de Lena, so we got off, paid our tickets and strolled through the town down to the bottom. It was around noon, and we called it a rest day as we were still tired. 

We did remember to find the way out of town for the next morning before settling down to snacks and wine and watching the town enjoy their first fiesta in over a year.

Art of the last Station of the Cross on the front of the church altar. 

Ecce Homo statue in the church.

Finding the arrows for departure.

The bridge at the edge of town. Arrow sticker on the rail and painted on the safety rail of the bridge.