Day 26 – Villaviciosa to Gijon

Up at 6am today, nothing open for breakfast and the town was as quiet as a church mouse. Not so last night as the partying in the streets went on until the early hours. The hostel did not have aircon and it was 28c until midnight. So I had to leave the windows open. Not a good nights sleep

The walk out of town was fairly straightforward and at that hour I only saw one other pilgrim, who powered past me. I saw him later in the day when he powered past me again ?? 

There was nowhere to stop for a coffee for about 12km, but I found a spot under a tree at the 8km mark where I could rest. I had come prepared and some fruit, stale bread from last night and water.

Today the hills turned into mountains. I climbed a mountain track for about 2hrs and only went 1.5km, it was steep, rough and hot. The timber workers had torn up the track with their machines and had taken over the little chapel and turned into their break room.

The track was seriously torn up, no Camino arrows or signs and I wondered if I was on the wrong road. It made me think about the movie “The Way” and a monologue given by James Nesbit. I think it went like this:

The high road and the low

The long and winding

The lonesome

The royal

The open road and the private

The road to hell

The tobacco road

The straight and the narrow

There’s the road stretching into infinity bordered with mists favoured by sentimental poets 

The dignified road of Mr Frost

And for yanks every four years there’s the road to the Whitehouse 

Then you have the road which most concerns me today, the wrong road which I fear I must surely have taken.

I really I thought I was on the wrong road. Trying to remember this speech helped me pass the time getting to the top. 

Don’t think that when I thought I was the top I was really at the top, oh no, there was more. I have got to say this was the hardest climb I have ever done.

Having got that out of my system, I can say the views were amazing.

I met a young man today named Dan, he said he had been trying to catch up with me for a while. He is an English teacher in Vigo (on the Portuguese Camino) and he was at the end of his contract and walking this Camino before going home to England. He started walking in Irun with his Father for a week, who then went home. Now walking to Santiago on his own, staying purely in Albergues. He was faster than me and soon moved on.

Several Caminos converged on today’s section, one going in the opposite direction.

There were more and more hills today and at the top of one was a small village only 2 houses and a bar (of sorts). A little old lady ran the bar and it sold drinks, fruit and bread. She moved very slowly and only took cash.  I was able to get a banana and a coke. Note that a bar in Spain is not the same as a bar in Australia, it can mean cafe, cafeteria, general store (tienda). It’s not a place to just drink, even though some locals do as they use it as their true “local”. 

After that it was mainly downhill I must have crossed over the mountain range and down towards the coast again.

I stopped for lunch at a camping ground, the place was huge, as big as a small suburb and it even had its own supermarket and several restaurants. I got a menu del dia, ( 3 courses) including a bottle of wine and a bottle of water for €12. It was also very popular with the locals. I have found that sometimes they only offer a bottle of red wine and if you ask for white wine they give you a bottle of lemonade to mix with the red in case you don’t like it.

About 22km today but a hard 22.