The hotel I stayed last night like so many in Spain, had no aircon. So slept with windows open. I crashed around 7pm until about 6:30am. Missed dinner! The hotel had a breakfast in the bar for guests and breakfast in a seperate area for the tour bus groups (thank you).
I got going around 8am and it took at least an hour to walk through the city centre and out through the suburbs. Then another hour to walk past a huge steel mill. The scenery is not always nice.
After getting out of town and into the country it was uphill for a while, through a couple of villages with no services and along a dirt track for 11km, all up 15km to the first real town.
I stopped on a rock under tree after about 8km to change into my sandals as they put less pressure on my toes when walking downhill. Also took the opportunity to eat my last orange.
I did not see a single pilgrim today.
There are several Caminos along this path going in different directions. One with a brown arrow with a yellow circle around it, this Camino crosses the Norte several times. One with blue arrow going in the opposite direction, the GR100 which mostly uses the same route as the Norte but on occasion goes off in a different direction. Plus some bright spark thought it was a good idea to paint Camino arrows in fluorescent green. It got confusing but I did not get lost.
I managed to get a cold drink at a cafe near an industrial estate. I saw it in the distance and it was not on the map, I had to back track about 500m.
The walking for the last 10-12km today was largely along the side of a busy main road frequented by trucks serving the heavy industry in the area.
Walking into a small town a man walking in the opposite direction came up and shook my hand and wished we a Buen Camino. (Yes I checked I still had my wallet , you sceptics).
About 5km from my destination I was walking through a town that had a lot of cafe/bar/restaurants all offering a menu del dia. All absolutely packed with workers from the local industry. At the end of the town I saw a restaurant that looked very neat and was not too packed. When I went in, the back room was teeming with people. However they kindly made me up a table, directly under a ceiling fan, after advising me not to stand up. I was very hot and sweaty.
The meal was fantastic. Good home made paella with chicken and (maybe goat). As was the bbq ribs followed by ice cream, with a 2 litre bottle of water. I declined the wine as I still had 5km to walk in the mid afternoon sun. They even came back and offered me seconds of the ribs. I could not have fit them in.
They were very generous to their customers, and while standing at the bar they kept offering around plates of pintxos or you could just take one from the bar every time you purchased a drink. It was an honour system.
The restaurant specialised in BBQ and had massive open BBQ in the restaurant cooking a selection of meats.
The final stretch into Aviles was along the same major road and through some very run down areas, however the hotel I’m staying at is in the old historic part of town.
Today was laundry day, last chance for a few days. The wash one wear one only works for a while, fact, sooner or later on a Camino you stink. I found one not far from the hotel with a bar right next door.
22-24km today. But not as hard as yesterday.
Russ and Jan's Camino 