Bit of a struggle to get out of bed this morning! My gout hadn’t got much better overnight and I hobbled into breakfast thinking I’d be lucky to get anywhere today – Alison was feeling much the same! It turns out Islares is a nice town with a beautiful beach with a little point break and little breaks across the bay. We followed the Rio Agüera along its valley to the town of La Magdalena (where we had some fruit we had bought a bit earlier) and then we were at it again, climbing about 300m (surprisingly through a forest of blue gums – obviously planted to replace the pine forest that had been felled) before dropping down again into Liendo and then, you guessed it, climbing up over another mountain to descend into Laredo. We had a little bit of a cheat and took the guide book suggestion to follow the road down into Laredo rather than the “official” Camino, which doubled back on itself a bit and again, descended only to ascend a km or so later.
It sounds like a bit of a grind and, because of the strenuous walk yesterday, to some extent it was, however it is really stunning scenery and beautiful, rustic countryside out of a postcard.
We were both happy to make the final descent into Laredo for a late lunch at about 4pm before finding our hotel.
For once we got a room with a view and a balcony overlooking the beach! We ducked over for once of the best swims of my life. 23kms today for a total of 222kms…
steelewalking 