A lovely walk today, again mostly in fog, albeit not completely accurately described by the guidebook! The walk out of Villaviciosa was really nice, along a river gently uphill towards a town called Casquita, where the Camino Primitivo splits from the Norte to head towards Oviedo and ultimately Santiago. From there we had a little cheat, walking along the road rather than the Camino, which does a big loop at that point, taking 1.6km off today’s journey.
For the first time since before Bilbao we had a big climb, the path gradually steepening until we neared the peak, the Alto de la Cruz, at 450m!
Around this area we also picked up some yellow arrows pointing in the opposite direction – there is a local pilgrimage to a place called Covadonga, which got a bit confusing! Anyway, we stopped for bread, cheese and chorizo at the peak, even though we could see nothing due to the fog! A nice steady walk down to Peón, where we had a coffee at Casa Pepito, before the surprise package of the day, another vertical scramble up 270m (described in the book as “…a mix of footpaths and single lane roads 2.4km through peaceful countryside…”!).
Another long descent into Cabuenes where we had a late lunch before walking the remaining 5 or so kms into Gijon, varying slightly from the official route to walk along the river and then the beach towards our hotel in the old part of town. 28kms today and 478km in total!
steelewalking 