It had to happen I suppose but we have had so many great days on the road I thought we might avoid it – today was a completely missable day! We started off fine nice and early out of Gijon, not spectacular but not as bad as the book indicated today might be. We had a nice coffee just before the end of town and then, just over the hill, was a massive steelworks. Not too bad we thought, we’ll get past that and we’ll be back in the countryside. We climbed the hill that ran alongside the steelworks and down in to the nice valley on the other side, had a nice early lunch in El Valle and then continued about 4km to a town called Tamón where we had a break for some water.
Then, around the corner, kapow – about 8kms of more steelworks stretching all the way into Avilés (actually, not all the way – there was a fertilizer plant in there as well)! I’ve worked in and around these sorts of plants for most of my life but spending a day walking past one after another make you realize how much pollution and misery they generate for those nearby! The Ria de Avilés runs black from all the coal dust and other rubbish!
Anyway, our hotel in Avilés is nice, with aircon so we can avoid the fumes. 25kms today/503kms in total (woo hoo!) – looking forward to tomorrow!
steelewalking 