Great night’s sleep and a fantastic (the best of our trip so far) breakfast to get us going for the day! Definitely recommend the Palacio Arias for anyone passing this way…
We set off about 8:10am, across the Rio de Navia and, as usual, a climb up into the hinterland. A quick hop across the train line near Jarrio and then we seemed to spend the rest of the day in corn country! We made it into La Caridad for morning tea around 10:30am, pretty good time for the 9.5km journey. We met and talked with a couple of young German blokes as we walked through Valdepares and El Franco – they had started their journey four years ago in Hamburg and were on the final annual trip, picking the trail up this year in St Jean Pied de Port in France.
The Camino split in Porcia and we took the inland route, hoping for a place to stop for lunch in Brul, 5.6km from the split. The road to Brul seemed endless, with few places to stop even for the couple of nectarines we had in my bag. Finally we pulled into Brul about 1:30pm but not a single shop in town so we pressed (plodded) onto Tol a few kms further on. The guidebook promised a bar a nd grocery store but both were closed by the time we arrived, so things were looking pretty dodgy – no food since 10:30 and running short of water, plus Alison was just about exhausted! Al sat down at the crossroads of the town while I scouted around – I finally found a 9 hole golf course with a bar and restaurant about 300m away from the crossroads! Very relieved!!!
After a 2 course meal and a bottle of wine we hit the road again at 4pm and charged the remaining 8km into Ribadeo, passing through Barres and then Figueras before crossing a massive bridge, leaving Asturias behind and passing into Galicia and the town of Ribadeo.
We found a bar on the main drag about 6pm, had a drink and hobbled to our hotel a few hundred meters away… We just sort of collapsed before getting up again about 9pm for a light meal. When we started the towns were very close together and could be relied on for a bar or restaurant, or even a park to stop in the shade, but they are getting smaller and further apart – bit better planning required on our part!
Rest day in Ribadeo and then we leave the coast to cross the mountains and head for Santiago. 30kms today for a total of 629km. We need to make sure we do nothing on our rest day to recover enough for the final couple of hundred kms to Santiago!
steelewalking 