42. Avilés to Soto de Luiña

Today’s stage was long and stretching, particularly towards the end when a kilometre seems more like a mile, and another hour of walking feels like a week. 

It started well. I set off with Jack and three hundred metres after we started we came across an open bar, where we enjoyed a quick cafe and donut - perfect walking food!

From there we continued, still in the dark, for another couple hours, walking in and out of small villages. 

Jack had a twenty kilometre stage planned for today. Mine was more like forty - since there was nothing by way of accommodation between his destination and mine. So, after a couple of hours I said farewell and fired up the afterburners - I had some serious distance to cover.

It was a messy route because of the need to negotiate some large estuaries and the busy freeway. This meant a lot of back and forth, up and down, twisting and turning.

This is the bridge I finally arrived at to get me across the waterway above. Note the narrow pedestrian path (these link roads are not build with pedestrians in mind). 

I managed the bridge with no difficulty but just off the other side as I was looking to see where the path went I tripped on a metal stud sticking out of the road and went crashing down on my hands and chin - thud!! ‘Oh no! What’s gashed? What’s broken? Better take a look.’ 

My left hand was throbbing and bleeding, but not too badly. The right one just grazed. Wrists sore but not broken. Tentatively, I reached up to feel my chin. It was really sore but there were no bones jutting out in strange places, no missing teeth, and not much blood. Whew!! 

I got up and walked on, dazed but grateful to be in tact. 

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Needless to say, there aren’t many more pictures today. I still had at least twenty kilometres to cover and as you can imagine, minimal motivation. It was a real slog, though as this beautiful and cheery mosaic shows, there are always some who in their own ways are trying to encourage the pilgrims on.

The path did wind down towards a beach at one point but  it never quite got to the water. Also, the atmosphere was heavy with smoke. For some reason a bunch of people decided to burn off some kind of foul smelling debris today - these fires just smoulder away spewing out smoke which hangs heavy, choking the valleys. It was already still, cloudy and humid but the smoke made the atmosphere extra oppressive, which did nothing to lift my mood!!!

It took the best part of an hour to get past this bridge, which is an impressive piece of engineering (I’m sure David and Matthieu would wax lyrical about it). Eventually, I crested a hill and it disappeared. From there it was only a few kilometres (miles!!) to Soto and the albergue I was hoping to stay in. I found a bed, had a shower and washed a growing pile of sweaty gear. 

And now I’m sitting in a little cafe, Bambú House, where I have managed to procure a nice pasta and a cold beer. The music is chilled and life is definitely looking up for this weary, bruised peregrino.

😊 😊 😊

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