Day 17 – Lavacolla to Santiago de Compostela
8.8mi/14.16km from Lavacolla to Santiago de Compostela There’s more to say about the day below, but for now the main headline: WE DID IT! 200 miles from Oviedo, capital of Asturias, to the famed Santiago de Compostela. Along the way, David and I climbed as many cumulative feet as the height of Mount Everest. All […]
Day 16 – Arzúa to Lavacolla
19.2mi/30.89km from Arzúa to Lavacolla On our second-to-last day of this trek, we did our second-longest day. Our legs are well beneath us now and we’re feeling strong. Pity that this will end so soon! Over the course of some 7 hours of walking, we concluded that the weather here is really indecisive this time […]
Day 15 – Melide to Arzúa
8.8mi/14.16km from Melide to Arzúa Today was a quick and relatively easy day with nice paths, good conversations with a few new faces, and surprisingly manageable weather. David and I have been dreading “the weather” ever since Lugo a few days ago. A nasty-looking radar map showed an entire country covered in rain. We did […]
Day 14 – Ferreira to Melide
14.3mi/23km from Ferreira to Melide I had been in a rough mental state these past few months. Last night I had a conversation with David about my mother that helped me process a lot of what I’ve… been trying to process during these months. And I walked with a kind of lightness today that I […]
Day 13 – Lugo to Ferreira
16.7mi/26.87km from Lugo to Ferreira With a weeklong rain forecast, David and I dreaded leaving our comfortable Lugo hotel for the dusty (muddy?) trail. We had a steep descent out of the city, westward into the valley that we could see from the city walls yesterday. A highlight of the early day was the Roman […]
Day 12 – Rest day in Lugo
Rest day in Lugo And on the thirteenth day, we rested. As I mentioned yesterday, we looked at the weather forecast and realized we were staring down the barrel of a full week of rain. So, David and I decided to stay an extra day in lovely Lugo. There is a lot of good stuff […]
Day 11 – O Càdavo Baleira to Lugo
21.2mi/34.11km from O Càdavo Baleira to Lugo We’ve made it through the thick of the Cantabrian Mountains and are now heading gradually downhill towards the more densely populated parts of Galicia. More than half the day was on roads, which didn’t offer the kinds of visual delights we’ve had while climbing over successive ridges of […]
Day 10 – A Fonsagrada to O Càdavo Baleira
16.8mi/27km from A Fonsagrada to O Càdavo Baleira Yesterday and today mornings couldn’t have been more different. While yesterday brought us hours of death fog and a damp chill to start the day, today we had warm sun and a comfortable dryness. The temperature at 9am was the same on both days, 39°F (3.8°C), but […]
Day 9 – Grandas de Salime to A Fonsagrada
15.4mi/24.78km from Grandas de Salime to A Fonsagrada My memory is a little foggy on what we did today. At least, the details are a little hazy. I wrote some notes about the day on my phone but they’re lost in the cloud. I mist’ve forgotten for some reason. Ok, I’ll admit, that last one […]
Day 8 – Berducedo to Grandas de Salime
14.4mi/23.17km from Berducedo to Grandas de Salime Today could mostly be summed up by one word: dam. No, not a typo. The massive Salime Dam dominated our day. We began with a pleasant trek from Berducedo to the next town down the way, La Mesa. We stopped there at the absolutely fantastic Albergue Miguelín – […]
Day 7 – Pola de Allande to Berducedo
12.1mi/19.47km from Pola de Allande to Berducedo Today began a string of longer days with significant climbs and drops as David and I go through the heart of the Cantabrian mountains. Today and the next 3 days, we’re looking at total climbs of over 2800 feet daily, with gradually increasing distances daily. I love climbs […]
Day 6 – Campiello to Pola de Allande
9.7mi/15.6km from Campiello to Pola de Allande We woke up after a massively sweaty night under all manner of layers, sleeping bags, extra blankets, and face masks. But… we sweated out our fevers and felt OK! Way better than yesterday, maybe with some minor lingering effects so not quite 100%. So instead of having to […]
Day 5 – Tineo to Campiello
8.4mi/1.5km from Tineo to Campiello It hit the fan today… hopefully it’s our Camino nadir and there’s nowhere else to go but up. Whatever’s going around the Camino and that David was feeling yesterday, hit him like a ton of bricks today. Every step of these 8.4 miles was a struggle and yet he soldiered […]
Day 4 – La Espina to Tineo
8.7mi/14km from La Espina to Tineo We had a decent 350-foot climb out of La Espina, after which we hiked along a few rolling hills until we reached the very pretty and hilly town of Tineo, where after only 8.7 miles, we had to call it a day. Something ain’t right. David’s come down with […]
Day 3 – Cornellana to La Espina
13.3mi/21.24km from Cornellana to La Espina We were somewhat dreading today. Our handy dandy guide app, “Buen Camino” (highly recommended for anyone on these treks), told us we would be climbing a total of 3,000 feet today. That’s … a lot. But it was good! It was invigorating! After a truly excellent breakfast tortilla de […]
Day 2 – Paladín to Cornellana
10.3mi/16.57km from Paladín to Cornellana It was a good but sweaty as usual hiking day, as the humidity remained high all day. After a solid and very necessary sleep, David and I walked about 4 miles to the pretty town of Grado, had breakfast, then began a 1,150-foot climb up one of the many short […]
Day 1 – Oviedo to Paladín
13.5 miles/21.7km from Oviedo to Paladín Oviedo was the starting point of the very first Camino de Santiago. “Camino Primitivo” actually means “the Original Route,” and the city prides itself on being the “origin of the Camino.” 2,000 years ago, a Roman trade route that traversed Spain formed the basis for the Camino later on […]
Day 0 – Exploring Oviedo
For the 4th time, we’re going to the Iberian Peninsula for a Camino de Santiago. This time we’ll take a trail through the Cantabrian Mountains called the Camino Primitivo, covering ~265 miles of what is believed to be the hardest and most difficult of the various Camino routes. This picture shows the stops along the […]
Day 30 – Olveiroa to Fisterra
Day 30 – Olveiroa to Fisterra – 33km + 6km After the 20+ mile scorcher to Olveiroa, David and I decided to get an early start on the day to get as much walking in during the cool morning weather as possible. However, this last day to Finisterre was quite beautiful. The walk out of […]
Day 29 – Negreira to Olveiroa
Day 29 – Negreira to Olveiroa- 20mi/33km – Observations and Photos I didn’t mention in yesterday’s post that these 3 days are a grind. You’re knocking out 90kms for either Finisterre or Muxía. Each day you’re climbing at least 700 feet, usually more. After the first relatively short day to Negreira, you’re in for a […]