Day 33 – Gontán to Vilalba
6/12/17 – 25.4km/15.8mi from Gontán to Vilalba, with smooth rolling hills. The altitude here in Galicia means that every day, we start off in a cloud of fog. Today’s cloud of fog was so dense, it actually felt like rain, and that means I got to break out “Big Pink,” my ridiculous poncho, again. But, […]
Day 32 – Lourenza to Gontán
6/11/17 – 23.8km/14.8mi from Lourenza to Gontán, with a total of 1300m/4265ft of ascent and descent. Today featured 2 stages. The first was a 2-hour stage from Lourenza to the very pretty town of Mondoñedo that featured a decent climb. After a coffee break, and checking out the gorgeous Mondoñedo town center and Cathedral, we […]
Day 31 – Ribadeo to Lourenza
6/10/17 -29.3km/18.2mi from Ribadeo to Lourenza, with a total of 1405m/4610ft of ascent and descent. After our rest day at the beach, I felt great this morning and it just felt “right” to begin walking. It might sound crazy – but after doing this for 30 days, it feels more weird to sleep in and […]
Day 29-30 – La Caridad to Ribadeo
6/8/17-6/9/17 – 25.9/16.1mi from La Caridad to Ribadeo, and then a “rest day” in Ribadeo. The walk to Ribadeo was nice but long, our feet pounding the pavement a solid 16 miles. Aside from a nice lunch stop in Tapia, we walked through farms and along roads. There wasn’t all that much to the hike apart […]
Day 28 – Luarca to La Caridad
6/7/17 – 33.3km/20.7mi from Luarca to La Caridad, with about 1313m/4310ft of ascent and descent. We knew today would be long so we got up and shuffled out early from Luarca. It was another day of mixed forest, farm, and road walking, with nothing really spectacular. We walked under a major highway and marveled at […]
Day 27 – Cadavedo to Luarca
6/6/17 – 26km/16.2mi overall from Cadavedo, to Luarca, with only 1-2 major climbs. The actual walk was fairly short, but I loved Luarca so much that I walked for several miles all around it for photos and sightseeing, bringing my daily mileage fairly high. The day began with a leisurely exit from awesome Casa Carín […]
Day 26 – Soto de Luiña to Cadavedo
6/5/17 – 23.9km/14.9mi from Soto de Luiña to Cadavedo, with about 1524m/5000ft of total ascent & descent. Today was technically shorter and had less climbing and descent than yesterday. But, every climb and drop was super steep. As a beloved character from “Rick and Morty” would say, “ooooooooo-weeeeeee” – it was tough! Today we were […]
Day 25 – Muros de Nalon to Soto de Luiña
6/4/17 – 25.9km/16.1mi from Muros de Nalón to Soto de Luiña, with about 1700m/5577ft of total ascent & descent. After yesterday’s rain festival, today was one of the loveliest days we’ve had on the entire trip. Sunny but not too hot, great views, beautiful paths, and manageable ups and downs. Muros de Nalón’s claim to […]
Day 24 – Avilés to Muros de Nalon
6/3/17 – 25.9km/16.1mi from Avilés to Muros de Nalón Our larger group stayed in different places last night so today Team Vegas and Wooju headed out early while David, Keith and I brought up the rear. We woke up and prepared for a full day of rain – but at least that allowed me to put […]
Day 23 – Gijón to Aviles
6/2/17 – 30km/18.6mi from Gijón to Avilés. Today had one big climb and was otherwise flat but relatively ugly walking through industrial and suburban areas. On the Camino Francès in 2014, The entrances to cities were ugly and industrial. On this one, almost every time we entered a city, it’s been to magnificent views of […]
Day 22 – Deva to Gijón
6/1/17 – 7.8km/4.7mi from Deva to Gijón, short and simple! Today was pretty much a “rest day” even though we had some walking to do. We all slept in, had a leisurely breakfast at the awesome restaurant at Camping Deva-Gijon, and set off toward Gijón also at a leisurely pace. After a nice entry alongside […]
Day 21 – Villaviciosa to Deva
5/31/17 – 24.1km/15mi from Villaviciosa, to Deva, with about 1340m/4396 feet of climbing and descent. After yesterday’s epic 28 mile hike, today was supposed to be mercifully shorter at just around 15 miles. But when you throw in Herculean climbs, it was no easy day! In addition, let’s just say I celebrated my birthday *well* […]
Day 20 – Ribadesella to Villaviciosa
5/30/17 – 45km/28mi(!!!) from Ribadesella to Villaviciosa. WOW – we just hiked 28 miles!! Some people’s trackers said 24, 26, but I’m sticking with my calculations. We set off at about 7:15am and got to where we were staying just around 6:45pm. 11 and a half hours on our feet! And the best part – it […]
Day 19 – Nueva to Ribadesella
5/29/17 – 13km/8.1mi from Nueva to Ribadesella. Despite starting off early at 7am hoping to knock out 18 miles before an afternoon rain forecast hit, we found ourselves pummeled by rain around mid-morning. It hit when we were on dirt farm paths that became massive mud puddles. There were no dry or covered places to […]
Day 18 – Llanes to Nueva
5/28/17 – 18km/11.2 from Llanes to Nueva, with nice easy strolling. We got a slightly late start today as we planned, because we wanted to take advantage of the local laundromat to wash and dry clothes. Every day, most of us hand wash the clothes we wore that day. It can take time, but I […]
Day 17 – Serdió to Llanes
5/27/17 – 39.9km/24.8mi from Serdio to Llanes, with about 760m/2493ft of climbing on several steep ascents. Man, today was a doozy. We all woke up at 5:30 or 6:00am, so we could make it to Bar Gloria for an earrrrrly morning breakfast before beginning a long 25mi trudge in the hope to arrive in Llanes […]
Day 16 – Comillas to Serdió
5/26/17 – 22.5km/14mi from Comillas,to Serdió, with at least 400m/1310ft of climbing on steady rolling hills Another relatively short day today – we saw a forecast for afternoon rain, so we figured to stop either at Serdio if it was raining, or trek another 6mi to Colombres, if it was clear. It was really a […]
Day 15 – Santillana del Mar to Comillas
Day 15, 5/25/17 – 22.9km/14.2mi from Santillana Del Mar to Comillas, with rolling hills throughout the day. Unlike yesterday’s suburban and industrial road journey, today started and ended in great medieval towns with beautiful architecture. While we mostly walked on roads it was often through farms and nice villages. I saw a couple things I […]
Day 14 – Santander to Santillana del Mar
5/24/17 – 38.6km/24mi(!!!) from Santander, to Santillana del Mar Santander was gorgeous, but the suburbs that we had to exit through were nothing to talk about. We went under some bridges, along some roads, and also passed what appeared to be a nuclear power plant. To cross a river that one could only walk across […]
Days 12-13 – Guemes to Santander
5/22-23/17 – 21.4km/13.3mi from Guemes to Santander, and then a “day off” in Santander The trail today went north from Guemes to the coast, where the path hugged the edge of a cliff and gave us marvelous views throughout the day. While we’ve all been seeing each other daily, today you could say we joined […]