Alluring Asturias

Day 21 - May 17, 2023

Start: Llanes

End: Cuerres

Distance: 20.52 miles (33.02 kilometers) and approximately 560 feet (170.69 meters) of ascent.

Quote: “Not all who wander are lost.” ~ J.R.R Tolkien

Musings: Yesterday was our first full day in another northern Spanish provence — Asturias. As we said good-bye to Cantabria, it seemed like she felt we’d stayed too long. She rained on us incessantly; her initially soft trails turned to miles of concrete and asphalt, and her views provided diminishing returns. It was like she was saying that we needed to get moving. After all, Santiago awaits.

We needn’t have worried about our inauspicious Cantabrian farewell, because Asturias has welcomed us like a mother who sees one of her children approaching and throws her arms wide open. Indeed, she is spoiling us with good weather and her broad, even trails of soft earth so gentle and forgiving on our aging joints. Or perhaps Asturias is wooing us like a besotted lover drawing us in with her curvaceous and alluring coastline sparkling in the sunshine that we’re have missed for so long. In any event, there’s no doubt that Asturias has drawn us in and hooked us.

Asturias’s coast line is other-worldly. It’s dotted with “bufones” which are underground, hollowed portions of the coast where the surf pushes through on stormy occasions and sends spray shooting dozens of feet in the air through the small holes. The sea was too calm for us to see this spectacle today but the bufones nevertheless emit eerie, echoey blasts of sound from the surf running beneath the ground. I tried to capture some of these bufones in the pictures, but was too unnerved to get close enough or sufficiently down in them for good shots. There are lots of warnings not to get too close on stormy days because the force of the water through the holes is dangerous and you run the risk of slipping into them.

Today, was only supposed to be about 14.5 miles long — not more than 20! But the camino splits in several places and you can choose different variants along the way. Carol and I almost always choose the coastal variants. Well, today those variants must have been substantially longer than the other routes because we both walked substantially longer than expected. In addition, we got a bit off course for awhile abs that also added mileage.

We were both hungry and tired by the time we reached our hostel for the evening. But they cooked us a dinner tonight that was scrumptious. It started with freshly baked bread and a wonderful pork stew. We both thought that this was the entire dinner and chowed down. But 20 minutes later or so round two arrived with thickly sliced ham, homemade fries, and fried eggs! And I can’t forget to mention the homemade flan, which was melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Needless to say, we are now quite full, refueled, and after a good sleep will be ready for our walk tomorrow.

Until then, here are the pictures from yesterday and today:

May 16

Photo credit goes to our friend Michael from Belgium

May 17