Days 20-23
Etapas 15-18
Comillas → La Franca → Celorio → Ribadesella → Colunga
I’m sitting in my bed with the window open in Colunga and it’s storming outside. There’s loud thunder, rain, and a cold breeze. The breeze feels nice through the window. It’s a Saturday night, but that doesn’t really mean anything to me at this time. I didn’t take a break hiking today because I wanted to arrive before the rain started. My feet are sore and I have blisters forming under my calluses on my pinky toes. I’m hoping a long rest this evening and short 10 miles tomorrow will be good enough to reset my feet. I haven’t been writing much lately, so time to catch up.
Comillas to La Franca
I left the hostel in Comillas just before 8am. They had breakfast included, so I’d fueled up on coffee and muffins for the day. The intimacy of all waking up together in an albergue is funny to me. I’m a morning person, so I feel extra awake and chatty in the mornings (I obviously don’t act on these feelings, the mornings are usually quite silent in the albergues). But, I giggled to myself this morning as the 20 women in this bunk room all brushed our teeth, changed into our smelly hiking clothes we’ve been wearing every day, and packed up.
I’m going a bit further than I’d originally planned today. The more crowded the trail gets, the more antsy people get about finding a place to stay, so they start booking multiple days in advance. Unfortunately, there was no more room in Columbres (where I’d originally planned to go), so I will go 3 more km to La Franca. What’s 3 more km when you’ve already done 28km?
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky leaving this morning. It gave me a clear view of the mountains and even snow capped ones in the distance. The trail is following a pedestrian greenway leaving Comillas. It’s a great morning to be walking. After about an hour, I stopped and put on some sunscreen as the sun came out over the mountains and I decided I’d listen to some music too. I put on Rainbow Kitten Surprise’s newest album from last summer Love Hate Music Box. I feel like I can sing most words of their other songs, so I was studying up a bit this morning and taking in the views.
I kept stopping to take pictures of the mountains and beach views and another hiker caught up with me. He offered to take a picture of me with the view if I took one of him. He was an older man from Spain and had 2 shells tied to his pack with his first name and where he was from written on them. About half the hikers have shells on their packs to signify they’re Camino pilgrims and others have patches of other Caminos they’ve done. He and I walked together for a bit speaking in Spanish and I got another “que valiente.” Gracias!
(Here’s the pic he took, nice)
And the other side of the view!
I passed through San Vicente de la Barquera this afternoon. It was a really cute little town and tourist destination. The mountains frame the view of the town and there’s a small castle there from the early middle ages. I kind of wish I’d stayed there instead to explore, but I’ll have to come back another time.
I tried to take a selfie with this pilgrim statue I saw in town, not the best, but here it is.
Today I walked by several beaches, lots of cows, and over a river on a pedestrian bridge into Asturias! This is the 3rd of 4 provinces of Spain I will walk through. I was only walking through Cantabria, the province I just left, for about 7 days. I guess this means I’m close to halfway now. I haven’t been really keeping track, just seeing in the evenings where I should walk to the next day.
Closing out the day and walking the last trail from Columbres to La Franca, a storm rolled in on the mountain. It was crazy that you could see the rain up and around the mountain, but it was still sunny down where I was. It was a cold evening. I stayed in a room above a cidery. The cider here is much more sour, it’s unfiltered, and there’s a special way to drink and pour it, but it’s still delicious.
La Franca to Celorio
Because I’d gone further than the original etapa yesterday, I was also going further today. Most people go from Columbres to Llanes, but I’m going from La Franca to Celorio. I’m kind of trying to stay ahead of the bubble too after a super crowded last albergue.
I woke up to a bit of a steamy and damp room and windows. It had gotten so cold last night that my room got a bit stuffy I guess. I packed up and started out with an extra layer that I didn’t take off until mid-afternoon. Today is technically my graduation day at the university I did graduate school (and my bestie from college is graduating from her master’s today too!!) I had my ceremony back in December, but today is the big official day with caps, gowns, commencement and such. I’m feeling a little bit sad not being there, but I do feel like I’ve already closed that chapter and now I’m here! On the Camino!
Today the official Camino route follows a lot of roads, so I opted for the coastal route again. It’s about a half km longer (I don’t even really know how far that is anyways), but the views and no cars is definitely worth it. I ran into a group of middle-aged Spanish hikers this morning and got the same questions– “estás sola?” Yes, but I like it, plenty of time to think. Don’t worry, I got another que valiente too. Gracias!
The views were incredible on this day. Because this wasn’t really an official route, there were loose cows on the trail. Usually they have a fence, but today they were just on the path. I was a little nervous walking by them because there were babies I thought they may be protective over, but it was totally fine. This trail was kind of hard to stay on at times. I found myself wandering through the field and avoiding cow poop for a few hours.
I got back onto the official Camino trail to walk into Llanes where I stopped for a grocery restock and lunch. Crackers and lemonade: lunch of champions.
After Llanes, I walked through another town called Po or Poo (both were on signs) before arriving to Celorio for the evening. Today was day 5 for my poor pink shirt and tanktop bra, day 4 for my pants, and day 3 for my socks. Don’t worry I have fresh sink-washed underwear daily. Here’s everything airing out a bit.
Here’s just a moment for the views and pictures of things I take along the way. Even the photos can’t truly capture the beauty and I can’t fully describe everything I see.
I have a beautiful view from my room for the evening and the sweet hostel owner doesn’t have an official stamp for the pilgrim passports, so he drew one for me.
Celorio to Ribadesella
The days are starting to all blur together. I feel like at the beginning of the Camino, I could remember everywhere I’ve been, where I stayed, what I saw…but now, on day 22, I’m having a hard time differentiating and picturing where I’ve been.
I’m wearing my top for the 6th day in a row today. The weather has been super nice, so I haven’t been sweating much. But, that certainly doesn’t mean I smell good. On the way out of Celorio this morning the Camino crossed the beach. I don’t love when the trail crosses sand for a short way because then I just get sand in my sneakers. When it’s a longer stretch, I can justify walking barefoot or switching into my sandals.
I walked gingerly across the sand to minimize the amount entering my shoes and crossed out of town and into the woods. There was this picturesque mossy river I stopped and stared at for a while.
I stumbled upon two cats snuggled up asleep that didn’t seem disturbed by me passing by. There have been a lot more cat sightings lately. Less horses and dogs, more cats and cows.
It was very grey and overcast heading into the afternoon. The weather apps predicted rain, but so far so good. I ran into a Spanish man from Bilbao who walked and talked with me for a bit. He seemed to be writing a Camino guidebook because he would stop to record notes about the trail at different points. The rain started up, so I ducked into a cafe to have a coffee and slice of an apple pastry.
It continued to sprinkle throughout the day, but I felt fine with just my pack cover on. The mist was kind of nice on my face and cooled me off. The trail alternated between greenways next to roads, boardwalks, and rocky trails in the woods. Lots of variety for the 15 mile day was nice.
I ran into two other Spanish men on this day who were quite chatty. I feel like I haven’t met a ton of people who speak Spanish either, so maybe they were just excited to socialize. After about two hours of hiking and talking I started to get a bit tired. I’d realized with my hiking companions today, I’d essentially been speaking Spanish all day (which is great!) but my mind needed a break.
I arrived to my hotel and kindly peeled off from the other pilgrims. There was a break in the rain, so I ran to the grocery store and ordered some spaghetti and bread to-go from a random place down the street. The bread ended up being just a folded up pizza crust I think? It was tasty but super heavy and impossible to finish. Solid dinner though.
Ribadesella to Colunga
Leaving Ribadesella it was Saturday morning. I was feeling a bit nostalgic thinking back on what I used to enjoy doing on Saturday mornings, thinking of old places I used to live, past lives and activities. Usual spots. I’ll have that again when I move to my new home, but I was just reminiscing this morning.
I got a slower start to the day which was fine because it was only a 12 mile day (only!) The Camino followed the beach out of town and I got nice purple-y morning skies. I gave my pink shirt a rest today and switched to my other short sleeve (fresh and clean!)
The trail mostly followed greenways connecting towns in the area. There were tons of great murals this morning, also lots of people out and about for morning strolls.
I saw some sweet baby cows, a baby pony, and great dogs this morning, then finally got back to the woods. It had been raining the last few days, so I figured the trail would be muddy. Oh boy was it muddy.
Not only was it muddy, but there were a few seemingly newly fallen trees. One of them was completely blocking the trail. I ended up walking between the fence and top leaves of the tree and could fit through, but it wasn’t great. The tree was also way too heavy for me to try to move.
After this, I happened upon a cute little bar. They had a large backyard with tables and I noticed a bunch of signs. The signs were all painted with names of locations of where visitors have been from. How sweet! I even spotted an Asheville, NC one <3
Walking through the towns today (after surviving the mud), I was surrounded by stone walls on each side. It almost felt like a maze of stone walls with the occasional yellow shell guiding me which way to turn. Like usual, I suddenly happened upon a beach view. My favorite Camino magic, the dramatic hidden views.
Walking into Colunga, I passed several signs mentioning something about dinosaurs. The Colunga town sign even had a dinosaur. I was told that there’s a trail you can take from Colunga that follows a path where they’ve found collections of dinosaur footprints. Pretty cool.
Other remarks:
- I’ve been gravitating towards napolitanas (basically chocolate croissants with chocolate sprinkles on top). I’ve been getting these in cafes for a while, but have recently transitioned to getting the ones from the bakery section at supermarkets, delicious.
- There are calla lilies everywhere. They’re slowly coming to the end of their season it seems, but tons of houses are lined with calla lily bushes and I’ve seen lots of people in the pueblos picking them for a home bouquet.
- I accidentally bought sheep’s milk butter cookies. I bit into one without knowing and thought it tasted weird (I didn’t gag just spit it out). Turns out it was because they were made with sheep milk.
- At the halfway mark, I used my dae hair mask sample I’ve been saving. My hair was so soft and smelled good for days. I still have a shampoo and conditioner sample I’m saving for the last week on trail maybe.
- Bread deliveries…I see these little bread vans driving around everywhere. They deliver bread to the restaurants in town, but today I saw a ton of people getting a loaf or two straight up delivered to their house. Nice.
- Cherry coke zero is my new drink hyperfixation. Absolutely delicious.
Thank you for making it this far with me and reading my silly little updates. I have been able to see and experience so much, and it’s nice to have this to share just a sliver of this adventure.
Keep Moving, by: Maggie Smith
“You can think about the past, casting your mind back, or think about the future, casting your mind forward, but you live here, in the present. Keep your mind here the best you can today. Keep moving.”
I love this one <3
xo
