2010 Cuadonga camino 2

Hi all friends and peregrinos
I have  managed at last to get the last part of  my Via del Plata walk - from Santiago to Fisterra, then on to Muxia and back to Santiago - onto the Amazon Books pages. You can 'Look Inside' them to see an excerpt on line and order a copy from them. If you are in Australia  you may email me.

 Here are the links:

Amazon USA:
Fisterra - Muxia

Amazon UK:
Fisterra - Muxia  

Amazon Spain: (There's no 'Look Inside' available on this page)

Fisterra - Muxia
While my next project is to do the same with my Via del Plata story, I hope soon to do the same with this one too: Enjoy

 Part 2 of Cuadonga

 Look on the left for part one, January


We had a late start around 10am, as all the many people had to be fed and rounded up and photographed in front of our lodgings. Then it had to be sorted out how we were to fill the cars to get back to where we had been picked up the day before!
















I was last in and then off we went up the narrow lane and back to the small lay-by and then off we went down hill.
















We spread out and split up into small groups most of the time. The children were lovely, jolly and shouting to each other as we wound our way along the country road looking for Cuadonga signs.

The village of San Jose came then on towards Cangas.















Soon off the bitumen and onto well rammed gravel tracks, with trees and hedges on ether side with lovely views across the valley.















Here there was a notice pointing out the mountains in front of us but today the cloud covered the mountaintops but even so the valley and beyond was very beautiful.



On and on we went down the valley and on seeing the river again we came to another of these information signs.




On this one Cuadonga was marked but still some way off and still out of sight to us even though we could see a long way.








We came on to a tarmac road then at a junction, and after snacking on cake and almonds supplied by my new friends we took a well-marked side turning.










We were now at the bottom of the valley and following the river. We crossed it over an old narrow bridge then right down the other bank by a hard wide gravel track. It was beautiful and I took many photos. I like the one with Anna in as she too snapped these delightful shots. The little ermitas and shines were her favourite though.



After a while I walked alone and lost sight of the others. I came to a village but it had no Cuadonga signs at the junctions and I had not seen where the others had disappeared too!
I took a chance, turned right and came to the river and a narrow bridge over. I crossed it and where it met the road on the far side were some others of the group so I joined them.







I was fed beer and more yummy Empanada while others wandered in. There was a bit of a mix up next as we first turned right then left onto the track and managed to shout to others of the group to follow us that had not found us before. Unfortunately the track soon came back down to the big road alongside the river and we spread out in single file along it. It was beautiful but the traffic after the quiet of the earlier valley walk was not so good.
Mind you there were quaint little villages and the river with old arched stone bridges, mountains bathed in wispy clouds, all made for great views.


























We passed through the village of La Riera and then in the head of the valley we saw, for the first time, the twin towers of the cathedral of Cuadonga.














I thought we have arrived as we entered the national Park but there was still a test of stamina to go I was to find out! Steps now led us up and around to the waterfall, fountain and chapel in the cave. I had been pulling my rucksack on the hard road and we had done many kilometres and my legs strongly objected to the extra weight suddenly put on them when I lifted it up! I made it to the top but was one of the last in the group to the large pool. Over the far side was the fountain.




This fountain is supposed to bless the ladies if they drink from all it's 7 spouts I was told!!! I went over to it and drank from one and took photos, all of which were blurred, I then slipped on the wet stones so came back, before I fell in, chuckle!
Now! More steps, this time up to the little chapel above. Remember all the amigos had small daypacks I was the only one about with a full rucksack! I was gasping as I came up to the top and found that photos were discouraged in the chapel but I took one or two at the entrance, then I went in.
There were several people already seated and I moved round and out and followed Anna into the cave opposite. This seemed to be mostly man made, and the end opened out into a carpark. This was surrounded by buildings and to the right a little way off the cathedral.









I joined the others of our crowd and then when Anna spoke about visiting the cathedral I followed her and some others that were heading in that direction. Only one lady actually wanted to go inside so the two of us went in.



I said my thanks for the exciting journey and all the friends that had helped me make it here. It was a strange feeling I had. I had not made Santiago this camino but I now received a feeling I had arrived! I had somehow completed my camino!






I joined the others outside and walked back. There were no restaurants up here but it was decided we would climb a few more steps to an open place with picnic tables by an ancient grain store! Here, out came the wine and cider and empanada once again.























I had to decide what to do now I had been told by Vigi to go on to see the lakes and Anna also said I should go there. The problem was the weather and time of day as well as finding where the track led from! The cloud was very low and up there it would be worse, there was only one possible hut to sleep in so food would be needed too. To tell the truth I was tired and leaving such lovely friends as this and starting again had put me in the same mood as when I had left Janis to return to Portugal. I was a bit down, yet here I was, I had made it! Time to go!
"We will take you back to Candis and there you can find a hotel and walk tomorrow" Anna said. I agreed thanking them saying I could walk back to Candis. (This was a lie. Well I could possibly but not willingly!) We sat at the bottom eating ice creams, (I love this photo of Paco chuckle,)



while the cars were brought up. We piled in for the last time and soon we were down in Cangas by the bus station. I hugged and embraced my friends and waved as they drove off back to Oviedo. Tears smarted my eyes as I set off into town to find a cheap hostel.


It took a while but I found one and got a small but comfortable room with a bathroom. The elderly gentleman took my passport and I was supposed to see his son in the evening to pay! Somehow, I guess I was very tired, I forgot this! I washed and hung up my socks to dry, showered and went to find a restaurant to eat. There wasn't many and it was too early for most but in the end I waited in a café. It was pretty cold out under the shade cover even though they had clear plastic curtains on three sides. I did receive a good meal in the end and drank most of a bottle of red and a glass of orujo. Which probably wasn't such a good idea! On returning to my room I moved my rucksack and knocked the room instructions off the wall onto the floor! Unfortunately it was covered with glass that promptly shattered. Well Perspex would be better next time I thought putting the bits of glass in the waste bin and re-hanging it on the wall! I was embarrassed at doing such a daft thing! Still I had found out I could get a bus to Oviedo at 6.30am, I would go back as it had rained all evening, and the lakes would have to wait for another time. I slept like a log and at 6am hurried downstairs with my rucksack to go get the bus! Outside I turned the first corner then remembered I had left my passport with the old man!!! I hurried back and of course could not get in, the door had locked behind me!! I rang the bell and waited, then rang again, eventually the man's son came and let me in.
"You haven't paid" he said accusingly when I asked for the passport.
"Oh! my ….!!! He thought I was doing a runner!" I was so embarrassed this time as I tried to explain and pay up!
I took the passport and hurried out again!
Leaving the Bus station in Oviedo I walked into town not knowing quite what I was going to say to Vigi for returning so quickly! I was just crossing a square when I heard my name called. To my surprise it was one of the good ladies who had looked after me so well on this walk.
"Come, we must have a coffee why are you here so soon? You didn’t go see the lakes she enquired?"
Soon Paco joined us but they both had to go see about some taxes that needed paying!



















I rang Vigi and asked could I return? What a darling she is. I was allowed back, spoilt, walked off my feet every evening and fed till I set off on a bus to see Segovia three or four days later. Here are a number of shots of this wonderful town of Oviedo and walks I did before I left. There are many more and I would love you to see them but I have some great ones of Segovia I want to show you



























































Segovia and Avila were towns I had never seen on my travels. I still had almost two weeks before catching the plane home! First night, Valladolid I had never been there either.

See my blog

Valladolid, Segovia, Avilla, to continue the story


Bye for now
Mike

2010 Cuadonga camino.1

Cuadonga

June was here and as much as I love this town I thought I should move on and get out of Vigi's way.
I was invited to join the ladies for lunch at a restaurant and we had a nice meal and I met dear Conche once again. I left them to return to work and walked the town till 7. 30.
When Vigi returned from work, we hunted the internet for some short caminos I might do and it was decided that tomorrow I would be taken to Gijon where we would walk the coast and around Gijon with Conche, and Vigi, There they would show me where the Camino to Cuadonga left from. They insisted it was well marked and I would not get lost!!!

Next day June 2nd
I spent time trying to translate the route, it seemed only half here anyway. At 2.30 we set off to Gijon and I was taken to a lovely little café and it was so busy we had to wait for a table. The meal of mussels in onion sauce and salad, followed by fish cakes with peppers then cheese cake or lemon sorbet was delicious! Lots of wine and I ate the most as the girls were sure I needed fattening up!!!! Then their friend arrived and after she had eaten, we set off around the town and then off along the sea front.

























The girls all walk fast and we did some ten or more long kilometres along the cliff top and around bays and back.





































Then around the port again where we stopped at a cider bar and drank the lethal brew while it still fizzed in the glass as is the custom! The girls would not let me pay for anything.































I had been shown the spot where to pick up the camino so we all piled in the car and went back to Oviedo






June the 3ed
Maisie woke me to say my ticket was difficult to change and expensive so I would stay in Spain and do something else after this small Camino. I walked to the bus station to find out about getting to Gijon and got a couple of bits so I could repair a cupboard for Vigi and food for the trip. I had misunderstood Vigi and at lunchtime the phone went asking where I was! I was supposed to meet both girls for lunch but it was now too late!
I cooked up a rice then wandered the town till 6pm.

























Returning I found Vigi was busy on the computer so I went out again and got back at 9 to find she had more food for me to eat, finishing off with some wonderful strawberries. I was putting on kilos fast chuckle.


The 4th June
I said goodbye to Vigi and thanked her for all she had done for me and headed off to the bus station! Arriving in the town of Gijon I walked to the sea front and turned right the way we had walked before. On leaving the town I found the big traffic roundabout and there found the start of the walk by the river. There was a lot of roadwork going on and sure enough I soon am not sure I am going in the right direction!
















I asked some road workers and they couldn't help much so I followed the path I was on, hoping for the best! Next I am on country roads with no signposts!

I tried to bear left back in the direction of the coast but was getting completely confused ! A bakers van and a lady he was selling bread to, were not much help now either. It wasn't till I came to a garden nursery and asked a number of young workers having lunch that I got some help. They didn’t know the route I wanted but said I had to cross over the top of the hills in the distance. They sent me down a track starting alongside the garden nursery! It was a long way and at last I came to a road going up the ridge of hills. I was hungry and tired at the top and there I found a bar and was able to get a good meal. None in the bar had heard of the walk and most couldn’t understand my pronunciation of Cuadoga!
Saying goodbye to an English couple that couldn't speak a word of Spanish that I had helped order a meal, I set off again!
Later a friendly bar near the Cuadonga sign gave me wine and cognac for free! I never did find out what they were celebrating!




























































































Somehow I'd got back on the track and found a number of youngsters walking but they had booked into the hostel I had thought I might stay at but when we arrived there was no room for me!. A drink then I went on. I kept walking but the next village was no help but I was told to walk into the next town although it wasn't on my route. This took me some 4 km out of my way but I did find a nice friendly place at reasonable cost. I had to wait a while before I could eat at a nearby restaurant but that is normal in Spain.

The 5th June
The long walk back out of this town and its industrial outskirts had to be walked on an empty stomach. No breakfast! I passed the little bar that had gone to no end of trouble trying to help me find accommodation yesterday by phoning around. It was closed so I could not thank him, and after 4 or 5 kms I got to the junction where I had turned left instead of the right that I now took. After a few kilometres I came to a bar and it was opening, I stopped for breakfast and found that I might have got a bed here last night!




He gave me a few directions and I shortly took a track left and into deep wooded country. Streams burbled and some old ruins were charming.




































too wet for moles







After a while I found a sign and was happy till I came to a turning with lots of markers but no Cuadonga sign. My bit of paper off the internet said I should take a right but was it here? a x straight on decided me. It looked as if it was here I was supposed to follow the red and white stripes of another walk! I got through the five bar gate and entered a wood.
















I walked for ages gradually climbing higher into the mountains. I seemed to be following up a stream into and over the high mountain I glimpsed occasionally through the trees. Often the path fizzled out and I would take a chance, cross a meadow and take what I hoped was a path in the trees on the other side. It was cold and drizzling rain much of the time and I could see no hope of sleeping well in this forest and started to wonder if I should turn back.


























This track, if it was one, might just go on and on. I might walk through the night!!!! Ten more minutes I said to my self hoping I could find the way back!!! I saw a forest track and scrambled over to it and hoped it would lead to somewhere! When it didn't and I looked back and saw how high up I was I stopped to make that big change to turn back!!! I stood there it was so beautiful and I am here alone with just bird noises. What was that? a voice! I listened again. Yes! back the way I had come, someone was talking! I turned and went back and just as I turned a bend a group of Spaniards came over a brow of the muddy track. They had a job to understand my Spanish but I got by and discovered they to were walking to Cuadonga!




"Join us" a smiling Anna said, she was one of the Spanish ladies who spoke to me in English now! Some had walked this track before. They came from Gijon and some worked in Oviedo! I was so pleased to find I was on the right track and could now stop worrying and enjoy this valley that still wound higher and higher into the mountains. I was told it had some 20 odd watermills rotting away in the undergrowth.


































Soon we came to some and it was amazing to think this remote place had at one time been the hive of activity! The Industrial revolution of water power!!!


Climbing over logs and walking slippery paths we photographed the old mills with their green moss covering and snapped each other till we came eventually to the top and a small village!















































Ok amigos I will tell you what happened next.



























At the top the mist and drizzly rain kept us company but we travelled on for a while then we met a host of their friends, children and family members who fed us with empanadas, beer, wine and cider! I was introduced to so many that there was no way I could remember all the names. We were in a big open square in the centre of a small village , I cant even remember that, chuckle! Many got back in the cars but some of the stronger ones joined us walking.
At last we start off again over the mountain mostly, down hill.






A bar was found and here we took more refreshment and I snapped photos of my new friends.





















At one point we took a steep path down to make a shorter route


















then we came across little shrines to the Madonna and other saints. There seemed to be one before every village or hamlet, as you will see by the photos. The countryside was green and lush with those charming pale cows that looked like the ones I had seen that pulling the plough in Portugal.

































We were getting much lower now and the weather improved.



At last we came to the Bar Pilly that I had seen in my route paper work but my friends weren't stopping here and it was very busy anyway! So I tried to ask my new friend Anna what they were doing and would it be ok if I stuck with them.
'"Yes I think there will be room" she said, but never said what the arrangement for the night was!


Oh well! I was welcome and would sleep anywhere. I hadn't much food with me but surely I should be able to get some at the night stop or buy a meal.

We left this bar and the line of walkers strung out as those in front seemed to know where they were going as we turned left behind a building and out into the countryside again.







Back on a country road I noted the Cuadonga sign appeared on most turnings now. We would go up and down as we followed this undulating valley.

I have no idea how far we walked or how far I had walked but it was a long, long way and much had been mountains!

























We crossed a bridge over a river and stayed fairly near that for a while. Then climbed a hill past a very old church from the 12th century I think.



















Then we passed a hamlet where the ladies all admired the very scented pink roses! You can see how my companions had small daypacks not the big rucksacks like I was carrying chuckle. Anna's was bigger mainly because she was taking photos with a nice large camera. I had never thought about it before, these were people must have a bed and clean dry clothes at the end of the day. I never thought about it then but should have known!




We came to a tiny village with a white modern church and crossed a river and this valley.
On the other side we started to climb again passing donkeys in a field. Later I think we stayed in the woods for a while then down to the river again where I got a few good photos.























Then up we went again and over a hill. Going down again we found the cars in a small lay-by by the junction just past Romillo!




Everyone was embraced including me, and asked how we were, and how our feet were, chuckle. Now the party group was complete and the cars were full! Remember they had picked up an old Australian with a huge rucksack on the way!
This did not faze them and people were rammed into cars like they were trying to break the Guinness book of records.
"You must come with us, we can do it " Anna said.
Somehow they succeeded and there was room in the boot of the last car for my bag and I got a front seat!!!! 'Goodness what now?' I was thinking as we turned up a very steep hill and away. This narrow lane was suddenly left for a even more narrow track and we came into a small hamlet and the end of the road where we parked by a very charming old house.





Great discussions were going on that I could not follow! Some left with one of the cars I think while I was shown a room with a pair of beds and asked If I minded a roommate who snored, chuckle!
"I'll sleep soundly tonight on hard concrete! Nothing will wake me and I'll sleep on the floor if it helps, I do not need a bed!" I said.
They would not hear of it, I was a guest and I got in an early shower too, chuckle!

Downstairs all was jolly chaos as food was prepared in the kitchen. Good home made chorizo sausage, crusty bread, special red wine, cheeses - all had to be tried and commented on. Wow! this was a little bit of paradise! Then out came the cider and that had to be drunk as well. I know from experience never mix red wine and Spanish cider!! So I only had one glass and gave the glass to the next person and managed to refuse it when it came round again.










The children sat at the table to eat first.












Then all the adults and we ate and drank again. It was only the tapas we had previously eaten!!!!!!
Wonderful yummy almond goodies eventually finished the meal! This was one big happy family and I was included! A moment I will never forget "Thank you" dear Anna and friends, if ever you should read this! God bless you! and get in touch with the peregrinomike











































































I think what had happened, to accommodate me, they hired another house for the night, I never really knew, but there was another house used somewhere! There was a tent in the garden but I don’t think the children slept out there.
The wine + cider plus good food and great company! I crashed into bed that night not knowing what the time was but it must have been midnight! I slept like a log!!!! All that walking and excitement in one day!!!!!!!