#8 Camino Primitivo - Berducedo to Grandas de Salime

What a buzz in the albergue cafe at 6:30am! It felt like a bar in Glasgow on a Saturday night… the barman was so cheery, whistling away and just loving his job.

People from all countries were crowded around the bar, ordering various things for breakfast. Our choice breakfast each day has become tortilla, cafe con leche and zumo naranja (freshly squeezed orange juice).

Everywhere there were people chatting, vacating seats for others, putting on boots. We chatted to a lovely pair of french ladies and an Aussie/Anglo couple living near Stirling in Scotland.

We left at 7:30am but had to stop almost immediately for Hamish to remove gravel from his boots, something that happens almost every hour.

Berducedo is a lovely rural village and quite hilly. It amused me to see that most houses have tractors instead of cars…they are parked outside on the street and tractors are also in their carports.

When I noticed a pilgrim who had obviously just taken a shortcut through the village, I commented on her being smart…but her response was simply “Every road leads to Santiago!”

Early rain before La Mesa meant we had to put on waterproofs, but we were very happy. Hamish even said he would like to do another Camino with me.

We discussed which one, and he thought maybe another three week one. This makes me very happy indeed.

The views today were stunning, as the route wound high above the Rio Navia and also descended dramatically to the head of a deep dam.

The village where we were headed was flooded back in the 1950s.

Reaching the dam involved a height drop of 822m, although the overall descent today is actually 1228m.

Both of Hamish‘s grandfathers were involved with building hydro dams in the 1950s in Scotland and it is funny to think that here in Spain, there were men of that same generation building dams and flooding the glens in the same way as Hamish’s grandfathers.

We had a fun lunch stop just after crossing the dam with our four Italian friends, Sara, Luca, Giorgio and Andrea… beers and tortilla, and omelette bocadillos. This was good craic Camino style.

Uphill all the way for 6km then, but when fuelled with beer, (even just one), it makes you feel happy and invincible.

4km of the uphill was on tarmac and winding mountains roads, but then a further 2k uphill was on steep woodland tracks.

It was very beautiful and the smells were exquisite… I just wanted to drink in all the pine, floral and earthy scents.

The walking day ended with a half hour of full deep breaths of exquisite air, replenishing and filtering my lungs.

Out with the old, in with the new.

A process of regeneration and recycling.

And the day itself ended with a generous invitation to eat a home cooked meal in the albergue with the Italians… followed by games of cards, and more birthday cake!

Total Distance - 21.81k

Total height gain - 874m

Total height loss - 1228m

Laundry…

Luca, Andrea, Giorgio, Sara, me and Hamish’s hand…

Giorgio was the mastermind of this evening’s meal of potato and pasta, a family favourite of his region.

Daily foot massage…

Previous
Previous

#9 Camino Primitivo- Grandas de Salime to A Fonsegrada

Next
Next

#7 Camino Primitivo - Campiello to Berducedo (via Hospitales)