It’s been a gorgeous day. The weather has been kind, a very slight drizzle, hardly noticeable on the way out from Oviedo but warm and on occasion, sunny, thereafter.

The hotel was excellent, a quick 200m walk from the main bus station. We woke early, skipped breakfast at the hotel but stopped shortly afterwards at a small bar. This was around 7:45. After the ubiquitous boccadillo jambon and a cup of coffee we continued on our way past some interesting buildings with unusual staircases in between.

A few metres after I took this picture I suddenly felt the need to start our Camino from it’s real point of origin, the cathedral. We’d not seen anything of Oviedo apart from the bus station and the hotel so this was an opportunity to fix that. Mum took some persuading but gave in and we retraced our steps and headed into the centre of the town.

Oviedo is a lovely city full of interesting sculptures.

I particularly like the first one 🤗.

The square in front of the cathedral was pretty deserted apart from a lady looking for a little financial help.

€5 is a small price to pay for a sense of spiritual correctness especially with Mary looking on.

Shortly after we stopped for more coffee, this time in Starbucks where I suddenly realized that I’d left my gillet in the hotel. So back we plodded.

They’d not cleaned our room and the gillet was still draped over the chair where I’d left it the previous evening.

It was close to 10 am before we finally made our way out of Oviedo.

It’s always surprising to find how quickly one is able to leave a large city behind and to find oneself in the countryside.

I really do like cows 🤔.

There were lots on today’s hike, most of whom, like this one wearing large sonorous bells around their necks. The sound of a dozen cows chewing is interesting, much like I’d expect from a bunch of demented Shoalin monks.

Shortly after seeing these particular cows, after a steep descent we stopped for lunch.

As we were eating, a Dutch girl who’d passed us earlier and who’d stopped a little before us came tumbling down the slope. She picked herself up and insisted that she was fine before continuing. She’d told us that this was the 85th day off her Camino. She’d started in the Netherlands, had cycled through France, had left her bike, presumably with friends some 50km from the border and had walked along the Camino Norte through Bilbao, Santander etc and had dropped down onto the Primitivo at Oviedo.

We finished lunch, packed our bags and started off. Some 500m further on we came across a small group of pilgrims clustered around the Dutch girl. She was clutching her stomach and was clearly in considerable pain. Somebody had already called an ambulance which was due to arrive shortly.

Life is far too arbitrary. Hopefully it’ll all work out ok for her but when we spoke earlier she’d been so cheerful. C’est la vie but one doesn’t have to like it.

A few km further on we stopped for coffee again and came across this very large Mastiff. In this picture he’s quite majestic. 30s earlier he’d been chewing his testicles trying to get at what we can only assume were invisible fleas 😉.

At various points on the Camino you come across refugios, buildings that are usually old and more usually dilapidated that were once home for one night to pilgrims on their way to Santiago.

The route through today’s countryside was very peaceful, the only sounds were bird song, the occasional cockerel and the demented Shoalin monks/cows. The flowers were beautiful, weeds they may be, but they were absolutely gorgeous.

Reminiscent of Tolkien, the road really did go on and on,

wending it’s way amongst the wild flower meadows and small fields.

The Camino is well signposted even down the paths and tracks that made up much of today’s route.

Here’s a nice picture of mum and some images of the equivalent of the maize drying structures on the Camino Frances.

Interesting n’est pas?

Some 5km from our current hotel we stopped at a bar near the river and I watched the tail end of the game between France and Uruguay whilst mum partook.

Here’s the river.

And here’s an interesting tile. Similar ones can be found on many dwellings here.

That’s probably enough for today. It’s time for menu peregrino at €10 per person. There’s no chance unfortunately for washing today’s grimy clothes but we’ve booked accommodation for the next couple of nights and tomorrow’s has washing facilities. It’s not a problem for me but mum isn’t so keen on letting me wander the streets unwashed 😟.

Buen Camino