We’ve arrived at a hotel in a small town at the foot of long climb up into the mountains. This thankfully will be tomorrow’s problem. Today’s route took us out of the small pension we stayed at inTineo

and out of the inversion that had formed overnight. Here are some views as we climbed steadily up and away

And here’s an atmospheric picture of mum as she emerged from the fog into the light 🤗.

The swedish couple we’d had dinner with in Salas were having drinks in the sunshine outside the main albergue last night in Tineo. She’d had a nasty accident on one of the descents and had damaged her knee, probably tearing a ligament by her description and was having difficulty walking. Mum went back to the pension and returned with the strapping that she’d used on the Camino Frances in April and a tube of ibuprofen gel, both of which were gratefully received since the pharmacies were all closed. Ironically, having realised that we could post unwanted stuff on to Santiago, at dinner in Salas, both Fabricio and I had suggested strongly that she should reduce the weight in her backpack by at least 4kg and to purchase some poles specifically to avoid this sort of accident. I suspect that that’s the end of their Camino this time around 😓

Fabricio joined us last night at the restaurant adjoining the albergue where he and his nephew were staying. Another Italian chap from Sicily joined us and we chatted about Montalbano (spoiler alert: Montalbano’s accent is indeed Sicilian but from another distant part of Sicily) and lots of politics.

Shortly after we cleared the inversion today we met up with the three of them and walked together for the next 15km or so. When mum grew tired we dropped back a little and suggested that they move ahead. They’re staying in the albergue in Pola de Allende so we’ll almost certainly meet up again on tomorrow’s walk. The company on the Camino on this trip and more generally is always interesting and often really heart warming. We’ve met, walked with and chatted to a really interesting collection of people. Today in particular had been a real delight.

Here is a nice picture of donkeys

And here are some views of the sort of countryside that we’re currently traveling through.

It’s all been very beautiful and there have been some interesting animals en route.

Starting with some cows 😉

And some Shetland ponies.

The first of three cows that emerged very unexpectedly from a side road onto the main road

Giving mum something of a fright 😉. They seemed fairly laid back as they munched their way past the local shop.

Finally a really pretty red frog that luckily hopped out of my path in time.

Let’s not forget some hydrangeas

And some interesting tiles.

Does anyone have any idea what this is?

Shortly after we left this morning we passed two Spanish chaps from Seville. One, strong and tall walked with a decent backpack from Decathlon. The other, smaller and with a pronounced limp had a large sports kit bag strapped to his back and a long, thin hazel stick. We’d seen them repeatedly at intervals since leaving Oviedo.

Some 10km further on we found them during at a bar when we stopped for boccadillo and coffee. We left before them and then passed them again some 6km further on. This time they were looking for a small village called Borres which we’d already bypassed. We helped them with some water and gave them our strawberries.

6km further on we found them again sitting at a bar

where mum and I had a belated lunch of ham omlette. They were already making their way through their second beer. We were somewhat confused. Much like mages in World of Warcraft they seemed capable of appearing and disappearing at will.

We chatted, they asked why we were so slow. I explained that despite appearances to the contrary, both mum and I were really quite old, 97 and 84 respectively. They were really lovely guys full of humour and radiating cheerfulness. We walked pretty much the rest of the way to Pola with them, if only to see how if they disappeared again.

Since this is a Pilgrim route both mum and I are convinced that they’re angels. It was nuns on the Camino Frances in Fronfria last April, angels on the Camino Primitivo in July. 🤗

Time for menu peregrino.

Buen Camino