I didn’t sleep much in the Albergue in Campiello . You can guess why but I’m not blameless when it comes to snoring as I have been told in no uncertain terms already on this trip. Day 5 day turned out to be overcast and much cooler so it was ideal for walking . The Camino split after a few kilometres and there were two route options , a tough one named the ” Hopitales ” route and another lower level option. I chose to take the Hospitales route which led into the Fonfaraon mountain range away from civilisation for most of the day. It is considered the most strenuous but also one of the most beautiful of the Spanish sections of The Way. It took us along a high mountain ridge and past the ruins of three former pilgrim hospitals . It was a fantastic walk though the mist at the high levels obscured the views. There were a number of wild horses up there grazing above the tree line.

 

 

I walked most of the route with Valentin , a young lad from Moscow who spoke very good English . He was good company for what was a long days’ hike as we walked non stop for 8 hours. Later on in the walk we were joined by a great guy named Martijn, a Dutch lad who had camped out in the mountains the previous night but who has been struck down with a stomach virus and spent a very uncomfortable night intermittently vomiting. He had gradually felt better as the day wore on and we had a good chat over the last few kilometres. He had spent the 6 months prior to walking the Camino working in Ireland and had come to love the place and the people , to the point he is considering settling there in future. He had spent a few weeks house sitting in Sligo for Marion Dowd , an archeologist and author. Before she left on her trip she had given him lots of information on passage tombs and caves that had been inhabited in ancient times and he had taken the opportunity to visit some of these including “ Diarmuid and Grainne’s ” cave near Benbulben ( reputed to be the last resting place of the ill fated lovers ) and the caves at Kesh. He was absolutely fascinated by these and gave me the urge to go and visit them the next time I’m in Sligo , should I ever be able to tear myself away from the riverbank : )

Day 6 took initially took us along a windmill lined ridge and then around a large reservoir ( the Rio Navia was dammed here ) . There was a fairly steep descent ( 800m in 6km ) so it was hard on the knees and the feet. Some spectacular views were to be had though.

I had another ” Mr Bean does the Camino ” episode towards the end of the walk. I was walking along a road side with Martjin , who was just ahead of me and is a big guy. I didn’t notice that he had ducked under one of those transverse signs that indicate that you are leaving the village. I was also looking at the ground. I walked head first straight into the sign and was thrown backwards , my rucksack cushioning the fall. I must have looked like an upturned turtle and was dazed for a minute or two. I think Santiago must be looking after me as I got away with nothing worse than a big lump on the head .

We stopped at the tiny village of Castro and booked into a rustic albergue which catered for 16 people and was full. There are two young priests from Argentina , Father Juan and Father Gustavo , walking on our stage and they were staying in the same place. They started on the Camino del Norte in San Sebastián 23 days ago and , if given permission to do so , have been saying Mass in the local churches each evening . It wasn’t possible to say Mass in the tiny church in Castro so instead they moved a table from the bar in the albergue into the garden and used this as an altar. Father Gustavo said the Mass in Spanish and Father Juan read the gospel in both Spanish and English ( using his iPhone to translate it into English ). It was a beautiful , sunny evening and about a dozen of us attended. In the background you could only hear the sounds of cows in the surrounding fields and some Asturian folk music drifting out from the bar. They gave us all a blessing at the end of the mass. It was one of those special Camino moments that will live long in the memory.

 

 

I walked relatively short distances on days 3 and 4. The first two days had been quite strenuous and tiring in the heat and I wanted to have a couple of shorter days before the big walk of 31.5km through the mountains on day 5. This is a much harder walk than the Camino Frances with lots of ascents and descents but this is compensated by the fact the scenery is beautiful. There are also far fewer pilgrims compared with the Frances . I’d guess there are around 40 pilgrims walking per stage and they are predominately Spanish and French . I’ve met no British or Irish up to this point and there are just a handful of pilgrims who speak fluent English. Hardly any of the locals speak English other than a few words so it’s a source of regret that my Spanish language skills are still at the basic level.

We’ve walked through medium sized hill country with plenty of wooded sections passing small villages in which there  is often a small Romanesque church , a few cats and the sound of cockerels crowing. There are loads of apple orchards and fig trees and every house seems to have a vegetable patch growing a variety of things , often including a large area of Kale. Making cider seems to be bit of a religion around here and I have to say it’s really good stuff. They pour the cider into a glass from a height and it fizzes when the stream gushes out. I poured out a glassful from the bottle like this but the bar owner in Salas told me I was doing it incorrectly and was quite insistent I do it the right way. They only pour small amounts into the glass , so called ” culinos ” that must be consumed immediately after it has been poured “so that it doesn’t die ” ( meaning it doesn’t go flat ). By doing this it’s supposed to give it a bolder flavour. Whether ” dead ” or ” alive ” it tasted great to me.

Early in this walk I was delighted to receive a text from Gail Hooley to tell me that she and her friends from Dublin ( Pauline , Denise and Catherine ) had just arrived in Santiago to complete their Camino Frances . They had done it in one week stages in every year since I had met them  on the first day of my own Camino Frances walk in 2012. As a reward for their efforts they treated themselves to a couple of nights at the Parador in Santiago , and why not . Gail sent me the photos below.

 

 

 

 

I walked part of Day 4 with Birgitte from Hamburg and Jay from California , both interesting characters. This was Birgitte’s 10th Camino including two long walks in Italy including the Camino de St Francisco ( St Francis Way ) . And I thought I had it bad ! She worked in quite a stressful office based role for The Ministry of Science in Hamburg and loved escaping for long walking holidays. Jay works as a ” Humanitarian Photographer ” for USA Today and was photographing everything in sight with a retro Fuji camera.

During the course of day four I noticed this blog had suddenly started receiving a lot of hits from Spain , in fact into the hundreds , which I found puzzling. Later in the day I found out why. Miguel Sanz , the lovely guy who showed me around the stadium and museum at Real Oviedo had written an article about me on the club website , including a picture of ” El Britanico de Wigan ” . His colleague had then tweeted a link to this which had then been retweeted and favourited lots of times. All of a sudden I have a lot of Real Oviedo fans following the progress of ” El Britanico” on his Camino. He messaged me again today to tell me 2 local newspapers have done a little feature on me. That’s decided then , El Britanico will be wearing his Real Oviedo shirt on arrival in Santiago : ) .