Tineo to Collinas de Arriba

Wow what a day! Slight logistical issue in that both the apps showed our distance today as being 14.5k but in fact it was 21.5. However we’d sort of worked that out thank goodness as I find it easier to know roughly how far I’m going to be walking - not much fun finding out you’ve got to walk another 8k when it’s already been quite tough.
We left Tineo at about 7.20. There was a steady climb through trees looking down on the clouds and with distant views to the mountains for the first hour or two and then eventually the path emerged onto a sort of high moorland with gorse bushes and grass and lots of birdsong. Also stunning. Heard a garden warbler, a yellow hammer and lots of stone chats who seemed to follow me around.
Then a gradual downhill and on into woodland, again full of birds and insects before eventually emerging onto a road.
There was a fairly long stretch of road before the route finally reached breakfast at the only stop on the way, Campiello - about 12 k from the start.
Coffee, green tea and a piece of tortilla later I was revived and after buying bananas and a red bull for tomorrow (nothing at all day and a big mountain - the Hospitales route) I continued on - more road and then some steep paths - a lot of sun interspersed with bits of shade. It was quite a hard walk with very muddy bits that required some hopping, but still very enjoyable.
I arrived at the hostal Los hospitales at around 1. It’s beautiful here. A very new hostal. We are in a 6 bed dorm with its own bathroom - as we were first we have two bottom bunks thank goodness. David (Wales) is here and Catherine and husband. Also lots of new people (potential for snoring in our dorm is high I think). Hoping for the best tho as need to sleep tonight in advance of the high route tomorrow.
Great and huge dinner - vegetarian risotto for me. Now in our dorm with two Swiss women and two Irish guys Joe and David who met on the Frances in 2022. Joe has given cress some very smelly Chinese medicine stuff for her knees which he swears by.Weiterlesen