Santillana del Mar to Cobreces

Ok, rest days are over it's time to get back on track, but we do this with heavy hearts - today is the day that our walking buddy George leaves us to go start a new and very exciting adventure - walking the Portuguese way with his children, we will miss him dearly, but are super excited for all the wonderful memories he gets to make with his family. We will have to step up our game though, George was the one who always got us the good table at the bars and ordered our drinks, he also kept us on the right path - leading our group of 3 up and down hills, through and around towns and meandering along headlands and coastal pathways, this is not always easy to do with two blondes in tow. Thank you for looking after us so well George, we appreciate everything you did for us and you will be greatly missed. We get ready and head up to George's accommodation, we wait with him until his taxi arrives before heading off on our walk for the day. The taxi arrives, we say our goodbyes, (we will next see George on the 2nd of September, the day after he and his family are scheduled to get into Santiago de Compostela). George goes in one direction and we soon branch off in another. On the outskirts of Santillana del Mar, we reach the campground which has a small supermarket attached to it, we decide to grab a ready made ceaser salad for our lunch today, then we keep going, luckily, George has warned me about the path going straight ahead and not to follow the bend in the road, as it will lead us the wrong way, and, at the last minute I notice the thin path running along side the campground, your natural instinct is to follow the bend in the road. It is a beautiful day today and we only have about 15 km to walk, this is our ideal distance - we can sleep in, and still get to our destination in a timely manner and our bodies are just starting to ache. Our walk today is mainly along quite country roads either asphalt or dirt, the countryside is very green, with wildflowers scattered through pastureland and along the roadside. We come into a town around the 7 km mark that has a lovely park with seating and decide this will be our lunch spot for today, it has a little stream running along side it and there are a few ducks here that seem to call this place home, we take our backpacks off and relax, eating our lunch for the next half hour or so. We feel recharged after our salad, so we pop on our backpacks and head off again, our next stop will be a bench out the front of a church, unfortunately most of the churches are locked on this Camino path, you can still utilise the outside areas that often have seating, shade and water, but you can’t go in to pray, it’s such a shame, every now and then you will fluke it though. We get to the outskirts of Cobreces and we see the banners hanging across the streets, we hear the music and see the bandannas around the necks of women and men - fiesta in Cobreces tonight! The sky has darkened and you can smell the rain in the air, I have everything crossed that we get to our accommodation before the downpour, and luckily for us the first drops hit as we are turning into the driveway of our home for the night, we have the perfect room that has a porch out the front that protects us from the rain, it is lovely sitting here, shoes off, with a glass of wine in hand, hearing and watching the rain, but not getting soaked. It’s the little things….Read more