La Robla to Poldura de la Tercia 28kms

I left the pension at 07.15am this morning. The first few hours were along the base of the valleys in the Cantabrian mountains. As in other similar mountains, roads, rivers and rail tracks all fight for the same space.

I stopped briefly for second breakfast and carried on. It was not particularly interesting and included a lot of road walking.

I reached a small town called Buiza around 11am. I took a short break and watched a young village kid playing war games. He was completely unaware that I was there. It was so funny. The interesting part was the short steep climb out to 1500m to the Alto Forcads pass(it means forks in the road). It was simply stunning.

From there it was another 6-8kms with a detour downhill to my stop tonight. It is a small Albergue above what was a school.

I’ve managed to book a meal in a nearby hostal. Tomorrow promises to be an equally tough but shorter day…we’ll see.

There are a small band of us together. A Lithuanian kid, a French and Spanish guys and moi in the small Albergue tonight. There is also a Canadian couple staying in the hostal.

I am using my night school Spanish to the max. I seem to be understood or maybe they’re just being polite.

Anyway to the pictures….Read more