La Peza to Tocón de Quentar 15km

We had thought that we could get up a bit later than usual today as we were only doing about 15km, but in fact everyone else made such a lot of noise getting up that staying in bed was pointless.

By the time we got dressed and finished packing our backpacks, almost everyone else had left already, but the remnants of the breakfast provided by the hospitalero was waiting for us downstairs. Jorge was still there finishing his breakfast and left just before us, but it wasn't long before we also set off.

Yesterday we had a steep descent into the town so I was expecting a steep ascent out of the town today and I was not wrong. Almost from the minute we left the albergue, the path started going uphill, and it kept on going up and up and up. Every so often the gradient would lessen or even level out, but it was always short lived before the next steep section. We walked steadily, if slowly, uphill for the next two hours, it was quite exhausting, but the views were great. We were very relieved when it started to level out and then gently descend.

We finally reached the main road (GR3201), and were supposed to walk alongside the water/river channel alongside the road. The camino associations generally direct pilgrims off the road for safety reasons, even though in most cases there is actually very little traffic outside of the towns. However, the channel was filled with deepish sand, and stones, it was very uneven and both Ken and I stumbled several times within a few minutes. Apart from the slow progress, we decided that walking on the the track beside the road was probably a greater risk to our health and safety than walking on the road. So, it was an easy decision to turn back to a point where we could get up onto the road, and from there on the going was a lot easier and a lot quicker, even going uphill. In fact, in the hour or so that we walked on the road only four cars passed us.

A few hundred metres later we came to the turnoff for Tocón de Quentar and were off-road once more, but the path was much more level and easier to walk on. That said, we were surprised by a couple of cyclists coming along the path behind us, that path was quite rocky in places but they managed. Twenty minutes later we were sitting in the bar having ice cold drinks.

The albergue turned out to be rather nice, with two bathrooms and two showers - and a bath! The shower was one of the best so far, plenty of hot water and good water pressure, trust me, these things matter. We chose our beds and then got on with he daily camino tasks of washing, and getting food etc. The food in the bar was more expensive than average but it was very good. we returned to the albergue for the siesta and for the first time in Spain, I slept for a couple of hours in the afternoon.

Jorje did his washing in the machine but the door jammed, after a bit of effort `i managed to get it open, the couple after him were not so lucky, they didn't know each other but time was passing and they decided to share the machine. You guessed it the door got stuck again and would not open no matter how hard we tried. Eventually they went and spoke to the owner of the bar who also looked after the albergue, and, long story short, their wet washing had to stay in the machine until the next day when an engineer would come out and look at it. They had to move on to Quentar with no clean clothes, though in fairness to the bar owner he arranged to have their clothes delivered to them later the next day. Ken and I washed our stuff in the sink., and by the time we had come back from dinner they were dry.

There were six of us in the albergue, a Dutch cyclist turned up a bit later, it was just as well some of the folk from yesterday went on to Quentar today. The guidebook said that there was no mobile signal here but we had no problem getting connected. There is generally wifi in the bars and cafes but not in the albergues, so having a data signal is quite important.

I am sure that we made the right choice in splitting this stage in half. we had a difficult time coming over the mountain and it will be more of the same tomorrow.Read more