Spain
Grado

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    • Day 2

      Grau - Cornellana - 26km

      July 31, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

      Aujourd'hui je commence mon chemin Primitivo, depuis le Centre Mandalas.
      J'ai rejoins le chemin officiel à Paladin,
      Je fais une pause a Grado, afin de prendre un café avec mes amis du Centre, dimanche, jour de marché.
      Visite de la Casita Mandala, bio-construite par Max & Alicia, nuit a Casa Roca Madre , d'autres amis de Max. Un accueil généreux et sympathique
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    • Day 19

      Paladin

      September 16, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

      First day of the Primitivo and there were lots of people setting off, all speeding past us in their first day enthusiasm. It felt very odd. We took it easy and enjoyed the cooler weather and the countryside, both of which reminded us of England. Staying in a great little Albergue with river seats so you can cool your aching feet in the freezing water.Read more

    • Day 5

      Potes to Puerma

      October 5, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

      Our final day in Eastern Picos and a jaunt west over to Puerma for 2 nights and one final hoon around the Picos.

      We took inspiration from Teapot One and headed towards Colunga and on to the coast for lunch. As navigator, I took lead for the route and it was amazing! I forgot how incredible it was to be in the front, no one’s lines to follow, no speed to adhere to, just you and the road. Ben and Sean joined us for this last ride, with Sean feeling a little fragile from the night before. We headed back towards Cangas de Onis along the beautiful AS114 and then ventured further west along new roads and some more built up areas. Our final route all together was up over the AS260 stopping at the Mirador del Fitu for a couple of photos before descending to the coastal stop of Lastres for a last lunch and time to head our own ways.

      The final few miles were uneventful but we ended up at our beautiful Camino hostel run by Pablo, a very cheerful Spaniard with a love of life.

      Good: the epic hoon to Cangas de Onis along the AS114, I really gelled with my bike and totally loved it
      Bad: the heat riding around Oviedo in search of vape juice
      Roads: N621, AS114, AS260
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    • Day 15

      A new beginning

      September 19, 2019 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

      Today's KM's - 25.8kms
      Total KM's - 282.5 KMs
      Total Blisters - 7

      Start of the Primitivo today. Lots of new people with fresh legs, having started in Oviedo. Oviedo was nice and we are well rested before starting a new walk. I finally convinced Pam to buy a walking stick so that has kept her distracted most of the day poking and hitting different things on the track.

      Arrived at Grado and managed to get into a beautiful albergue (on top of a hill!). Time to explore Grado now.

      P.S. found a cool flyover video which shows where we walked today

      https://youtu.be/QsmmWq99kTU
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    • Day 8

      Fun in Oviedo

      September 13, 2021 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

      This was a great day with visits to the pre-Romanesque churches (900s!!!) I love them so much. After visiting both the Naranco sites and San Julian de los Prados, Helena and I had a great lunch in the old part of town. Things are really changing in staid old traditional Oviedo when you can get a poke bowl for lunch!

      We had so much to catch up on since it had been three years since we last saw each other. We wound up staying up much later than was sensible for someone starting to walk the next day, since I think it was after 1130 when I got to my room.

      We also met up with a Forum member from Maine who decided to stop walking in Oviedo because the Salvador had done him in. We had a nice long chat, while sitting in the main square with the Cathedral in the background. He also gave me a Covid test kit that I can use to prove my Covid free status before coming back to the US.

      Here’s hoping it won’t be three more years till I see Helena again!
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    • Day 8

      Grado - about 26kms from Oviedo

      September 27, 2016 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

      Quick post as I'm in bed with a horrible tummy bug. Not sure if I'll be able to walk tomorrow - we'll see.

      Beautiful walk today in the countryside, with a few little hills. Tomorrow's walk is a lot more challenging.Read more

    • Day 10

      Singing in the Rain to La Espina

      September 15, 2021 in Spain ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

      My GPS says 33km and 1077 m elevation gain. I believe the kms but not the elevation. I think that’s way too much. Anyway, in spite of the rain, it was really a pretty good day. When I woke up at around six, I saw that it wasn’t raining. So I decided to have a quick cup of coffee in my room (thank you Clare for that wonderful coil) so I could take off a little earlier, rather than wait for breakfast in the hotel. That was a good decision, because I had the first 3 1/2 or four hours with no rain. Lots of ups and downs, lots of pretty green valleys, but lots of fog so it was hard to see. Luckily since this is the fourth time I’ve done this route, I have pretty clear memories of the beautiful countryside. But it would be nice to see it!

      The rain started at about 11, it was very gentle at first but by about noon it started coming down hard. As a good Camino friend has pointed out, once you are totally wet you don’t get any wetter so there’s really not a problem walking once you get soaked through.

      I took a rest in Salas before the last 6 km, knowing that there were some pretty steep ascents. I found a nice looking place with tables under an awning, but unfortunately the café was closed for a weekly rest day. I stayed at the table and ate some stuff out of my pack which is always a good idea since it lightens your weight.

      For anyone who’s walked the Primitivo, you know that a stop at Bodenaya is required. I would have loved to stay there, but because of Covid, I resisted. David is one of those old school hospitaleros, who really believes in the Camino and what it does for people. We had a really nice talk and I was sorry to say goodbye.

      Clothes are washed (whether they will ever dry is another question), I am showered, and I’m heading out to buy some more fruit and nuts for my pack. Looks like the next few days will all have rain, but I long ago stopped worrying or complaining about that!
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    • Day 2

      Grado (ca. 25.5km)

      April 1, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

      Etappe eins ist geschafft. Während der Wanderführer uns noch weiss machen wollte, dass es auf der Strecke bis nach Grado gaaaaar keine Steigung gibt und alles im Grunde Ebene Strecke ist, wurden wir schnell eines besseren belehrt.

      Tatsächlich liegt Oviedo etwa 150 Meter höher als Grado, aber der alte Jakobus hat natürlich die besten auf und ab Strecken ausgesucht, damit der geneigte Pilger schon weiss, was ihn nach Salas erwartet. Denn dann geht es erstmal nur noch bergauf. Also ein rundum gelungener, erster Tag ;)

      Auch das Wetter hat gut mitgespielt, die Abwechslung zwischen wohltuend bewölkt und herrlichstem Sonnenwetter war ideal!
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    • Day 35

      La Senda Del Oso - The path of Bears

      November 6, 2021 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 7 °C

      We had a great nights sleep, no noise, no vanlifers turning up at stupid hour banging doors and no barking dogs. And we woke to a mountain view, a steaming lake and clouds winding there way down between the mountains.
      From our camp spot in the little car park we headed for the path of bears a little further away but parking was a problem so we turned around and headed for the motorhome parking at terverga.
      We arrived about 11am, bought some empilladas from a small shop on the way and ate them before exploring our surroundings.
      Tervaga and the small surrounding villages are beautiful, they are complete chocolate box hamlets surrounded by huge snow capped mountains and Ellie has finally fallen in love with somewhere.
      At midday we headed for a small mountain on foot, we didn’t take a lot with us as we thought we would be walking the path of bears which is flat so 3/4 of a bottle of water and 4 orange club biscuits were what we took, and I’ll be honest they were all by chance.
      As we approached the path of bears we decided instead to take a different path that led up the mountain, I read the gradient and height which was 19% at 850 meters for 8.5km but Ellie only read the distance which was 8.5km.
      2 hours later going uphill all the way on a road we still hadn’t come across another sign and we were still walking on the road and I was convinced this was wrong so I checked google maps, it looked to me as if the path should go from another small hamlet a little further up. We turned off the road and entered the hamlet and walked around a maze of tiny roads you would have trouble getting a horse around let alone a car and then a grassy and very rocky path appeared on a bend and we took it.
      The path was obviously hundreds of years old with huge cobbled stones forming the base of it and the gradient was incredible. I kept checking google maps for our position just to be sure we were still heading in the right direction because now our only landmarks were huge mountains and we so nearly gave up, but an hour later we arrived at the summit. It was a great achievement especially for Ellie as she hates walking uphill and we were greeted by wild horses, 360° views and a tiny little chapel.
      We decided to walk back down the road which probably hurt just as much going down hill as it did going up and by the end of it we were both walking like a couple of drunks.
      At 4:30pm we arrived back at Wanda, completely exhausted after almost 5 hours and 10 miles of hiking, we didn’t ever find another sign for the path we thought we were taking but the walk was beautiful and we will probably remember it for the rest of lives.
      I’m sure we will sleep well tonight.
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    • Day 34

      Alone in the mountains

      November 5, 2021 in Spain ⋅ 🌧 8 °C

      This morning again we had a very rude awakening by a vanlifer, rocking up next to us in the car park at 3:30am and then proceeding to bang every door in the van while they sorted themselves out. That just reinforces my beliefs that vanlifers are the entitled of the road.
      So at 6:30am when I got up I dropped the electric step, opened and closed the habitation door and then opened and closed the cab doors very loudly just because I could.
      Then at 9am much to our delight a bread van pulled into the car park beeping his horn like there was no tomorrow, that definitely woke the buggers up.
      At 9:30am we proceeded down the steps and into the beach to be greeted by sea caves and arches galore. We scrambled over wet rocks and rock pools to get to the 3 arches and we were one of the first there along with other photographers who had tripods. I didn’t take mine because I knew it wouldn’t be free of people long enough to do long exposures and it wasn’t but I did shoot super fast and lots of exposures so I can stack the pictures later. These other photographers were very frustrated and kept on shouting at people to move out the way.
      We spent about an hour in the beach and had a good break in the weather before we set off for a small car park in the Sienda National park to spend the night.
      When we arrived at 2pm it was raining hard so we made lunch and chilled for a couple of hours and as the rain wasn’t stopping we just decided to head out anyway. We took the famous Torres de osos route or the path of bears because in this region of Spain they do have wild bears. Off we went over a beautiful lake on a long wooden bridge and along the mountain path. It was a beautiful walk, even in the rain and we did get very wet but the walk spurred Ellie on to look for a place that might have bears.
      It turns out that tomorrow’s park up in Terverga is famous for the bears so tomorrow we will be going on a bear hunt. But tonight we’ll be spending the night alone listening to the rain and hopefully getting a full nights sleep.
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    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Grado, Grao

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