Murias

I left early, headlamp in the dark, and in a few minutes came up on someone taking off his raincoat. He said it was fine for me to tag along behind till daylight, and we were halfway through the descent to the dam when some light timidly tried to push out of the clouds.

Lots of us had left early because of the forecast for rain, but happily it never materialized other than about 15 minutes of drizzle. The route goes through an area where there were bad forest fires a few years ago, and it still looks pretty bleak. The dam has a functioning hydroelectric plant, but there are many abandoned buildings and machinery dotting the hills around. I usually find dams and reservoirs pretty depressing, but this one was even more so than usual.

Crossing over the dam means the start of the ascent, which was steep. But today’s total of 700 m is less than previous days and more than most of what’s coming up. So I’m a happy camper, especially when it’s added to the short day’s total of 23 kms.

Tomorrow we leave Asturias and enter Galicia!Read more