Soto del Barco

I had two very contrasting conversations today. The first was this morning with the first person I saw, an old man out for walk. We started by talking about walking and then he asked if I'd tried Asturian cider (sidra). I admitted I didn't like it. He was taken aback at this and started asking me questions like which ciders have I tried, and how much have I spent. He decided I needed to buy and try more expensive ciders and said I could try some of his. This was at 8.30am so I had to give up the offer unfortunately. He also told me I need to eat more bread! He was a real good laugh even though I was struggling to understand all he said.

The second was as I was walking out of Aviles. A little dog was yapping and the owner, a well dressed old lady, told me off for scaring her dog! "How am I scaring your dog?" I asked. "By wearing this and this," I was told. She pointed to my walking poles and rucksack. I apologised to the dog and walked on.

Photos - today was 26 miles through a conurbation pretty much so the first photo is a street in the old part of Aviles and the second is an example of what I've walked through for a large part of the day. It can't all be pretty beaches unfortunately.Read more