‘Twas a good start this morning, I was the first one of the 5 in the albergue to hit the road at the daybreak hour of 7:45am. My pack felt quite good despite the emergency food I was carrying, then I realized it was because it was frigid out and I was wearing almost all my layers! Not sure the temp but guess…6°C?

A perfect 2 hours in was Pola de Gordón with lots of open bars so I had a nice hot chocolate…and a hot coffee to warm up. I’d ordered a lovely pan au chocolate but coffee came with breakfast tapas (a slice of tortilla on bread & a little square of cake) so I took croissant to go.

The next 6.6 kms was road walking, luckily not a busy road as there was hardly any verge. Most of it was through a narrow, winding, mini-gorge so was glad to pound the pavement versus trying to billy goat it up and over!

I got my share of elevation next as after the town of Buiza I was on a path going straight up, heading for the rocky ridge above. Now I was feeling my pack! My favorite refrain when facing adversity such as long slog or steep climb is from Lord of The Rings: “there’s nothing for it, Mr. Frodo” (naught one can do but continue on). As added incentive I promised myself my chocolate croissant once I reached the top!19.5kms, and 1462m, I reached Alto Forcadas de San Antón (St Anthony’s Pitchforks) and the scenery was stunning. The descent through sweet smelling pine trees was amazing – until I had just one too many spider webs in my face! Urg, hate that! I heard some people come up behind me so I stood aside to let them pass, thereby clearing the way, when something caught my eye in the tree beside me.

I stopped the couple to show it to them and they explained in their best English (they were Spanish) that this is Celtic country and there’s strong beliefs locally in the spirits that inhabit the woods and the nature around us. Were the forest imps trying to get my attention? Why did I stop exactly there? Well, nature was definitely in charge as I continued to get spider threads in my face!

The walking finally turned into hiking as the path went off the forest road and on to a cattle trail cutting around the side of a hill. I had to be careful of my footing as my attention kept being drawn to the spectacular views. I’d walk 100m, take a photo, walk a 100m more, take another. I was slow as a turtle the last few miles of the day.

I’m in another albergue tonight. Not as nice as last night but sufficient for this peregrina’s needs. Chris and Bernard are here from last night, as well as a newcomer Adam. He stayed in a hotel last night and didn’t know he had to call ahead to reserve dinner for tonight. It was a close one as the Posada couldn’t confirm they could feed him till 7pm! I’m sure we all could have rummaged up enough snacks to have fed him if necessary.

Dinner at the Posada del Embrujo (Inn of the Spell – more of the Supernatural?)