It rained off and on all night, and we awoke to the renewal of a problem – the electrics that had miraculously fixed themselves after our visit to the mechanic in Lugo have once again gone on the fritz. The fridge is off, as well as everything else – we couldn’t even get the stove going to make a cup of tea.
Since our neighbours had left very early – around 5:30 or so – we did something we don’t normally do, and ran the motor for awhile to charge up the battery.
After making a nice cup of tea and having some breakfast we returned to Camping A Vouga back on the coast. Within an hour we’d both showered and had a large load of laundry in.
We opted for lunch at the campground’s restaurant and both got the ‘plate of the day’ – avocado stuffed with shrimp, followed by garlic chicken with fries, although the fries turned out to be mashed potatoes – luckily I like both, and had plenty leftover for dinner.
Retrieving the laundry to hang it to dry I noticed that some of it was dripping wet and some of it didn’t look like water had even hit it – faulty machine I guess, so we had to do some of it over in a different machine.
This time our camping spot was overlooking the beach and we spent a pleasant afternoon watching the tide coming in and just relaxing.
I took a nice walk on the beach around sunset – it was beautiful.
The rainstorm in the night was torrential, accompanied by frequent bright flashes of lightening and tremendous thunder. I spent quite awhile trying to calm Mo down – she needed many pats and cuddles.
From the coast the next morning we had a long day of travel east to get back to the ‘bear trail’ just southwest of Oviedo. We’d stopped by there a couple of weeks ago but the crowds were too much for us, although we still wanted to go for a ride.
We spent the night in the large parking area near a bike rental/cafe and put the bikes and chariot together the next morning.
The ride was very nice – not as many people as there would have been in August, and even the dogs were a bit less barky.
We stopped in Proaza for coffee, then continued up the trail a few more km. before turning back.
We saw two of the bears – I think there are three in total, all behind fences and unable to roam as they should – kind of sad, really.
By the time we got back to the parking lot it was chock-full, and we were glad we’d gone riding when we did. After a nice tuna salad with feta cheese for lunch we were on our way again.
We backtracked a bit to Oviedo to take the motorway south to Leon where we turned east and stopped at an aire on the edge of the town of Carrion de los Condes.
The aire is quite small but does have water drop, etc. It’s right next to a sports complex with a very nice soccer field, and there’s a pedestrian bridge crossing the river to the town.
Since we weren’t in any special hurry we explored the town a bit the next morning – it’s larger than we expected, and is another fairly important stop on the Camino trail. We spent a bit of time exploring and quite liked the place.
The town is either 401 km or 405 km from Santiago – depending on which sign you look at – most people’s final destination when they walk the Camino.
There are some really nice lamps and lampposts…
…churches and statues…
As in most Camino towns almost all of the businesses have something to do with the ‘pilgrims’.
There’s a mosaic on the ground on some stairs, but it has degraded over the years – it must have been fantastic when first completed.
Leaving the aire before noon we went on to the town of Castrojeriz, another campground we’ve been to before.
I remember three things about it from our first visit: the ruined castle on the hill above the town; a nice ride I took along the Camino to the town of Hontanas; and the delicious roast lamb dinner we had at the campground’s restaurant.
Sally McKenzie's European Adventures 