Day 28: Navia to Penarronda

October 9, 2022. On today, our last full day in Asturias, we aimed to get a lot of miles in and get close to the Galician border. Thanks to milder elevation changes, the 29 km went smoothly.

Our day began in the industrial city of Navia, with breakfast in a little patisserie, which appeared to be the only place open. We got coffee, orange juice and croissants to start the day. The young woman running the place appeared to me to be Venzuelan and was having a tough time keeping up with orders. A table of construction workers was next to us, and a young woman with very tight cropped hair joined the group as a colleague. I was glad to see that she was treated as an equal at the table and held her own with jokes and conversation.

As we walked up the hills to get into the gently rolling farmland, we recognized Steve, another pilgrim, walking ahead of us. We didn’t hurry, but eventually we caught up with Steve, who we now recognized, who is from England. He had worked as a hospital administrator and we had a lot of interesting points to compare notes on , whether hospitals, health care, national politics, royalty, guns, and numerous other subjects than come up over 10 km. After 10 km we came to the town of La Caridad, which in Asturian is A Carida, slighlty different. We met other pilgrims there and had coffee and juice and a left over pastry that Alice had packed away. The stop re-energized us and we headed on.

We continued on westward to where the Camino would split into a coastal version and a slightly more direct highway version. At the split there was a nice bus stop with a bench there for us to stop and rest a minute. Steve and we both went the coastal route because that is where our accommodations were planned tonight. As we continued west, the cultural changes were dramatic. The architecture, the language, the colors all started to change and to more closely resemble the culture of Galicia. The hosseos ( grainaries) disappeared and a new type of storage appeared for which I do not have a name. The speech of locals started to take on hallmarks of Gallego.

The time and the miles passed surprisingly rapidly, possibly due to the good comradery. I learned about Steve’s previous pilgrimages on the Via Francigena through Italy that aims for Rome, and the Camino de Dos Faros that starts closer to the Northwest corner of Spain. He had great stories and as the storied were shared, the miles passed. Soon we had completed 20 km as we arrived in Tapia de Casariego in time for lunch.

We have learned not to be stuck in a remote location with no food, so the first thing we did in Tapia, was rush to the supermarket, because at 1:45 pm we only had 15 minutes before all supermarkets closed until 5. This would be our last opportunity for a supermarket! Then we went to a Cider restaurant, Sidreria La Terrazas, that had a large fig tree in the middle of it’s open air terrace. We ordered two very traditional Asturian dishes: La Fabada ( a bean dish) and a tuna salad that has fresh tuna mixed with vinegar, olive oil, egg and onion. Both were incredibly good and filling. And of course a bottle of cider.

After lunch it was 2:30 and we started the final leg of our day, 7 km into a coastal beach town. During the walk we stopped and chatted with a Swiss woman who was was planning to go even further than we today. She did not look terribly fit, but looks can be deceiving. While taking a break we noticed a fig tree nearby with ripe figs, so we used our trekking poles to pull down ripe figs and eat them. Much lighthearted fun was had cheering on each other in getting the figs down.

With a little rest behind us, the final 3 km into Penarronda, where we found our 100 year old building converted into a very nice hotel. The reception brought us coffee and other treats to get started in the morning as there is no restaurant in this town.

Tonight we enjoy the sea air and the sound of the waves for the last time, and tomorrow we leave the coast, heading inland to sparsely populated areas and towards Santiago. We’ve about 200 km go to of our 800 km journey.