Camino de Santiago del Norte
INTROThe Camino de Santiago is a network of long distance pilgrimages throughout Europe, primarily Spain, leading to Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Road walking.. a lot.
This is about the North route (del Norte) which I began in San Sebastián, Spain. This route is roughly 500 miles (800 kilometers). This is different from an other backpacking I’ve done; less wilderness, more showers/town food. This comes after my completion of the Camino de Santiago Frances.
Day 19 - 21 took me from Gijon, Spain - Piñera, Spain.
OVERVIEWDAYS3
MILES/kilometers55.5/89.4
TOTAL ELEVATION GAINED7782 ft
TOTAL ELEVATION LOSS7600 ft
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Beautiful beaches to reward every hard climb and descent
More lovely people along the way
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Being verbally assaulted by another “peregrino” for seemingly no reason and made to feel unsafe
Hot weather lead to uncomfortable sleeping with no air conditioning and windows being shut.
Road walking
Highway walks.
In Depth
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Accommodation: Buen Camino Albergue
Distance: 28.5/14 miles / 45/22.5 kilometers
Elevation Gain: 1844 ft
Elevation Loss: 1572 ft
The next section from Gijon to Aviles is known for being the worst part of the entire Del Norte route. Because I was here for a good time not a long time, I decided to take the train between Gijon and Aviles. I left Sonya in Gijon as she had to get off trail for a fun event in Portugal. On the Frances, I stuck with a group for the majority of the trail. But the del norte was completely different and felt like an emotional roller coaster to keep meeting lovely people, enjoy our time together, and then say goodbye and move on.
Despite speaking some Spanish, the train stations in Spain leave much to be desired. The ticket printing system is not intuitive and often does not work if you buy your tickets online. All while there were several screens broken so I did not know what train was what and which platform it corresponded with. I finally started to have to ask several people and was getting conflicting information. So I was very thankful when the train started moving that I was in fact on the right train.
It’s only about a 45 minute ride so I had a quick breakfast when I landed in Aviles and headed out for the day. It was going to be one of the hottest days in this weeklong heat wave and this day had a solid amount of climbing. I don’t know if I had been that sweaty since the Appalachian Trail last year. All I know is that with my facial sunscreen, I was blinded several times.
I arrived at my destination, Soto Del Barco to find that my actual accommodation was not in Soto Del Barco. As a pilgrim, there are several phone applications that help find accommodation in each of the places and this one that I booked those stated that it was in Soto del Barco. It was actually in San Esteban de Pravia, which was another 3 kilometers up the road and off the trail. While in Soto Del Barco, I grabbed groceries before siesta and chatted with a shop owner for quite some time. It was lovely to have a conversation in full Spanish with someone who had so much patience for me.
Once I got to accommodation, I realized why it was rated so highly because the entire space was beautiful. I got showered and set up and then was able to chat with family and friends for the night. I met some lovely people, including Santiago (Chile). We would continue to run into each other for the next several days.
There were only four of us in the room, so I was thankful there were no snorers!
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Accommodation: Albergue de Peregrinos
Distance: 22 miles/35.4 kilometers
Elevation Gain: 3855 ft
Elevation Loss: 3854 ft
This next day was slated to be a long one. With this previous accommodation being off the trail, I had to ge back down the trail, which added some mileage. I was hiking peacefully for sometime alone, and at some point, a French woman began speaking with me, but actually speaking at me and giving me her life story. The language barrier between us (because I do not speak a lick of French) made the conversation tough. Despite my best efforts, I could not shake this woman for nearly an hour. At some point, we got to a climb and I explained to her how many kilometers I had to go so I needed to speed off. I would run into her again later.
I got into Soto de Luina, which is the typical stopping point for this stage. This is the junction that you can either take a mountainous route or coastal route both have their pros and cons. I opted for the coastal route because there were more services along the way and that was the accommodation I was shooting for, but this included 8 amount of climbs and descent.
So I brave them - every ascent was very steep, but got you into the breeze at the top. Every descent was steep and brought you to the humidity and often there was a small stream crossing at the bottom. But also at the bottom of these decent were a few beaches.
I stumbled into a very small first, come first serve albergue in Cadavedo and this probably was my worst accommodation on the entire trail. It was disorganized, there was no one there to meet you, pilgrims were counting/giving out beds, and the space itself was just so small.
There were no real restaurants or groceries around that would have anything for me to eat, so luckily I had brought things to have for dinner. They advertise a kitchen, but provide no plates, utensils, or mugs so essentially there was a fridge in the microwave.
I chatted with some lovely people in the evening Alexandra (Germany) and Alessandro (Germany). It was once again exciting to meet like-minded people. It was still very warm and for some reason, the three men in my specific room wanted to keep the window shut so it became a smelly damp sauna over the course of the night.
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Accommodation: La Vieja Escuela Albergue
Distance: 19.5 miles/31.4 kilometers
Elevation Gain: 2083 ft
Elevation Loss: 2174 ft
After my sauna evening, I got up earlier than the other three in my room to just get out of there. I packed in the small common space and ate the small breakfast that I had brought with me.
The morning again was plagued by road walking though there was some hiking on gravel roads through farms at least. I stopped for a late coffee/early lunch in Luarca at a very cute café. Unfortunately the French woman from the day prior was also there as she had taken a bus to skip the difficult section. She continued to talk at me. I’m unsure what social cues she was missing out on but it made my relaxing coffee, not so relaxing.
There was quite a climb out of Luarca, especially with the groceries I had just purchased. I ran into Alessandro just after the climb and we continued to hike together for the day. Though I prefer hiking alone, on a long boring road stretch chatting with someone does make the day go by faster.
Once Alessandro and I arrived at the hostel, we were nearly the first ones there. There was an Italian man who looked like he had been there for quite some time, and there was weird energy in the room between him and the Hospitalero. We got checked in and tucked into our bunks and slowly other people started trickling in. Hallelujah I did laundry and a full shower with washing my hair, which was a heavenly combination.
The Italian man came over and chatted with me in Spanish for a half an hour, and he was overall kind though a little quirky. But aren’t all people who do a Camino a little quirky? I was feeling very proud of myself for speaking in Spanish for a half an hour and understanding and communicating with someone. Eventually, I made dinner and while the hostel offered dinner, I did not participate because I was gluten free.
As I was eating dinner, there was some very. tense, tense energy between the worker and the Italian man. He kept screaming, “I don’t smell anymore. Smell me smell me.” And he had already asked me what my problem was about two hours after we had our lovely conversation. And I was very confused, but he asked why I “asked to kick him out”. I remained very confused.
During the hostel dinner that I was not in attendance for, things escalated even more and the police came and had to remove him twice because he was being so belligerent. Citing being mad at me specifically. The owner of the hostel came and explained that he actually hates Americans, so I was agitating him. And the funniest reason why he was agitated is because I spent so much time talking with him and being kind he didn’t know how to be mean to me?
The hostel was much more comfortable than the previous night. There were still some interesting snoring happening in the dorm space and I was a little concerned that this man knew where I was sleeping. Luckily everything was locked up for tonight.
GALLERY
