10 August - Day 16 - Bus Cadavedo to Luarca. Walk Luarca to Piñera - 16kms
We wanted to stay in Luarca but couldn’t find any accommodation. Kim found us beds in Piñera which is 28kms away. We've done that distance once before, it was not fun. Our sweet spot is between 15 and 22km. So we make a plan to bus then walk the rest.
Pink sky sunrise. We have a 650m walk to the bus stop. Hope to find coffee in route. We are in luck. We have one of the best coffees in days and toast with fresh tomato and cheese. Unlike Italy they never give you olive oil which is surprising. Need to ask a Spanish person why not. When you sit outside at the cafes here you are often literally in the side of the road.
The bus stop is on a roundabout. Our bus stops on the way round to pick us up. Only in Spain.
Rain starts lashing down. We're glad we are on the bus. Arrive into Luarca 30 mins later. We find a cafe to wait out the rain and get another caffeine fix. Luarca is a harbour town built on the sides of a steep valley. We walk through the old town then exit up the western side of the valley. There is a small church which has a great view over the town.
9km of road parallel to the highway. It’s dull and hard on the feet. All the villages we pass though have no cafe or bar. At least the forecasted thunder and lightening has gone around us - win.
Finally at 13km we find a bar open. Kitchen is closed so choose of 2 the bocadillas on the bar. Look for a seat outside and bump into Richard from Ireland and Geeta from Germany and one of their friends from the US. It’s so nice when you keep bumping into the same pilgrims. We catch up on the last few days of walking.
The sun is now strong, blue sky, no clouds. We walk another 550 metres to another roundabout where there is a restaurant. It has outdoor tables in the shade and the American is already there. The food looks amazing. Super disappointed we are full on boring sandwiches. We join him and chat. He's in university and this is his first trip overseas. We talk about future plans, life, school and travel.
His friend arrives. She's been struggling on the walk today and took a wrong turn making it even tougher. We continue to chat till they are ready to leave about 2 hours later. Still don’t know their names.
2km to go. We literally march on the hard shoulder of the road in the heat. Stop at the mini supermarket for tonight’s dinner. Nowhere serves food within 2km of the albergue. Limited options so we grab pasta, a can of champignons, a jar of smoked peppers, a can of olives stuffed with anchovies, jamon and a bottle of albariño wine to wash it down.
800m we arrive at the albergue. It has 1 dorm room with 15 beds, a outdoor concrete common area, a small kitchen, and what Kim thought prison showers would look like. Can't ask for too much for €8 per person. It's functional and clean(ish). Arrival instructions on the door.
Put our wine in the freezer, shower, wash our clothes and start to meet our neighbours our the night. We meet Mick from Dublin. We have a great yarn about what Dublin was like 20 years ago when Kim and I lived there and first met. Decide we really need to go back for a visit. Haven’t been back since we left.
Also meet a lovely couple who live in Turin, Italy. He is Italian and she's originally from Istanbul.
Dinner takes 10 minutes to prepare. It’s our first time “cooking” on this trip and it’s nice to not have to go out for a meal. Kim is craving a cup of tea and the Turkish lady gives her one of her earl grey tea bags. Perfect.
8pm bed
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