8 August - Day 14 - Bus Aviles to Muros del Nalón. Walk from Muros to Soto del Luina 16km
It looks to be a bit industrial on the way out of Aviles. We decide to skip it by getting a bus 23km to Muros del Nalón.
Up at 6:30am, get to the bus station by 7am to get out tickets. Head to cafe across the road for a takeaway coffee and croissant filled with ham, eggs, cheese, lettuce, tomato. Discover 1/3 way through we have a mouth full of mayo - yuck! Try unsuccessfully to scrape it out. Breakfast ruined. Back to tortilla’s tomorrow!
Bus arrives early and leaves right on schedule. 40 minutes later we arrive at Muros. Head to the town square which looks quaint and have a quick second coffee. Inside on the wall they have a map of the of the world with lots of pins on it and we add one for Launceston where Kim grew up as there are already several on Sydney.
Sufficiently caffinated we start the days walk as the sun begins to break through the morning mist. The first 3 or 4 km is on trail through the woods.
After about an hour we walk through the village of El Pito. Here we pass Palacio Selgas – a beautiful palace and the garden. Unfortunately, it’s been closed to visitors for a few years, but we managed to have a sticky-beak through the front and side gates.
The day is a big mix of road walking, hills, and trail through the forest. At one time we are walking through gum trees making us feel like we are at home. We are not big fans of walking on the road as it really tires out and hurts your feet. Trail walking is much kinder on the body by far.
We pass an abandoned hotel and restaurant. Opposite the village train station of La Magdalena. Perhaps closed as a victim of COVID. It has the most amazing views of the valley and ocean bay. Looks like there are good waves. We day dream about buying it and opening albergue / cafe / surf school.
From here we descend down the steep hill into the valley and steeply up the other side. Almost completely road winding through country hill district to our Albergue in Soto at noon. It does not open until 3pm.
A sign on the Albergue door, directs us to make a reservation if we don't have one, or to put our bags in the dinning room if we already have one. We don't have one, we also don't have a phone SIM so can't call to make one. Fortunately another pilgrim come along and make a reservation for us.
Our hero is Charvi from Barcelona (yes, this is the second Chavi we have met this trip, snd yes the other one was also from Barcelona).
Safe in the knowledge we have beds for the night, we head out for lunch. We find a menu del dia.
Entrees: Potato and tuna salad for Daz and Lentil soup for Kim. Main: Daz - Pork steaks and chips, Kim-Fish and Chip. All washed down with a jug of house red.
While at lunch we bump into Richard from Ireland. His group are still doing big days of 30+ km. We keep managing to catch up with them with our cheeky bus jaunts.
Head back to our accommodation for 3pm check in. There are 7 others waiting.
Aliser is a uni student studying in Pamplona and spending a week or 2 walking part of the Camino with his parents.
Sophia from Brussels, is mostly solo camping her way through the Camino. She was staying in the some Albergue as we did in Llanes and also got destroyed by bed bugs. A week later and her bite marks are still inflamed.
Vlad from Ukraine, but has lived in Barcelona for 14 year and traveling and with a Ukrainian girl he met on the Camino (didn't get her name). We had seen these 2 a number of times over the last few days. Vlad was always walking ahead of her. Daz had assumed they were a couple and had had a fight. Really they hardly knew each other, but were hanging out due to their common tongue.
Elsa from Italy in her 60s. She has done parts of Caminos over many years.
Helena and her husband set up the albergue in 2021. From Madrid and came to Asturias to find a place. Took them 7 months to find what they were looking for. They live upstairs and downstairs are 2 bathrooms and 4 bedrooms which sleep 11.
Helena is like a mother to us pilgrims. She takes our dirty clothes to wash and dry and starts cooking us dinner as we make new friends, play card games and recover from todays walk.
8pm we have dinner together around one big table. Pasta salad, and vegetable soup. Simple but filling.
The rain has been bucketing for the last few hours and the pilgrim talk turns serious as we discuss the forecast for the next day. Heavy rain, potentially lightning 🌩 through till mid day. How will this impact where we try to get to tomorrow.... not sure yes.
Drink wine and laugh into the night until our exhaustion gets the better of us and we retire.
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