Home to Santiago – Day 60
Pendueles to Llanes: 15km
Today is a holiday. I walk a short day into Llanes today. I want time to do the coast properly.
Almost immediately after leaving Aves de Paso, I come to a beautiful beach, completely empty, apart from one lone beginner surfer practising on the gentle waves. I walk around and see a figure waving to me from above. It’s Javier, who is having second breakfast with Italian Tommy. I realise after a minute he’s not just waving, he’s signalling coffee. So I climb up and sit with him a while before going down to the twin beach on the other side of the headland.
There’s no rush today. I know I’m going to arrive late again, but there are so many interesting geological features, I’m starting to wonder if I will make it to Llanes all.
When I get to the bufonts, where the sea sometimes spurts up through holes in the ground, no one can see the sea at all, just a huge cavernous gully and the roar of water down below. The sea is rushing into caverns beneath our feet. I take off my rucksack, sit on the rocks and watch people come, just like me, to circle the area and look in vain for the sea they can hear so loudly.
Eventually I hear my name, and proof of how slow I am, the pilgrims who stopped a town before me have all caught up today. Nives and Iván, Klaus the walker, and Valentine. They’re a proper little group now. I quite like being peripheral to it.
I take an unsociable little walk close to the cliffs and off the camino path. It’s a dead end but I want a glimpse of where the wild sea and the river meet. It does not disappoint. The river flows to the sea between steep rocky banks and before it ends, the river’s waters are invaded by the crashing sea waves. I am adding hours to the route.
Eventually, back on the path, I catch up with a large group of backpackless Americans. As I work my way past the group, I start talking to them. They’re from all over the States, taking walks along the camino. The main chatter tells me his name is Sail, and when I say it’s memorable, he says, “Not like Mike, hey?” Mike (I presume) walks quietly beside him and gives a wry smile.
It’s just me now. By mid-afternoon I’m out of the whole Camino stream, I decide to go and visit Playa La Boleta, which it turns out is the most beautiful beach in Asturias. It’s also very isolated and down a very, very long, steep road. And being very isolated and down a very, very long, steep road, it is also full of nudists.
I am as overdressed as they are underdressed, and we all just carry on as normal. They parade and so do I.
I can’t get up the other side of the beach as I’d hoped, so I end up walking back up the very long, very hot, very steep road back onto the path, where I take a shortcut down through the village of Cue.
This village is off-route, but still, as I pass through, I hear my name shouted out. Sitting on a restaurant terrace are two tables full of the jolly Americans. They greet me and ask me about my day. The spirit of the Camino is not limited to pilgrims. I see Sail and greet him: “Hi, Mike!”
I wander in late to Llanes, eating an ice cream by the quayside before finding my way to the albergue. I meet Nuria, still on her way, but now seriously considering stopping. The lack of Spanish speakers is getting to her. But she suggests I join her and some friends for a drink, and I end up on a table with Sergio “yes, it is a normal Spanish name”,German Katarina with the excellent Spanish, and Monica and her husband from the Canary Islands.
They speak so fast and I struggle to keep up, but for Nuria’s sake, I do not resort to English, I tell them I don’t speak English. She’s having a lovely time, and I think she’s changing her mind. I hope she is. But other people’s minds should not be interfered with.
We shall wait and see what decisions the wine and the night bring.
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