Day 26 Ballota to Luarca

My favourite time on the Camino is early morning, sunrise isn’t until just after 7 so I get a a couple of hours when it’s cool, the smells are at their most intense and there is fresh evidence (scat) of pine martens/ beech martens in the woodland area. I had hoped to see one of these, there are certainly plenty about. The main blip is the beach close to Ballota where I was staying last night, a short diversion and well worth it.

I had breakfast and later walked with Dutch couple and M from Germany who I e seen most days this week. The common language is English, they are all fluent of course. As a result of walking and talking we made 3 navigation errors, it tales quite a bit of concentration to look out for the way markers which are often faint and sometimes hidden by vegetation. It added a couple of kilometres to what should have been a shorter day. They are continuing to the next town tonight so it’s likely I’ll be back to meditative walking tomorrow.

Luarca (extra) reminds me of those jigsaw puzzles of Cornish harbours. It looks like it’s a busy fishing town which I am about to explore, and find a supermarket for a picnic supper.

26km, 586m ascent, 6 pilgrims, several conversations