Day 27 Luarca to La Caridad

Annoyingly I had my first minor injury yesterday evening stepping out of the shower when I went over on one of my toes. For most of the night it was quite sore and at 3am I decided that it would probably make sense to get a bus in the morning from Lucara to Navia which is roughly 2/3 of the way to my end point today. That decided I slept soundly. When the alarm woke me it seemed to be a lot better though it had turned rather lurid colour but not swollen so I decided that I would give it a go. It gave me no trouble and I was able to enjoy a long stretch on easy terrain with long gentle descents and ascents.

One of the highlights of my entire Camino happened an hour or so after starting out. I’d stopped to look at ruined 12th church when I spotted a pine marten running along the lower walls. He/she wasn’t particularly concerned about me and I had a great viewing before it disappeared into trees.

I caught up with M from Germany in a roadside café and we walked for a few kilometres together talking about pine marten, her parents had one in their outhouse for a while, running, and Angela Merkel.

I arrived in Navia bang on my schedule and bought a late supermarket lunch which I ate in the town square.

The final 12k into La Caridad was straight forward, most of which was through farm land, and farm houses bordered by enormous hedges of hydrangea.

The town is pilgrim friendly with the possibility of a pilgrim meal which I’m going to explore, and a chance to catch up with a few folk I walked with on and off over the last few days. My last night in Asturias.

33 kms, 540m ascent, more than 15 pilgrims and several conversations. Two mosquito bites.