Monday 23rd April 2018

29.5 km (632.6 km)

Dan’s blog:

After a disappointing night’s sleep which seemed more like a night in a washing machine, tossing and turning, we set out this morning in shorts and I soon lost all sensation in my hands as it was decidedly cold. No doubt cold air descending from the still snow capped mountains into the wide river valley along which we were walking was responsible, but this realisation is after the fact.

Fortunately ~12km into the day we arrived at Requejo where we found a good little bar in the sun serving good coffee and bocadillos y jamon for breakfast. The outside terrace was also busy with construction crew from the new AVE (high speed train) line having a break; hopefully on reflection it was the night shift finishing as there was the odd beer consumed too. Anyway this construction also dictated much of our route for the rest of the day as the Camino was cut by the construction (evidently whilst building a multi-billion € line providing some pedestrian foot bridges was not a priority) so we were forced onto the main road. This turned out not to be too bad in reality as the road was very quiet, most traffic being on a parallel highway and with the intervention of a friendly local keeping us away from the flooded sections of the Camino too!

The road eventually took us over the highest point on the VDLP and down into the village of Padornelo, where another bar was waiting with refreshments and advice on the final 6km into Lubien. The new route took us “off road” and off the guide book, but was well signed and provided a good approach to Lubien where we soon found Casa De la Irene, a rather nice casa rural for the night in the quaint, but attractive village of Lubian.