Yet another grey day greets us this morning, and it doesn’t change all day, though the forecast rain doesn’t materialise.

Once again we are taking an alternate route (which I also walked last time) that follows the GR E9 – there are arrows along the way and it is through beautiful countryside almost entirely on track. This is a lovely way to start the day.

There are lots of animals to commune with this morning – cows, sheep, horses, goats and a friendly Mastin with her gorgeous pup.

There is a parting of the ways today. Sadly I have lost Renata on this stage – she doesn’t want to walk long stages and I don’t want to continually walk shorter stages of 20 km or thereabouts. We all have to walk within out comfort zones. We’ve had some fun times together and she has given a couple of extremely good foot massages! We were both sad, but that is how it goes on the camino.

Once I am closer to the coast I come to the area of the ‘Bufones de Arenillas’ Also known as blowholes. I go close to one and can hear the thunder of the sea as it enters and leaves the tunnels deep below. The sea is calm so there are no plumes of water but the sound alone is exciting. You can read more about the bufones here

I reach the small village of Andrin at 8.5 km then a steep zigzag has to he climbed in order to regain the track. Climbing, climbing, climbing on the quiet road for around 1.5 km finally takes me back on track and as I turn a bend a huge seascape vista opens up, taking a full 180 degrees.

I finally leave the track at around 13+ kilometres and make my way along country lanes into Llanes at almost 15 km. Paul has taken the official route and once I part from Renate I see no other pilgrims until I catch up with Paul at Llanes.

We take a wonderful headland walk out of Llanes and remain on the edge of the cliffs, completely bypassing the town of Poo. After crossing a beach we are now on a beautiful track in the middle of green pastureland. We stop for a drink at Celorio, 21.5 km. The rest of the walk is mostly on track with short stretches of road in between. Altogether a fabulous day’s walking.

We had planned to stop in the village of Villahormes but the albergue is a sort of self-service affair which is deserted, and the tiny village has very few facilities, so we decide to walk the 3km more into the larger town of Nueva. There is no albergue here so we have invested in a hotel room for the night. The power-shower alone makes it almost worth the investment! Paul eats out and I manage to scrape a healthy meal together from what’s in my bag plus some extras from a supermarket.