Tineo is a rather strange town. Bustling on a Friday evening with lots of children running to the sweet shop and lots of parents running to the bar. It is a strange mix of very modern and quite old – the modern largely not very attractive and the old mostly in need of urgent renovation. But there are some beautiful historic buildings here and it was very friendly.

There is a short stretch on the road when leaving town but we are soon on dirt tracks through pasture land. It is lovely to see some ancient stone walls at last. For stages past there seems only to have been barbed wire partitioning.

The hedgerows alongside the track are full of beautiful wild flowers. I try not to duplicate my flower pictures (with the exception of course of aquilegia and foxgloves) but I guess there may be a few duplicates coming up today.

The path involves a lot of ups and downs as you might expect in a mountainous region, more ups than downs, which has become more comfortable for my knee since I have learned that it is much less strain on my body to suffer the discomfort of the first few steps with bent knee going uphill than keeping it straight.

As you can see from the photos there is a heavy low mist giving very limited views, which are stunning nonetheless. The mists are to be expected in this area. Due to my knee problem we have decided to walk a very short stage into Campiello today,only a few kilometres. After that we are very weather dependent. The weather forecast (see bottom of page) that I use shows heavy rainfall and thunderstorms from mid morning tomorrow. There is no fun to be had walking in heavy rain on any type terrain but it can become dangerously slippery when walking on steep slopes in wet weather. Also there is very little chance of getting accommodation in tomorrow’s planned short stage as one of the albergues is closed due to a family celebration and it seems that other accommodation in the town has been taken up with family guests.

Today I have transformed from tortoise to snail. Walking these unaccustomed short stages has been an eye-opener for me. Normally if walking with others they are likely to be like-minded as to the length of stage and mode of transportation i.e. on foot only. However I have come to realise that perhaps even the majority of people walking this route at this moment do not fall into that category.

It’s mostly a dull (as in dim, not boring) walk with not much light. But suddenly I see some sunlight coming through the trees and after I have walked a few more steps I can see that I have risen above the cloud line and the effect is absolutely staggering the peaks of the mountains in the distance are popping up above the clouds on which the sun is shining, giving the effect of a wavy sea – its just enchanting.

This has so far been the most stunningly beautiful walk and as I climbed higher and got above the cloud line there are dew drops for the first time on this camino. Long-term readers of this blog will know about my penchant for dew drops. I make exceedingly slow progress and I’m enjoying the prospect of this short stage with lots of photo opportunities to the utmost

At 7 km there is a stretch along the road but there is a path running alongside. Very soon we are directed off the road onto a woodland track going downhill.

Everything on today’s walk is cause for joy. The flowers, the dew drops, low cloud, the ferns, the moss, the walls and the gnarly old tree trunks that the moss is growing on, absolutely everything is an absolute delight

At 8.8 km this camino sign is rather confusing. I couldn’t really work out which way it was advising to go, so I checked my track from last time and could see that I need to turn left.

It is the sort of day where my pack weighs nothing, the birds are singing just for me, the early fresh weather has turned to sunshine but it’s not too hot, and almost all (apart from my knee) is well with my world

The last few kilometres are along a fairly quiet road where there is a lot of farming activity going on with tractors whizzing by, collecting the harvest and delivering manure, and some gardeners out tending their plants. I had to congratulate one man on the splendour of his privet hedge which has given me an idea for mine at home.

We are staying at Albergue Ricardo, where I have stayed before. It has excellent bathroom facilities, good kitchen/dining area, sturdy bunks, washer/dryer and lovely courtyard. I have fond memories of this place and the lovely people I was walking with then.