Wow! What a difference a day makes!

As wonderful as was yesterday, today is a totally different story. The forecast is for fog, rain, snow, high wind, and zero temperature. And for once it was correct!  Only early yesterday it told us to expect sunshine and bright sky.  Something strange is going on with the weather here in Spain at the moment. 

And so it was – really cold. Lung buster climb out of the village.

The track is really well marked. Most climbs up a mountain zig-zag so as to alleviate the elevation. But not this one. It goes in a straight line 300 meters in 3 km. Then down a bit, and up a bit and then down a lot. After the first climb we met the ice cold blustery wind, and then came the snow. Yes, really, snow. And then rain. It was too cold to remove my gloves to take many photos or record details of the route. But I couldn’t see a lot due to the fog / low cloud. I know it’s a beautiful walk, but I just had to concentrate on keeping my balance against wind, watching where I was stepping on the narrow stoney tracks and not slipping in the mud. 

It seemed as though some of the track had been recently developed, very narrow with the surrounding foliage having been newly cleared, and sometimes it wasn’t cleared and I was dodging and ducking and diving between wet bushes. In the later stage there’s evidence that we’re sharing the path with horses who have very recently passed by. The track is literally only a foot wide with a very steep slope to one side. I sincerely hope that our four legged friends don’t decide to make a return journey as that would certainly cause logistical problems. 

Our equine friends have churned the path to oblivion in places – deep sloppy mud abounds, my boots are covered in the stuff. There are quite a few streams to cross, steep grassy slopes to negotiate, wet leaf litter to sink into. And I’ve no photographic proof because I didn’t dare let go of my walking pole in order to take my phone out. 

There’s a guy walking with no poles and apparently he went down three times. Nina and I managed to stay upright but that was due to taking great care and having a good amount of luck. 

When the option presented itself we took the road for a couple of sections, but that wasn’t entirely a doddle as the road was extremely steep and winding with no shoulder facing the traffic, and the shoulder on the wrong side where we had to walk has a steep gradient that is very awkward to walk on. 

Anyway, we made it with no mishap apart from our boots being absolutely soaked and covered in mud. It was only 13.5 km but felt twice that far. 

Tomorrow looks even worse, with heavy rain throughout the day.  We’re no longer feeling the love for this camino. It’s not meant to be walked in this weather. I’ve already experienced how wonderful it is in good conditions and I don’t need to keep slogging on in this awful weather. So we’ve decided to call it a day. There’s a bus that will take us to Oviedo In the morning and we plan to hop on and call a halt to our 2026 camino. 

Here’s a link to my previous walk on the San Salvador if you’re interested to see happy sunshiny reports and photos – from stage 16.