Grado to Cornellana, 11 km

The albergue in Grado is run by volunteers and Javier was absolutely charming. It closes at the end of October and reopens in March. There is one dormitory for 16 pilgrims, adequate bathroom facilities, comfortable communal area and kitchen, and a wonderful breakfast presented in the morning. A pillowcase is provided but no other bedding. Donativo. Very nice. Grado is a good sized town with all facilities. 

We are the last to leave shortly before 09:00. It’s quite fresh outside (ie rather chilly) and we walk into the centre of town where a cafe is open and serving the sweetest looking pastries I have ever seen and not of interest to either of us. But we do treat ourselves to a chocolate caliente which goes down very well. Then we have to wait for the shops to open and hope with all our might that we can find something suitable for Mikey. 

I had originally planned standard stages for this camino but I am having a change of mind entirely due to the weather forecast. With great good luck my weather pessimism seems to be unfounded. But what I had planned as stage 5 when we will go up over the spectacular Hospitales route – is still looking rather cloudy on Sunday but the next day promises to be absolutely fabulous. So I set about adjusting the plan to delay us by a day. 

The plan already failed yesterday when the lovely albergue I hoped to stay at Paladín (6km short of Grado) was closed for the day (Wednesdays seem to be a bit of an issue in these parts). So my replanned short stage today will be even shorter at about 11-ish km, perhaps not such a bad idea with our very late start. 

I had already made an error in my calculations of time available for this camino and needed to build in a bus ride covering one stage – so now it will have to be two stages missed. Mikey is keen to earn his compostela (pilgrim certificate) which requires us to walk at least 100 km into Santiago, so we need to be careful not to jeopardise that ambition. 

Shoe shopping seems a success.

We leave Grado and immediately face a huge hill which takes us into cow country – lots of bells ringing and close encounters on the road. There are also plenty of horses and donkeys around.

There are brief reprieves from the steep inclines and I’m stripping off as I go along. The first hill saw the jacket being removed,  during the second hill the gloves came off, and the third hill was responsible for the removal of arm warmers and scarf – not much left that is surplus to decency now!  The locals hereabouts must have very pert posteriors what with all the work they need to do with their glutes.

Mikey wants his first break when we’ve only walked 3 km. Lucky we aren’t going far!

There are lots of very freshly painted arrows and mojones along the way.

All the uphill walking was on very quiet narrow country roads – a very easy surface to walk on, and the downhill is on a very compacted wide gravel track which is also easy underfoot. The sky is fairly grey with little wind and a very decent temperature for hiking.

At 6.7 km we are finally on a lovely soft dirt track winding through the landscape alongside a babbling brook, which is altogether very pleasant – particularly as it’s entirely flat for time being.  We pass a tiny deserted stone mill house long out of action. 

There’s a bar in the village of Doriga but of course it’s closed – and it’s not even Wednesday! Then we’re back on very quiet narrow country roads. There are many very impressive but dilapidated huge period buildings on the camino so I’m guessing it must’ve been an important route at some time.

We have just a few hundred meters walking alongside the very busy N634 on the approach to our stage end at Cornellana. The municipal albergue is situated within the grounds of the impressive Monasterio de San Salvador (dating back to 1024). So far we are the only pilgrims staying and have a beautiful dorm for eight to ourselves. There are excellent kitchen facilities, washer/dryer available for a donation and a huge courtyard which serves as home to a large community of cats.

The hospitalero communicates in a very low whisper and lots of hand signals and I’m not sure if he’s a monk who has taken a vow of silence or if he has lost his voice.  Beds for 31 over four dormitories, €9. We are given paper sheets and pillowcases but there is no other bedding provided. There doesn’t seem to be any heating in the dorm so I guess it might be very cold in the winter. Open all year.

Cornellana is a small town which seems to have all amenities and as I sit in the Bar Casino writing this post at 16:30 the place is full of the local pensionista community and the noise level is rising by the minute. 

I assumed taking such a ridiculously short stage today would cause me some form of pilgrim anxiety, but in truth I am absolutely happy to have stopped here and now as it has felt quite hard. I have more consequences from my fall yesterday than it first seemed. The blow to my left elbow obviously travelled up my arm to my shoulder and I have been feeling rather tender and uncomfortable. Hopefully a good nights sleep and some tiger balm will help sort it out.