Camino Pilgrim

Today was very sweaty. Right after I took this picture near Amandi, it just kept going uphill and uphill. A continuous 415m elevation climb in direct sunlight was tough to handle, but luckily half of the time the trail went through natural terrain that offered shade.

So far on this Camino I have done 11.5km elevation (both up & down). People could train for Mount Everest by walking this Camino. The average altitude from sea level is very low though. It will be slightly flatter going forward, but there are still several challenging days ahead.

Amandi is a big decision point for pilgrims. They can either continue straight on the Norte and go to Gijon or head south to Oviedo, where usually people switch/start Camino Primitivo (the original one).

Heading south, the villages are becoming very small. Just a handful of houses in them. That leaves you with fewer options for food and water. In particular, the limited access to water is starting to become kind of an issue if walking in the afternoon. I am not going to challenge the mountain trail of Primitivo this year, so that will be an issue to solve for future Madis.

I planned that today and tomorrow there would be roughly equal distances. I’m really looking forward to exploring Oviedo tomorrow. I will probably start hiking early in the morning around sunrise, to get the best of the day.