Camino Pilgrim

I started off pretty early, as the picture can tell. The whole day went kind of fast. A very flat stage compared to everything I had earlier.

The best part of the morning was seeing the full moon go to sleep between two hills in front of me. At the exact same time, the sun was coming up behind me.

Because it was flat and almost all asphalted, finishing the day was extra easy. It did get hard in the last hour, when the sun really started burning the air. I can imagine this flat day feeling a bit like hell if you walked all of it during the daytime in the mid-summer heat.

I started off in the dark on purpose. It was clear from the trail map, that I would have about 7km in a city setting with streetlights to illuminate the way. The weather forecast did not see any rain coming, so starting early made perfect sense.

The first 20km of the road was very boring. Mainly walking on one side or the other side of the highway. It only got better after there was a route split. I chose once again the slightly longer alternative route, but it went towards the ocean so I expected some good views.

The ocean shore town of Tapia de Casariego was not that big, but it did have some cafes for a proper lunchbreak and a grocery store could stock up on travel food. Additionally, it marked the last good views of the ocean on Camino Norte. I did see a bit of the ocean later also, but it was not the same anymore.

I finished just 2km before Ribadeo. My side of the bridge is the end of the Asturias region and Ribadeo marks the start of Galicia. Tomorrow I start heading inland, straight towards Santiago de Compostela.

I expect to reach Santiago very fast now.