Day 32 - Cadavéu to Luarca

Date: Tuesday July 16

Start:  Cadavéu, Asturias

End: Luarca, Asturias

Daily Mileage: 10.2mi (16.4km)

Total Mileage: ~370mi (~595.5km)

This morning we woke very tired. In addition to our long day of hiking yesterday, we had stayed up way too late. I had arrived to Cadavéu to find that my laptop wasn’t working. Neither the keys nor trackpad were responsive. Luckily, I am traveling with an adept IT professional. 

Shawn began troubleshooting. Since I wasn’t able to use my laptop to type up the blog, I tapped it out on my phone, which obviously took longer. And since I was blogging anyway, Shawn continued to tinker with my laptop. He basically figured out what the issue (likely) was, but we would need to wait for the battery to drain for him to confirm. Which would be sometime today. 

Fast forward: I can happily report that it was a software glitch and the issue was resolved once the battery had drained. Today I am back to blogging on my laptop. Woot.  

Another beautiful morning. 

Owing to the very late night, we got a very late start. We left the Casa Rural after 9am, and after a quick breakfast at a cafe down the street, it was just a bit before 10am when we were starting our hike for the day. Luckily it was a short day. 

After yesterday’s long stage of climbing, today’s route would be a relatively simple stroll to Luarca, only about 10 miles. Some rollers, but no significant climbing. The longest and steepest climb we would encounter would be only about half a mile of effort.

Even highway walking can have its bright spots.

The downside of getting started late was that it was already getting quite warm. While it’s certainly not southern-Spain-hot, the last several days had been very hot and humid. Our shirts are drenched every day and we have been constantly on the lookout for water fountains to top up our bottles. We’ve only been carrying one liter of water each, which has generally been fine. We usually come across enough fountains to refill as we go, but there have been a few days I’ve started running low. 

Just yesterday, we were both running low late in the day and hadn’t seen any fountains in the towns we’d passed through. Finally, about four miles or so from Cadavéu, we stopped into a restaurant. Not wanting to ask for water bottle fills without ordering something, we each got fizzy waters – bringing our total for yesterday to three. Like I’ve said: completely addicted. Hydrated with fizzy water and bottles refilled, we’d continued on.

Overall, we feel we’ve been lucky with the weather. While we’ve had hot days, they could certainly be much worse. When we’re along the coast, we generally also get some nice ocean breezes. Soon we’ll be turning away from the coast altogether, so I’m sure there are more hot days to come.

Today’s hike was a mix of paved county roads, gravel country roads, forested trails, and the occasional short jaunt along the highway to connect all of those other paths/roads/trails. Like most days, there were a number of beautiful wildflowers - reds, yellows, purples, and more. When there aren’t wildflowers, the void is taken up by homeowners, flowers a staple in/on nearly every yard, balcony, patio, stone wall, and trellis. 

Meeting the locals. 

Like most days, the Camino also led by a number of churches – an obvious routing considering this is a religious pilgrimage, despite the variety of reasons pilgrims choose to hike the route today. Despite not being religious myself, I do love religious architecture. It seems there is no structure mankind has poured more architectural design, dedication, and savvy into throughout time than their religious structures – across all religions. All unique in their own ways. History abound. 

Church of Saint Michael, built in 1800.

About halfway through the hike, a trail took us along the wide Rio Canero. There may be no better sound than water babbling along rocks through a creek. I could listen all day. Unfortunately, the river section was short-lived and soon we were on our half mile climb for the day. 

Following the steep, rocky ascent, the remainder of the route was mostly easy walking. The coast came back into view – the horizon looking unnaturally high from our vantage point. We weaved through more fields and along roads before coming to a short section of trail. 

Doesn’t the horizon look incredibly high? Maybe this is what those flat earth wackos are on about.

Entering the trail, there was a long stone wall that looked very old. Our mapping app had a little info icon. Clicking it for more information, it read: “Ruins. There are ruins in the woods to the left of the Camino.” Great. Very informative. 

Ruins.

The little other information I was able to glean from a quick peek at sign at the site noted that they were ruins from a cemetery. At the bottom of the sign, a warning was provided via the well known quote: “He who does not know his history is condemned to repeat his mistakes.” Though from a quick search, I think the actual quote is “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” By George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905.

More ruins. 

For our part, we walked around the ruins a bit – mostly under the assumption that a bit of the trail ran through here (it did not) and then continued on. There is a lot of history in Europe. And many very old things. We will never know it all. Better just keep hiking!

Y mas ruinas! Maybe Lara Croft is in here somewhere.

In more exciting news: less than two miles from Luarca, we finally found a water fountain. Agua potable. This was a high point, as I had been conserving. Most of the remainder of the route went through small towns/outskirts of Luarca. 

Finally. 

As we neared the city, we came across a familiar type of wooden structure that we had been seeing a bit across Asturias, though the frequency had increased over the last several days. The structures almost looked like miniature homes or covered patios set on stilts, though many were far too short on top to actually be a viable space for a standing human. Some had solid walls while others were also trimmed with railings. 

Panera in Cadavéu

Anyway, we had seen these here and there along the route, though the last couple of days we had walked by several. Most sat in the vicinity of country homes. Some seemed completely abandoned, sometimes deteriorating. We hadn’t really known what they were, but as we approached this particular structure outside Luarca, we saw that it had been well cared for and kept as a display. There was an informational sign out front. 

Panera in Luarca

And so we learned that, depending on the shape, they are called paneras or horreos, with the former being rectangular-shaped and the latter square-shaped. They are an emblem of Asturias. They were/are used to store grain and other agricultural products, designed to protect the harvested crops from rodents and humidity. They are built in a square or rectangular shape, with particular features to deter mice and other rodents, and are constructed of oak or chestnut. One of the interesting design features is that no nails or screws are used to assemble the structures. And so, now we know what these are. 

As a side note, panera actually translates to ‘bread basket’... and most of us in the US will recognize the name from the popular fast food chain. “Panera Bread”, which is actually quite redundant.

Not far beyond the Asturian panera, we found ourselves high above Luarca’s port, looking down upon the town, whose predominantly white colored homes and businesses were set in tiers along the mountainsides. We descended steeply along cobbled roads to the historic area of the city, set along the port and the Rio Negro, which ran through the center of the town. 

Passing through the archway of the Palacio del Marqués de Ferrera, we continued down the cobbles and down another narrow staircase between buildings to pop out along the river and a nice little restaurant patio, where we promptly sat for lunch. Hiking is hard work. But this was a schedule we could get behind: start off at 10am, hike 10 miles, and finish at the next town before 1:30p, just in time for lunch. 

Unfortunately, our ‘just hiked 10-miles’ hunger convinced us to get two cochopos, which was certainly a dish that could have been split, but we did our best. Later, we also followed it up with MAXBONS, the ice cream bars that I mentioned from yesterday. Half ice cream bar, half ice cream sandwich. 

Aren’t these brilliant? And so tasty. 

No one said we were going for any health awards out here.

After checking into our hotel, we spent most of the rest of the afternoon relaxing. My laptop was working again, so that was a major plus, as it would be awhile before we were somewhere where I could have it looked at/fixed if there was a bigger problem. 

Later in the evening, we strolled around the town a bit more. The skies were cloudy and there was a flat white light that wasn’t exactly lending the same beauty to the city as the sunshine we had hiked in under, which was a bit of a shame. Hopefully there will be some nice blue skies when we hike out tomorrow morning. 

And now, it’s time for bed soon. Tomorrow we have another fairly long day. Windows open, we can hear the seagulls squawking, the evening diners at sidewalk tables below, and the occasional weed wacker speeding down the streets in the distance.