Day 10 to Colunga

13 September 2023 Day 10 is another hilly but incredibly beautiful. a 50 km day

Up and down up and down and all around el mar

How do I wanna summit up - it was just plain a great second to the last day of riding - mostly in a natural setting. The road riding wasn’t too bad.
I also rode over a puente Romana, which is a ancient Roman bridge at the end pulling into town!
Pretty cool.
I’ll buzz through the day in pictures and text because you to know tomorrow will be my last riding day. And to top it off La Vuelta de Espana started Ribadesella today 30 minutes after I arrived in town to watch it all unfold!
How lucky was that?

When I set up my lodging, my travel agency made sure breakfast is included daily because of the huge calorie intake that is required every day on this ten-day effort. Since the cafés known as bars here don’t open until at least 9 AM it’s just way too late to get nutrition and calories in the tank that late . Breakfast starts at eight today so when I got into the hotel café area I asked when it’s available and she said in Spanish there’s only one option do you want all of it? Since my stomach is very much on the mend, I said sure. You can imagine the complete shock when this all came it was included at no extra charge in my stay at my hotel - el Don Paco - a converted convent from a few hundred years ago! Yes, I ate at all especially the homemade yogurt which I hope is for the good bacteria to restart my bio chemistry.
Best desayuno of the Camino so far !

After ensuring my backpack was properly placed in the reception going to be picked up by Correos to be shipped to tonights lodging in Colunga I went to the bike parking garage and claimed my pony and headed out took a right and rode through this beautiful paseo to get started on my day - heading west

A beautiful departure on this paseo lined with fig trees, with people enjoying conversation underneath them -both old and young. I will say, however, they make one heck of a mess when they drop those over ripe fruit figs.

Riding out of town with a very narrow shoulder with a painful reminder of my food poisoning earlier in the week

Yes, I rode through this town and all I thought of was what I had to do as I moved through ! …and the sign was a stomach churning reminder of the hamburguesa from hell, some days back, that I’m mostly recovered from. Other risks and hazards: some of you have wondered what they are. I don’t worry about the cars going by as much as you think I should because I take all the standard bicycling precautions, most important of which is getting off the road if a semi is going to go by and secondarily to have a blinking red light on that is extremely bright if I am on a relatively busy road. The greatest hazard I face is NOT keeping a keen eye out for road hazards, such as bollards marking lanes, curbs, and sidewalks. My greatest risk comes from both curbs and steep gutters. Curbs if I’m on the sidewalk and happen to go off one into a lane traffic. Or if I’m on the edge of the road, my pedal hits the curb and throws me into a lane of traffic. Gutters are especially dangerous because they’re often full of weeds and brush that is level with the road what you don’t know is that if I have bail out in an emergency and go into it or stop and step into it with my right leg it can be anywhere from 6 inches to 3 feet deep, causing a bad fall, sprain or worse -a broken some thing or another. Anyway, I am very attentive as one has to be nonstop when sharing the road with big metal machines. All cycling pilgrims, as well as those out on long road bike training runs use and share of the road. Oddly, I’m the only cyclist I’ve seen in Spain that wears a bright fluorescent yellow green vest. !

Right turn here

On the road from Llanes to Posada

As stated Spain gets the award for the very best dahlias I’ve ever seen anywhere in the world

Out of water as I was in this instance late morning, no problem - almost every town or pueblo has a public fountain in the public square or next to a church plaza. If it’s not drinkable, there is usually a sign that says “No tratada or No potable”. If it doesn’t have a sign and the water is flowing fast ( like this one ) because they’re artesian springs. I drink it - I’ve never had a problem. Churches, especially trustworthy, right ? holy water !

The sign indicates there 444 km to go to get to Santiago on the Camino del Norte! Only 100 km on my bike as I switch to walking the Primitivo in a couple of days which is 325 km start to finish. I have ridden about the same amount so far from my starting point in Hondarribia and if you add 46 km from tomorrow’s ride and I’ll end up completing close to 500 km of the Norte after which I take a detour to Oviedo and the start of the Primitivo. I turn in my bike basically by leaving it at the hotel after tomorrow night stay. Finishing the Norte from Gihon to Santiago (via the Ingles) will have to wait for another day (heads up familia :) . I’ll go meet my dear friend Holger from Deutschland in Oviedo on the morning of the 15th ( after touring the spectacular and famous cathedral of Oviedo that apparently started the whole ‘camino thing’ in the 9th century around the year , when King Alfonso II the Chaste began his pilgrimage to the tomb of the Apostle, which had just been discovered) to start walking a different Camino - the original Camino - called the Primitivo. (from Wiki; The Camino Primitivo is thought of as the "Original Way" because it is reportedly the path taken by the first reported pilgrim, Alfonso II of Asturias (c. 760 – 842), nicknamed the Chaste (Spanish: el Casto). The King left his capital, Oviedo, in the year 814 to travel to the present location of the city of Santiago de Compostela, at the time known as Libredon ). The distance he and I will cover walking on that one is 325 km. So what about finishing the Norte? Well, I guess everyone will just have to stay tuned and see if I get around to doing that in the future especially my Familia. Do you know that German Swede work ethic? Start something finish it ! 😎

I pulled over next to the sad looking marker -clearly been here for dozens of years -faded, tipping over, looking rather sad and neglected.

Lonely and ‘going back to nature’ ?!

So what do I think about all that time with 6+ hours walking or riding in the saddle?

Everyone’s answer to this question is this a wee bit different.
I for one can go for fairly long periods of time with not thinking about really anything other than just looking at the world go by. I find this restorative -kind of like defragmenting a hard drive in the old days of computers. I find this very cleansing and is the one great thing I look forward to after leaving my urban busy life behind for a month. I don’t find such a process all that easy to do when at home. Reflection comes and goes, sometimes deep sometimes not so deep, sometimes reminiscing, sometimes searching for memories. Some surface, some can’t be found.

Well today…. this marker certainly was an metaphor for one aspect of all of our lives;

Missing signs. Signals. Markers. Lots of missed turns and too many back-tracks. Not seeing the way markers to get back on track. Crossing over to what appears to be the ‘fast track’ and knowing or not knowing it’s not the right track. Maybe this is all part of the thing called pilgrimage in life, just a thought, but I’ve got a lot of time to think today.

So  how would such a worn, faded and leaning sign post today appear to many, (especially the next generation) to be old, on its way out.
Irrelevant ?
Something to be discarded
Ignored?
Passed by?

Why?

Not big enough shiny enough loud enough funny enough modern enough, techy enough, cool enough, followed enough? Liked enough?

How many signs in my life have I discounted or ignored? I see them all using one or many of my God-given 6 senses but I haven’t given them a second thought.
Going too fast, no time, no margin.
How many better choices could I made if I thought about such signs, heed or not heed, and for the major markers or events in one’s life how many catastrophes could be avoided if I would stop and figure out where on THE ROAD I’m is really at.

How often we don’t listen to others when they’re speaking truth or guidance, whether audibly, or by exhibiting cause and effect behavior, and thereby missing the opportunity for a better path. The ‘correct’ path.

It’s sad because often these are our elders that are the guardians of such knowledge (which is actually what wisdom is)

Couple that with our current age of (im)moral relativism, endless tools of ‘distraction’, sedentary indoor lives - infinite streaming of trash tv and movies, scene time, etc. etc. - it is not going to end well.

Anyway, such thoughts are frequent, but not nonstop -some are rather simplistic and some are rather profound

Sadly, the competition in our modern technological lifestyles competes to the point of excluding the possibility of contemplation for most of us.

I refer to this as ‘the noise’ that prevents deep thought.

It makes observing signs and cues very difficult if not impossible

Most fascinating is my last Camino after about 25 days my mind and soul was cleansed to a point that I was able to think with such extreme clarity and depth it surprised me like never before.
I hope that happens again. (Holger refers to this as ‘the flow’, love it!)

I’ll have to develop this and other contemplations I’ve had further

A beautiful descent into the hippie surfer town called Vega, -picture taken by a (new) friend from Czech Republic named Martin who is walking the entire Norte (he walks very very fast and is way ahead of his walking tribe)

Leaving Vega it’s not all blacktop or crushed gravel. This uphill moment will live in my mind I hope for the rest of my life. I was tired and walked a bunch of it to slow down and take it in knowing i’ll not be on this trail ever again. Welcome to an epic moment on the Camino del Norte.

Do you really expect me to see that marker 30 m in from the side of the road, on the edge of private property, when I’m riding by at 15 km/h? This is the restart of the official route after on the road away from the town of Las Islas. Give me a break !
I blew by it and had to backtrack 200 m to find it.

Roman bridges coming up - I backtracked so I could bike over these puentes as small as they are

And in not taking it, had I stayed on the road, I would’ve missed passing this pasture and break in the clouds - yet another metaphor for the cost of not being observant in life, looking for subtle ‘cues’ taking the extra step or slight detour, even if it cost a little

I also would not have crossed puente Romana or Roman Bridge still being used by pilgrims to get from point a to point B for over 1800 years

Dinner number one once I arrived in Colunga, not knowing my lodging was right around the corner 100m away. Very yummy with bread and lots of olive oil…. all washed down by at least 2 cokes. Waiter said “sorry, señor, no paella por uno” today. Come back tomorrow…..

Down the hill to the left my lodging in Colunga was beautifully landscaped with a really cool courtyard jardiin and nice on-site cafe (dinner, as always, is served late by American standards)

Plenty of cozy spots to sit, chill and ruminate about this adventure. Just great journaling time, contemplation, appreciation for being able to do this, albeit a bit lonely when going solo. Such moments are often best shared, hence my propensity to strike up conversations with others -usually pilgrims.

Dehydrated, I opted for what appeared to be a cross between a smoothie and a milk shake ( I ordered a second one). For my second dinner around 7:30 pm I opted for a charcuterie board to satisfy my craving for more wonderful Asturias queso.

Just fabulous. The ambiance in the garden was festive as the other ‘travellers’ came out for evening vino. I got to know one awesome young man who I’ll describe after breakfast tomorrow morning.

Highlight of the day:
Witnessing La Vuelta de Espana Stage 17 start (log onto the official website and you can see the 3’ stage finish video for today on a mountain top in the clouds going uphill unbelievable!)

What surprised me most:

A day is made up of nearly endless ‘moments’ that I hope will live in my mind for years with high resolution. Many are discarded as irrelevant, some are considered, some are worthy of thought, some are filed away awaiting a future use or context.

“The paradox: there can be no pilgrimage without a destination, but the destination is also not the real point of the endeavor. Not the destination, but the willingness to wander in pursuit characterizes pilgrimage. Willingness: to hear the tales along the way, to make the casual choices of travel, to acquiesce even to boredom. That’s pilgrimage — a mind full of journey.”

~ Patricia Hampl