My original plan was to hike to the next municipal albergue, in a small town named Buiza that did not have any stores or restaurants. But I felt physically strong this day and passed that albergue after only about three-and-a-half hours, so I combined the next two days' walks and hiked to the mountain town of Poladura de la Tercia. Although combining these days later created some issues with reservations I had made further up the Camino, I was glad I combined the days.
I headed north on the Camino and under an old aquaduct. My route generally followed a main north-south road to the east and rail tracks to the left.
There was never much traffic and following the route was easy, as you can see from the yellow arrow on the pole in the photo below.
I was happy to take my time along the way and I stopped at a closed church (below) and a small cafe across the street called Nomada630. I was able to get a pastry and a Coke Zero there, along with a stamp for my credential.
The stamp didn't indicate the cafe, but instead was for the church across the street (shown below). But it gave me my two stamps for the day, when combined with the albergue that night.
Two years previous, I had ridden the rails from Leon to Oviedo, covering the same route I was now walking. The trip was ultimately somewhat of a disappointment, as I was on a new high speed line that tunneled through these same mountains, limiting my views along the route. I never knew for sure whether the old tracks still existed until walking this morning. First, I saw a train go by that was clearly not one of the high speed trains. Then, I saw tracks coming out of a tunnel and crossing over my route a few minutes later. I could not ever obtain a photo of the high speed train, but a local train passed me and I snapped a photo. High speed trains have locomotives with bullet noses, and this was clearly not one of those trains.
At about 10:30AM, I passed through the town of La Pola de Gordon, which was a critical town because it contained the last supermarket I would see for several days. I made a point to detour to the supermarket and stocked up. The albergues I would be in tonight and tomorrow would be in towns without supermarkets. And, pilgrims need to call a day ahead to reserve a restaurant meal. A restaurant that required that kind of notice probably did not have a lot of meal options. Which means that they probably serve pork or beef and not chicken or turkey. I chose to carry my next couple of nights meals in my backpack.
After La Pola de Gordon, both sets of train tracks disappeared and I followed a road for several miles until reaching Buiza around noon. Once in Buiza, the weather started to deteriorate, and you can see in the selfie below that I had put on a poncho.
After Buiza, the elevation increased quickly, In two miles after Buiza, I ascended 1164 feet. In the 8.75 miles from La Robla to Buiza, I had only ascended 700 feet. I ran into another pilgrim on the climb: an Irish fellow who was sitting on the side of the route smoking a cigarette. He told me that he had stayed in a hotel in La Robla the night before, and had encountered a couple of Australian women pilgrims who were also hiking our Camino, but that they didn't like him very much. I met these ladies later and they loved everyone! And they were in more contact with the Irish pilgrim than anyone else.
He hiked with me for a while, but then could not keep up. So he bid me "so long" until the albergue that night. For a while, I also hiked with the German fellow I had met the night before, but he stopped for a break and I kept going.
The views were pretty great, even though the weather was not.
This is the view back after I left Buiza. Below are photos taken on the trail crossing through the mountains.
I reached the Albergue de Peregrinos de Poladura de la Tercia cold and wet. I was the first one of the northbound group to arrive, but there was a Spanish fellow walking southbound already there. He was buried under multiple blankets on a sofa and I was jealous! My bed had only one blanket and I did not bring a sleeping bag - only a cloth insert that I could use instead of sheets. I was glad to find more blankets next to that couch, and - in August - slept under two blankets that night.
The weather improved and the sun came out, so several of us took advantage of this and put our hiking gear out to dry. I was coaxed into the nearby bar when drying my clothes and was dismayed to encounter rain starting again when I left the bar!
Below is a photo of the albergue and the drying rack. We slept upstairs, and I think some kind of municipal office is downstairs. Because only the upstairs was available to pilgrims, this was one of the more crowded albergues I experienced. But I'm grateful that it exists, as upkeep has to be demanding in small remote towns like this!
Several public albergues had this same exterior design - both on this Camino and on my later Camino Primitivo. I believe that these are old schoolhouses that have been repurposed.
The Spanish fellow did not speak English, but others in my group spoke better Spanish that I did, he told the group about a 6PM Catholic service which included a "Blessing of the Pilgrims." I think it was here that I met the two Australian pilgrims, and I would stay in touch with them for the rest of my journey. Their names were "Flick," short for Felicity, and "Beat," short for Beatrice. Together I called them Flea.
The service attracted some town residents as well as the pilgrim group. We stayed after the service to obtain a blessing, a photo, and a stamp for our credentials. It was a sweet experience and I think it was my only service while on any Camino.
After the service, everyone in the photo except for the priest and the fellow on the left (the Spaniard) went to the town bar to have a beer. (I never did see the Spanish fellow again, as he was in bed when I returned to the albergue.) Flick and Beat were staying upstairs above the bar that night, and they convinced me to contribute with them to have a taxi take our backpacks to our hostel for the next night. (We were staying in the same place the next night.) I'd never done this before and was a little nervous about it, but I knew the next day was a tough hike and thought it might be more enjoyable if I only had a daypack. So I agreed.
This day's data:
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