27th September, Camino Sanabres to Asturianos

Note to self: bring gloves next time.

A 7.30am start (that’s the 7.30am in the morning) and it’s cold. Again.

We’d been advised that there would be very limited facilities on today’s route and that Mombuey, the first town on today’s route, was to be avoided.

I can’t recall where the advice came from, but it was a bit wrong.

Mombuey had tractors…well it had ONE tractor: 

It also had food shops, loads of them. It was a really bustling place although at 10am it was only just waking up. Stocking up with far too many goodies than we needed at the panaderia we followed the signs out of town:

Plenty of opportunities to fill up with water:

  A building like this in England would have snapped up by a builder long ago

More churches, this one in Valdemerilla:  It’s difficult to photograph interesting architecture that’s not adorned with power cables

And some lovely roadside (locked) Ermitas, this one in San Salvador de Palazuelos:

….and the mysterious guitar-carrying peregrino (peregrina?) 

Passing along the north side of the huge lake of Embalse de Cernadilla, passing through the small town of Entrepenas with it’s (locked) churches, we arrived in the outskirts of Asturianos.

The (locked!) Ermita del Carmen: 

Please give money! 

 This way to the Albergue

The Albergue in Asturianos, attached to the back of the local sports centre was clean and quite well appointed, but it was a bit soul-less. Importantly, the bar was able to provide beer and decent meals.

It had been a day of unremarkable flat, easy walking. The main points of interest were the buildings we encountered on the route. The only hard bit was walking through the heat of the day.

Mad dogs and Englishmen and all that. Oh, and mad Canadians too.

That night it rained – heavily.