Country Lanes - CDS Primitivo To Tineo

This section of trail mostly followed the old country lanes from village to village. These are the old roads. These lanes are the living history of this land. When times were simpler, and to leave your village might have only happened once in your life.

This is a beautiful section of trail. The landscape of Asturias is incredibly interesting to me. It’s just farmland, true, but there’s always something to look at, and contemplate.

My camera rarely left my hand. We dillydallyed a lot, but it couldn’t be helped.

And mud? We found a lot of that.

This horse was ten feet above me, looking down as I walked by. I think it might be the finest horse portait I’ll ever catch.

The dangers of photography:

I’m walking along and the scene above catches me. I pull out my camera, get my composition, check the lens and physics. “Perfect.” Done.

I start walking again, slipping my camera back in my pocket when I set my right foot down into a giant pile of wet soupy cow shit.

“Great! Just great.”

I did my best to wipe it off, inventing a few dance moves in the process. I’m pretty sure the hotel tonight won’t be happy to see me, but shit happens, ya know?

A church from the 1400s.

I love these old buildings. Humble buildings. Buildings they built from materials at hand, by hand - mostly stone. They are still standing 700 years later. The masons are some amazing artists. Practical people who build beautiful buildings.

We are on a five day great dog streak!

This fella ran up to me and said, “C’mon! Let’s go!” He took us for a walk for a half mile to the next village. Clearly, he’s done this before. He’s a pilgrim collector. He ran ahead, marks his territory and scratches up the roughage. He knows the way.

Finally we get to a house with three dogs behind a fence. They come running, mad as hell, cursing and barking. This dog stands them up, and says. “Screw you guys! I’m a free ranging dog, and you guys are in jail. Suckers.” He pees on THEIR fence corner and trots off the way he came.

Those three dogs are beyond angry.

Job well done, fella.

December is here. The temperatures are dropping. It’ll likely rain every day. We are happy we brought an extra layer of clothes. We’ve been exceptionally lucky with the weather so far. Fingers crossed.

So far, we’ve hiked 238 miles with 150 miles to go. Once you get into hiking mode, it’s hard to remember life before and imagine life after the trail. What will we do all day???