Sept 18 Muron to Soto De Luina 23kms

We are up early and ready to go with a very fond farewell to our host of the night before. We are clean and and our clothes are fresh and what could we ask from this. It is all up hill from here and we are getting stronger as there are few complaints from the group as we climb the first of many hills this day. Our guide book both saves us and takes us into disaster today. we ignore the danger warnings from the first section and inspite of the fears of an overgrown jungle, we are in a wonderful forest which takes us up and around to a little village. really if tarzan were to swing from the trees behind us we were ready for him!. At one point, Kirsten stops to call her husband Michael and she sings Happy BIrthdaty to him and we all cry listening to her. We are so far away from the people that we love and sometimes it strikes me that we are choosing an adventure which is enlightening and inspiring to us each as individuals, but that life carries on without us at home.
We decide to take a diversion from the route which turns out to be magical and we decsend into a gem of a village which is build up on the mountain side near the sea. Cudillera is not to be missed on this route as it is wonderful. It is quite a tourist haven, but we are there early enough to have coffee and breakfast before the buses arrive at the top of the town. It is a long way down and then a very long way up.
Here we get into trouble as the construction along the road interfers with the markers for the camino. we follow the old road as described and then try to find our way. Eventually we end up high above the new highway. in the midst of a mightyt overpass construction site, having to scramble through tough bushes and brambles hoping that the guide book is accurate. We come to a place which requires us to slide down into a gravel road way and eventually we find the way, an old tunnel under the highway and into a small village and down to the sea. Here we take off our boots and spread out our delicious lunch which has become a standard fare of bread, cheese and tuna out of a can and sometimes baby tomatoes. You cannot imagine the tase of this as the sea rolls in front of you and the sun shines in the clear blue sky and there is no sound except for the nature that is all around. You have no idea where you will go next, except to follow the markers. You have a kind of an idea of where the next bed will be, but no certainly if there will be an empty one for you and all you have is in your back pack which has become a part of your world as you move from day to day.
We have been walking now for 24 days or so and are nearing the 500 kms mark of walked kms. We have taken buses and trains for about 60kms and will not do that again in order to feel like we have really walked this route.
So we leave our lunch spot and then head up. We learn later that the orange arrows that we follow are for the tourists and not the pilgrims and so we are led on quite a fancy route for the next 5 hours. We walk through wonderful villages and forests once again, but are directed onto a road for the last 5 kms that is quite gruelling and completely finishes us off.
We get to our destination at Soto de Luina eventually and into a pretty mediocre albergue which is not the best after such a day. We are lucky though and realize that all the pilgrims got lost this day and some even arriving after 10 pm, from walking through the forests late a night. Some of the young people do not have the funds to stay in other than the alberques so they have to walk until they find it which is a problem, when the directions are not clear.
So for anyone reading this and planning to walk this way, the route from Cudillera to Sotto de Luina should probably be taken following the road all the way and not the arrows.
It worked out for us in the end, but we learned a lesson about the albegues in they process. WE DO NOT LIKE THEM VERY MUCH. This one was not that clean and had one bathroom for each of the men and women. ALL night long we were awake with the stuffiness of the room and a poor women who coughed consistently until she fell asleep exhausted and then the snorers kicked in. It is not a great experience sleeping with 22 other people in the same room and we decide to look for cheap pensionnes as we can find them along the rest of the way.
Maggee