Sept 21 Luarca to Navia 19kms

Up from the harbour in Luarca it is another steep climb from our starting place. this seems to be the normal way to start the day in this route. It is awkward because it is cool and then when you start to climb, you immediately begin to sweat and are cold in the wind which blows off the sea. So it is a matter of keeping moving or being ready to grab the fleece that you have just put away. It is still sunny so it becomes hot as the morning passes. We are following provisional signs most of the way again because of the construction around us, so the guide book is way off base again. we just have to trust that the yellow arrows will take us to the same destination that we have in mind. Sometimes the yellow arrows provide a diversion around the towns and the coffee breaks we are anticipating!
In spite of all of this we are feeling strong and good and enjoying the beautiful views and the wonderful scenes that we pass through every hour. We arrive in Navia by 3 pm which is a treat and sit down at a bar for a drink to cool down and figure our where we will head to find accomnodation. this is solved quickly as we head for a great little hostel which provides us with rooms at a very reasonable cost. We are finding that the alberques in this end of the camino are not very clean or as adequate as they were at the beginning of our trek and so they are not the choice for sleeping. We are also spoiled with the wonderful clean pensions that we find for around 15E per person, sharing a room together.
I am getting tired again and find that the push to walk every day is requiring a lot of energy. We have walked more than 500kms now and are getting to the last third of the journey and the hills ahead are going to be bigger as we head towards Santiago. We do not rest much in this little group as we are here to walk and not laze around, but I can tell that the stress on me is more than I want to experience. I am lucky that my feet are great and I do not have any complaints of sore muscles or tendons as I have seen with others. It is just a matter of finding my rythm and getting the balance of the effort required each day with my energy levels.
Maggee