Yesterday Sue and I spent the day really doing nothing at all, and it was great. We woke early and dilly dallied and wandered from one cafe to another before we had our fill of coffee.
We lounged in the hotel room, caught up on emails, and I finally had a chance to read most of my brother’s book. It was just nice to be inside and relax.
Today, on the other hand was quite a different day.
Getting ready to push off from Hotel Fruela. The weather did not look good.
Today was a day when the rain gear remained mostly on. It drizzled all day, with times when the drizzle turned into flat out rain. So, it was not really a pleasant day of cycling.
Taking a bit of a break. Now where is there cover to get out of this rain?
We weren’t originally planning on cycling the Camino de Santiago, but we have sure been accidentally cycling most of it. Here is the trademark shell symbol found along the route guiding pilgrims to the finish in Santiago de Compostela.
We weren’t expecting a 200 meter climb, but this is Asturias. I guess I should rephrase that by saying, we didn’t want to do much climbing in weather like this today. Climbing takes time, and we didn’t want to spend any more time than needed in this weather.
Shortly after Grado, we turned off onto AS 15. This is a road that leads to a relatively remote region of Asturias with very little in the ways of towns or services. We expected it to be much quieter than it was. For the first 10 kms it was busy. Cars and trucks in both directions whizzed by throwing up spray. Along with added noise coming from vehicles on a wet road, we had just about had enough. We stopped and had a coffee at a roadside cafe. We sat outside under an awning, and our bodies recoiled from the noise ever time a truck flew past.
On the bright side, we knew that up the road there was an interchange that may explain why all the traffic was being funneled along this stretch of road. We hoped that once we got past it, the traffic would die down
So, like I said. This area is pretty isolated and there is no camping to be had anywhere near our route today, which is a good thing considering the weather. So, we are nice and cozy in a hotel room in Cangas del Narcea. The only problem is that tomorrow we need to backtrack about 6kms to our turnoff to continue along AS14 on route to Lugo.
Even though the weather was not great, we are both so grateful for the day.
Today's ride: 100 km (62 miles) Total: 873 km (542 miles)
