The young man sleeping in the next bed to me turned out to be a terrible snorer. Even with my ear plugs in and pillow wrapped around my head I still kept getting woken up.

Then his alarm went off at 6am waking up anyone who had somehow managed to sleep. He turned the alarm off and continued snoring. I am looking forward to a private room tonight!

There was no breakfast at the albergue and most pilgrims left at around 7am, including the 83 year old doing her second walk to Santiago with her son.

I decided to leave as well even though it was a bit dark. It’s a long walk today of about 37km.

After 5km walking with the sunlight slowly increasing I arrived at Nueva where the town was just waking up.

At a busy bar full of farmer types with muddy boots I got a decent breakfast with a rich chocolate pastry and toast.

Here’s a nice looking rooster.

The number of houses with pilgrim encouragement signs out the front seem to be increasing. Here are some that I saw today.

Someone had painted all these rocks with pilgrim related pictures.

The route today traversed attractive countryside with mountain views as well as pretty little villages.

The old timbers of a village church porch

I’ve started seeing horrios. These are elevated grain stores. I saw lots in Galicia walking three years ago along the Via de la Plata but the ones in Asturias look quite different.

A boat graveyard.
In the wetlands.

As is usual on the Camino del Norte, the path led eventually back to the sea. It was strange walking through a grove of eucalyptus trees from my country, Australia, down to surf beach, of which we have thousands of kilometers. Which country am I in again?

Finally my destination, La Isla, came into view in the distance.

La Isla is a small beach community but with the help of the people at my hotel, I walked to a parilla or grill house just 15 minutes walk away.

It was meat heaven!

After today’s long walk, I’m taking it easy tomorrow with a short 22km walk to Villaviciosa, famous for it’s cider.