We started 7 o’clock as always and got out into a cloudy and cool day. After leaving Tineo, a dirt road began to take us slightly further and further up through fields and forests, sometimes steep, sometimes softly.
We had already been able to see the clouds hanging low between the mountains from downstairs and as we climbed our first 100m, we walked right into the clouds. We went further up, through fairy-tale foggy forests, my hands increasingly freezing to ice-blocks.
We passed our first highest point and descended again until we left the fog and reached the first village. We found a picnic place and settled down for breakfast at a table under some trees.After a while, the boys arrived and joined us (the system works perfectly, every single day). We carried on together afterwards, mostly walking in complete silence through the forests, up and down until we reached Borres, which was supposed to be our stage’s destination today.
There are two alternative ways from there: the traditional route through Pola de Allande which goes steeply down and then steeply up the next day; and the alternative route of Hospitales, which is much more mountainy and is supposed to be the most beautiful piece of the Camino. The only problem with the Hospitales alternative is that you’re not supposed to walk it in the fog because you can easily get lost. So, we stood there in Borres, next to the albergue and had a crisis meeting. Go on and miss out on the beautiful mountain part but save a day, or stay and take the mountain path tomorrow? The weather forecast said it would be raining the whole day of tomorrow, and we were struggling with the idea of getting to Santiago and flying home immediately the next morning without spending a day there. Putting these arguments together, we decided to carry on. For a short moment, I was tempted to take a bus because I hadn’t been feeling very well during these first 15 km and had been walking slower than normal, not really able to get enough air into my lungs and feeling slightly weak. I kept walking anyway.
The path went on in a “sine” way, as our app described it, going more up than down for about 5 km. When we reached the top, a weird blue stripe formed between the clouds and the mountains and after a very short while, the sky had turned blue and a burning sun started shining down on us.
We found a little bar at the top of the mountain run by an old couple and got something to drink. Ben ordered a tortilla de jamón, so I wanted one too and when I had decided that, Johanna wanted one too. The old woman prepared the three tortillas in her small kitchen for us and we sat in the sun eating. It was delicious. After a while, some cows came to join us and we left when we were sufficiently recovered to walk the last 5 km. I felt much better now and enjoyed the last kilometers very much.
We still had to climb a few hundred meters up to our highest point at the Alto de Lavadoira at 806 m and then descend for several hundred meters steeply downhill to Pola de Allande, where we would spend the night. There was no hospitalero in the albergue but we made ourselves comfortable and showered. In the meantime, Ben had to take the bus all the way back to Tineo because he had left all his clothes there.
Mitch and I went for a little walk through the village looking for food and actually found a little bar with a small room full of groceries, including gluten free pasta.
We got some stuff and chilled out in the albergue for a bit before starting to cook.
We prepared a delicious dinner with 1 kg of pasta, a pack of carrots, 3 tomatoes, goat cheese, an avocado and 5 cans of tuna and really had to pull ourselves together to leave something for Ben, who came at the perfect moment to join us.
We shared our table with two Portuguese men who offered us some Portuguese sheep cheese and got a Kinder chocolate drop in return. They were doing the Camino by bike and were proud to tell that they had imported all their food supplies from their home country. Coffee, tee, cheese, chocolate, portwine, whiskey, liquor, another liquor… Most of the goods were liquid and they presented themselves as Asterix and Obelix, with lots of magic potions in their bags.All these things were brought from the biking bags to our table after dinner and shared between all of us. First, there was Portuguese green tea and coffee. Then we started with the good stuff. We tried a delicious home brew cherry liquor first, paired up with a piece of dark chocolate with orange which was chipped in by Carlos, a basque guy. Then we tried the Portwine. Another, smaller bottle came out of the bag after that. It was a very intense but good mint liquor. The smallest bottle contained whiskey and was called “the ultimate solution” by Obelix.
Asterix and Obelix went for a walk after this, the rest of us went to bed. We could have rolled to bed too… All the stuff we ate and drank tonight should do for my could and I think I can skip the Paracetamol today.
If this didn’t kill us, the extremely squeaky bed and the attack of laughter that came with it, almost did (not the first time this happens). As always, and as weird as this might seem, it was still bright when we went to sleep, but in 8 hours we’ll be walking again.
