Villaviciosa to
Pola de Siera

Camino FORK to Camino Primitivo (or return to Camino del Norte via Avilés) or to go straight ahead to Gijon and then down to Oviedo to join Primitivo or Villaviciosa to Pola-siero.

We had decided to head for the Primativo, so we had a hearty breakfast in a local cafe and set off. The day started well, but cold, and a fellow Scot took a picture of us at the first fork to the Primitivo. We had a look around a little church, where unfortunately Sue left her map and a shell she had bought, and we continued on. We took a detour to magnificent monestary in San Salvador de Valdedios which is on a detour before San Pedro , a fascinating place with a tiny 9th century church and a now abanded monestary dating from the 12th to the 19th century. From there we struggled uphill to a pass, with no coffee shop, only a closed garage and strong winds where we ate our lunch on a dilapidated bench in the wind. The path wound down old roads to the valley, but from there we were on hard roads for some time - not shown on the pictures! We found a bar with a grumpy waitor where we had hot Colacaco and cake to keep us going, and saw some people from Lourdes travelling with donkeys. After more roads, we stopped at a picnic area for a snack, where Sue tripped over a blue string and hurt her leg. After that we had less main roads, with some deviations on old roads and finally through woods and past a chuch into the town. The town was large and not very pleasant, but eventually we found the hostel, and after some initial confusion were welcomed by the friendly hosts. We were given a menu for pilgrim meals in a local restaurant, so we made our way to it, tried some local specialities, staggered back and collapsed exhausted.

PLANNED ROUTE