Navia, Asturias

 Navia, Asturias  

I walked out of Luarca at 9am after a late breakfast. The hotel didn't offer an early breakfast option or a picnic breakfast. There were a few pilgrims on the road and I overtook several of them but after an hour or so, there were few pilgrims ahead of me. 

It was was a pleasant walk through farmland with fields of maize, some harvested with just the stalks sticking out of the ground, and other fields ready to be harvested with cobs bursting with yellow corn on the cob just waiting to be eaten but destined to be harvested by giant machines, chopped up and used for cattle fodder.

There was noise from the motorway a long way below in the bottom of the valley, but once over the mountain, it was peaceful with just bird song breaking the silence.

And of course lovely views of forest and the sea in the distance.

But as mentioned before, the motorway is built on the level but El Camino dipped a long way down to cross a river. Where just a quarter of an hour before, I had been high above the motorway, now I was a long way beneath it, but after crossing the river, it was a long haul back up the far side of the valley.

I had seen plenty of horreos en route but one particular house had a minature version in their front garden. 

And I had thought that there wouldn't be much to add to the hungry pilgrim's menu but there was an apricot tree growing at the side of the road. The lower fruits had all been picked and there were just a few tempting fruits left high up in the top branches of the tree and out of reach of pilgrims on foot.

After passing through a lot of farmland, the trail dipped into the outskirts of Navia, a port on the river Navia. 

It has some fine buildings but the view is rather spoilt by the railway viaduct running through the centre of the town. ..

...and across the river. 

The port. 

The casino.

...and my hotel, El Palacio Arias.