Today’s walk was out of one big town, through another, and then onto our destination for the night, Piedras Blancas. A lot of industrial areas today as we exited Gijon and entered Aviles. The photos will reflect that. We met another pilgrim Michael from the Czech Republic and had a chat with him for about 20 minutes along the way.
Exiting Gijon, we followed the main street for about 3 or 4km before hitting the city’s edge. It wasn’t quiet with the cars and buses driving by. Not a sightseeing extravaganza either walking up the road. Once we hit the edge, we were in an industrial area where we had to navigate crossing some main roads—lots of cars and trucks about.
Once through the industrial area, we came to our only hill for the day, which was only about a 250-metre gradual climb. Not at all like yesterday’s effort.
Once at the top, we hit a plateau with a large grass field. From then on, we walked in farmland and down farm tracks. It was a very gradual descent to the next valley. This was the best part of the day for walking with the scenery and the stillness.
We hit the outskirts of Aviles pretty quickly, so the serenity of the countryside was broken by the sounds of cars and trucks. We stopped for a coffee for Ron and a beer for me at a trucker stop and sat for a while.
We’d walked 25km thus far, and as we entered Aviles, Ron and I decided that we’d catch a cab the rest of the way to Piedras Blancas as the clouds overhead looked ominous, and we’d had enough walking for the day. We tried to hail a couple of taxis on the street, but to no avail, so I Googled where the taxi rank was, and we walked there to get our taxi to take us to the hotel.
And that is it for today. Not a fantastic walk in regards to scenery. Even though the valley was beautiful, it was spoilt by the roads with trucks thundering past us in the industrial areas. Don’t worry. We had plenty of shoulder to walk on, so it wasn’t like it was really dangerous. A couple of times, maybe, but otherwise, all okay.
For a map of today’s walk, you’ll find it below.
That’s it from me. Over and out. Buen Camino! 🥸