Day 5: Cabo Fisterra to Somiedo Mountains

I hadn't been attacked by wolves or trampled by roaming mountain cattle so all must be well, and it was!

I left Cabo Fisterra for the the first major location of my trip. The Somiedo mountains followed by the Picos De Europa. The Somiedo mountains are the last wilderness location of the scarce brown bear. They reside very high up and are rarely seen.

There were numerous unfamiliar structures on stilts that featured in gardens, on the roadside, in fields, almost anywhere and to which it was difficult to attribute a likely function. They were in fact hórreos or granaries for storing cobs and other crops, and have been around for many centuries.

My journey took me through the pretty fishing village of Portocubelo where I stopped for a coffee served from an old fishing equipment store:

past Muros:

round Santiago de Compostela (it was definitely a place I regret not stopping at), following part of the pilgrimage route, the 'Camino de Santiago', otherwise known as the Way of St James. This led across the western mountains of the Cordillera Cantabrica through Ponteferrada to a small village, Sena de Luna, at the foot of the Somiedo mountains.

In a couple of the more remote villages I noticed locals transporting their own-grown produce in small home-made trolleys from their flourishing allotments to their shops or stalls, presumably, following their appealingly simple daily routines. This low economy, self-sufficient lifestyle could quite likely have gone on unchanged over centuries.

This route was interspersed with very beautiful, mountainous scenery and  seriously unattractive coal and cement mines.

C. Rio Luna was my new base. 

After 275 miles that day I decided to 'veg out' and slept for what was left of the afternoon.