Third Phase: Salas to Tineo 19.63 KM

Wednesday, May 28th, 2014 

Finally a short day, this is the perfect example how everything is just a matter of perspective: after 2 days of walking, 19 kilometers seem just a little walk around a park :).

Wall at the entry of the woods when leaving Salas

We started the day full of hope and motivated to not need anymore help along the way. We left Salas and entered the woods so happy to hear the birds singing and the water running, that we didn't know how we would survive without starting our day looking at the sunrise every morning.

Once in the forest, we started a path that was constantly going up and after what it felt like 200 kilometers we reached the worst uphill we had so far.  Looking back, that one is on the top 3 worst horrendous uphills (you can see the steep uphill full of huge rocks that blocked the wheels of the stroller in the picture on the right).
 

Worst uphill so far

We had a lot of good ideas on how to pull the stroller but we didn't implement them (thinking that we would do it during the break), so I took again the bike and Esteban started pushing... I can honestly say it was enough carrying myself around, I don't know how he did it.

When we reached the highway, we were convinced we had walked at least 8 kilometers, but no, we did 3,09 kilometers in one and a half hours!!! BTW, all of this was under heavy rain.

After recovering we crossed the highway, (very dangerous) and started a forest path again, this time the uphill was not so difficult but still Esteban did it alone, and it started pouring harder, it was so much water I could barely see anything for a while.

In spite of it all, the views and the peace we found were amazing.  We made our first break at 10h00 in La Espina.

After the break Emilia had to stay in the stroller longer because the road was full of mud and the rain continued. At about 12h00 we took a little break to eat something and Emilia took her bike and then we continued until reaching Tineo and found amazing views at the entry of the city.  The only unpleasant surprise was that we didn't go directly to eat, but took our time doing other stuff...this meant that when we tried to get something to eat, the restaurants were all closed, so we couldn't find anything warm.  We ended up going to a supermarket nearby.

We made it, we had our doubts from the previous day but we made it!!

And about the Happiness Delta... that is the kind of family happiness you are looking for!

Breakfast at La Espina

Log of the day:

05h00 - 06h05 - Wake up and preparation

06h05 - 09h00 - Not so fast pace walk until La Espina 8,34 kilometers

09h00 - 10h15 - Breakfast break

10h15 - 15h15 - Walk with Emilia until reaching Tineo

Hotel we stayed at in Tineo: 
Hotel Palacio de Meras - wonderful rooms, very good service, on the Camino

 
Next stop Pola de Allande....