Second Phase: Sestiello (what we thought it was Grado) to Salas 28.08 KM

Tuesday, May 27th, 2014.

We had a perfect night in a beautiful casa rural, at 6 in the morning we started walking compensating the kilometers we didn't do the day before.

Sunrise before the uphill to the Albergue San Juan de Villapanada

We passed Grado full of energy and with such a feeling of freedom, that we almost forgot that in a few kilometers we would have to take a very long and demanding uphill, first to reach the albergue and then to reach the "Alto del Fresno".

When I saw the sign leading to the street were the uphill road started I couldn't believe my eyes. I took the bike so the stroller would be less heavy and we started climbing.

View from the Sanctuary "Virgen del Fresno"

When we reached the albergue, my husband was almost dead from pushing (and too hot wearing his fleece) and we started thinking on alternative ways of doing it better. Esteban started feeling pain on his heels, something was wrong with the socks he was wearing and it caused huge blisters. He had to stop to change socks and protect the area. We can only recommend: pay a lot of attention to the socks you buy.  We ended up using only one pair: Falke extreme hiking compression socks and those worked beautifully.

That day Esteban pushed the stroller uphill alone until we reached the summit. Usually we took turns pushing the stroller, but I am just not strong enough to do it uphill.

Cornellana Monastery

"Virgen del Fresno" Sanctuary Bell

The views and the Sanctuary made us forget how tired we were. We did a small picnic (the moment Emilia saw the picnic blanket she was all excited, she loves picnics) and used the opportunity to change Emilia so she can start walking. We payed a short visit to the sanctuary and started the descent completely recovered but it was such a steep road downhill that it was very hard on the knees. The bike brake of the stroller saved our lives.

Cornellana Albergue

We passed the albergue in Doriga and went directly to Cornellana. The Albergue in Doriga looks very nice and its owner is such a great guy.  If you plan the phases differently, I can only recommend staying there.

Once in Cornellana, we visited the Monastery and the albergue, and continued without making a pause.

The sun was on its summit and there were still 10 km to go. The lack of trees between Cornellana and Quintana made it very hard.

The extra kilometers from the day before and the sun were destroying our plans to arrive to Salas and it was already 15h00. Searching for a place to rest and buy something cold to drink, we discovered that in Quintana there is nothing and that a "merendero" are just chairs and a table were you can sit and eat what you have on the backpack.

The moment we lost all hope we met someone that was on the way to Salas and offered to give us a lift ignoring the fact that we were full of mud from the rain.

So we didn't walk the last 5 kilometers but that lift saved our bodies a lot of pain.

When we arrived to the hotel we found advertising regarding a service that takes your backpack or whatever you want to send to your next stop.
We discussed a lot about it, we were a little demotivated because we didn't make it to Salas so we decided we would hire it to send Emilia's sleeping bag, the diapers, and the sandals. The service on the camino primitivo is www.taxicamino.com, they charge 5 euros per backpack minimum 20 euros. They serve only until O Cadavo.  We had enough additional weight with the stroller and the bike, so we hired the service.

Log of the day:

5h00 - 6h00 - Wake up and preparation

6h00 - 8h00 - Reached "Alto del Fresno", first 12 kilometers of the day

8h00 - 09h15 - Breakfast picnic and sanctuary visit 

09h15 - 13h00 - Got lost when we faced the road after Doriga so it took a very long time to reach Cornellana.  Emilia could not use the bike a lot because the downhill was too steep and she was afraid of letting me tie the bike with a rope to help her keep control

13h00 - 15h00 - Reached Quintana and found help

15h30 - We arrived to Salas.

Hotel we stayed at in Salas: 
Castillo de Valdez - supreme service (the lady even opened the restaurant earlier for us in the evening), good food, on the Camino

The lessons of the day were:

1. Teamwork is the only way to survive as a family.

2. Take a pause every 3 hours or less depending on your condition, for us it was a killing factor to have taken no breaks after breakfast.

3. Pay a lot of attention to your socks... they really need to be the right ones for you.

4. If you are talking a stroller it needs to have a bike brake.

Going back to the Happiness Delta discussion, to reach a goal, feel free and happy as a family you need enough money to cover the basics, but what you need in addition is time.

Next stop Tineo.....
 

Salas!!