Last night in Canales- La Magdalena I stayed at a new albergue not listed in any of the guides. Six beds, clean, modern, hot water, kitchen, wash machine, etc. The only thing missing was wifi but the owners also own the Cafe Bar down the street and they have wifi there.

A couple of days ago I met another pilgrim – Paco – from near Barcelona. He’s an avid walker and has done many Caminos. We walked together for 18km or so. I’m going to wait for him to catch up in the morning so we will walk 18km together tomorrow as well.

This is where the days on the Camino and the Etapas diverge. Today’s etapa was 18km. I went 28km today. I’ll have an 18km day tomorrow instead of 28km – I’m ok with that.

Today was a -tough- day. I think mostly because I’m fairly exhausted. But six climbs of over 100m and three of those combined for a total ascent of 400m in 4km will do it too.

Most of today’s hike was off road. Farm track and single track. Some of which were probably Roman roads at one time but since overgrown so difficult to tell. It rained on me the last 4km, but it was a light rain and I am really no wetter than if it was sunny outside and I sweat.

For the next 40km, there are no stores or places to eat. So one thing I ended up doing was buying food for the next two days – although I am eating a great home-cooked meal at Maxi’s right now.

The little hamlet maybe less than a dozen houses here in Vegarienza is along the bank of the river Omaña – a famous trout river here in Spain. It was quite evident by all of the fisherman trying to outsmart the trout. There is one albergue which used to be a move the Casa Médica but because of the pandemic has moved down the block. It’s an old house with creaky floors and doors that get stuck – but it’s right next to the river so the sound of the rushing water will surely lull me to sleep tonight.

The community of Vegarienza is united in their concern for the continued vitality of this town. Estela who runs the albergue retired from Madrid after she moved there when she was 19 after growing up here. She’s a sweat lady who was surprised that I gave her 20€ for the night at the albergue. It’s donativo with a minimum of 8€. I have the whole alberguento myself so it’s like a private room.

It was a tough but good day on the Camino today.

I didn’t take too many pics as it was a tough hike a bit here are some…