The Halfway Point

 Hiking Day 20    April 27

Ribadesella to Colunga

Miles 14.7

Total Miles    273.5

Ascent    1092’

Descent    1029’

Today we believe we have reached the halfway point of our journey in terms of miles hiked. As our friend Bill says, “Every hike has a midpoint, you just cannot know where the midpoint is until the hike is completed”. So it is true with our hike. We think the total mileage from Irun to Santiago is about 525 miles but there is no way to be sure until the entire hike is completed.

With that in mind, we arbitrarily designate this spot and this bathtub/water trough as the exact mid point of our adventure. To celebrate we snap a photo and continue to hike!

The walk today is about half on paved but remote and little traveled one lane “roads”. The remainder is on unpaved paths, often muddy and some running with small streams of water left over from last night’s rains. It is slow going at times, the ever futile attempt to keep our shoes clean.

We travel all day and only find one open coffee shop. And at the most unlikely spot, at a cafe at a remote beach at the end of a dead end road. But the coffee is great. The only patrons are the two of us and two young Brits that plan to do the entire walk in 16 days…that is about about 33 miles per day. Ahh, the benefits of youth!

As usual, Scot and I find one alternative route today that adds a couple of miles but takes us along the coast. We walk on a grassy path within feet of the cliff’s edge with a 150 foot or more drop to the ocean. As an added benefit we see no other hikers for the two-mile cliff walk. Amazing!

Arriving at our small and very old “hotel” we see Pete in the garden enjoying a beer so we join him in his task before we even check in. We have a very hard time finding a place to eat tonight. We ask at several bars but no one is serving dinner tonight. Finally we find one small bar that will serve us. The 4 of us are the only people eating at the what the locals consider the early dinner hour of 8 pm!