Today was a shorter day, and my last day for this trip of heading west on the Camino.
After breakfast, I left my accommodation, and headed back to the route. The church of Santa Cruz de Bezana was looking better this morning with a little bit of blue sky overhead.
I headed on out of Bezana, and soon it looked like I was in countryside again. Unfortunately, however, that did not last very long.
The route turned south and went back to following the main rail and road routes. But this was the last day, so I was not going to let that get me down. And so I came to the next community, Boo de Pielagos. And at this stage a little bit of controversy enters the route. For many years, the standard route taken by pelegrinos followed the railway line, including where it crosses the river Pas. This meant walking on the railway bridge to cross the river. But in recent times, as trains have become more frequent and pelegrinos more numerous, this is both dangerous, and now illegal. If caught, it means a fine of up to €500. As a result, there are two ways to get across the river. One is to go south to Arce and cross on the bridge there. The second is to take the train from Boo de Pielagos to Mogro, one stop on the line, but it gets you over the bridge. The detour to Arce adds an additional nine kilometers to the route for no good reason. I decided to take the train.
It is only two minutes on the train from Boo de Pielagos to Mogro. You would think that it would be possible for the railway engineers to add a footbridge onto the existing rail bridge. It looks strong enough. In any case I reached Mogro station, and walked to the village.
From Mogro, the route heads southwards. The route planners have made every effort to keep the route in countryside as much as possible. Even when the route goes through Requejada, for a good part of the way, there is a countryside feel to the route.
That changes leaving Requejada. The route follows the main road, taking to the pavement again. I continued along until I got to Barreda. There, the route passes the Solvay Quimica works. If there is any really ugly part to the entire route so far, then this is it. It was a case of get past it as quickly as possible, so I crossed over the river Saja and on to Viveda. The river was swollen from all the recent rains, brown with mud, and carrying some substantial pieces of tree branches as it swirled along.
And so I came to my accommodation in Viveda. And it seemed I was just in time. As I enjoyed my lunch, I could watch the rain outside.
That is as far west as I will go on this trip. Tomorrow I will go back to Santander, and on from there on Saturday. But I will come back in 2021 to complete the journey to Santiago.
And the step count for today is 26,960.
Walkingman 