Camino del Norte 15: Prickles

Walking from Colombres to Llanes was 24 km.

Another early start without coffee (although we had croissants left over from yesterday): This is a habit we need to break. It was fine though, and it didn’t take long until we were walking along a spectacular bit of coastline. As we navigated our way through gorse bushes and brambles, the Atlantic put on a fine show to our right.

The pounding waves have drilled into the cliffs around here and created blow-holes. We walked up to the edge of one which had no sign of water but was making a noise like a jet engine as air was forced through it.

The word for blow-holes in Spanish is ‘bufon’, which translates as ‘jester’. We couldn’t work out why until we discovered that the origin of the word bufon, and buffoon in English, is from Latin ‘to puff’ – jesters in Rome would puff out their cheeks and then make a huge sound when hit. So bufon as a blow-hole with a huge puffing sound makes perfect sense.

We walked along rivers, over bridges, and past some lovely beaches. And of course did eventually find coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice. We also stopped for snacks by a great beach with sea-carved rocks guarding its entrance.

One of the weird things about walking in Spain is how often you see gum trees. If your mind wanders you can easily think yourself back in Australia. Today was no exception, although we also saw some pretty apple trees.

By early afternoon we turned a corner and saw our destination, Llanes, glowing in the distance up the coast. Almost immediately it started to rain and we had to put on our raincoats for the first time while actually hiking. It didn’t last long, though, and we wended onwards. We passed a cute hermitage and descended a moss-lined lane into Llanes.

Llanes is a lovely town with old walls, a harbour, and a pretty beach. Our hotel is in a converted monastery and not only does it have the first decent shower in two days but it has its own restaurant so we can eat without going out in the rain and hiking miles searching for food – bliss.