Fuente Dé

Last night when I booked into the fancy hotel, I had the idea of continuing to walk today. However, I’m beginning to understand the warnings of there being no services on the Camino Vadiniense. The albergue I had identified as my next stop doesn’t have any vacancies for days, and I’ve located a budget hotel about 8km further that has a room on Sunday. So I’ll have to spend another night in luxury.

I had considered of having a morning at the cable car, and in the afternoon booking a taxi to take me to a better serviced part of the route. When I looked and saw it was a 1 hr 20 min car trip to my next point on the route 30km walking away, that helped get rid of my negative thoughts. The hotel is located right at the foot of the Fuente Dé cable car that takes you up to around 2,000 metres. When I was planning, I had imagined arriving mid afternoon and taking a flying visit, which didn’t happen due to the arduous of the walk. Instead, I had all day today.

I was very surprised to see skiers in the queue for the cable car. At 10:30 it was already hot (25°) at the bottom so they seemed out of place. It was a quite small cable car for about 20 people, and it was a jam. At the top there was a lot of snow around. I’m beginning to understand why the campsite is not open, and the national park signage says, don’t travel alone between November and May. Clearly the weather can be extreme up here. Luckily for me it’s gorgeous.

I started to follow the skiers, as I was intrigued to where they were going. While there was still snow around, even covering some of the more touristy paths, there didn’t seem to be enough to ski on. I followed on a rising track where the snow was encroaching more, and more. I decided it was a good place to stop, as I’d sunk into the snow and left my sticks in the hotel. Incidentally, my hotel room is equipped with nice wooden walking poles.

I sat for a while, and watch skiers “skin up”, snow-shoers putting their snow shoes on, and competitive dads dragging poorly equipped families up the snow slope. I’m not sure where they were all heading, the signs said Cabana Veronica. Whether that is a place or a ski mountaineering circuit, I’m not sure.

I walked back to the cable car, for a nice lunch of chickpeas and chorizo in the panoramic restaurant. Back outside, it was just nice sitting around after the early morning crowds had dispersed. There was a 14km walking route back down to the bottom, unfortunately I didn’t know about it  and therefore didn’t save €6 for the return fare or add some more miles to my weekly total.

I came back down for an afternoon beer in the sunshine, went back to my room and promptly fell asleep. I had a simpler dinner, just in the “cafeteria”, I still need to book, and planned my supplies going forward. I have some snacks, and fruit in my food bag (including porridge – it might come in handy!) but not enough to get me to the next shops. Luckily the hotel does packed lunches, and hopefully after a full breakfast I can get to my target.

Im aiming for Boca de Huérgano, which I think maybe around 900m of climbing (and similar descent), but the climbing should be in the morning when I’m fresher, and cooler. It should be about a 35 km day.  The hotel appears to do food, and I hope breakfast. The next day is a long one, initally to Riaño, where there is a supermarket, and finishing in Cistierna, I total about 45km, predominantly downhill on roads. Cistierna looks to be a well equipped town, and even has a railway station – and a campsite that is open. I’ve got all the water points marked and feel confident there are enough. That’s the plan for the next few days, whatever could go wrong.