25.7.21
Just outside the Picos de Europa national park is beautiful little town called Riaño.
It is surrounded by water and mountains.
It is the youngest town in the region because the original ‘old Riaño’ was deliberately flooded in the 80s to create the resevoir, reduce flooding and generate hydroelectric power.
Despite it only being 40 years old ‘new Riaño’ still has Romanesque churches and other old buildings.
They were moved piece by piece up the hill to new Riaño before old Riaño was submerged.
It is a key stopping place for pilgrims walking the Camino de Santiago. There are lots of these signs…
I decided to follow one and do a section of the Camino myself.
I walked around the lake and up though a forest before coming across this cave
Through the doorway was a passage, leading an unknown distance into the pitch darkness… to go in or not go in?
I went in. All the way to the end.
Luckily for me I did not come across anyone or anything in the darkness.
I continued on my pilgrim path. It kept climbing, and climbing and climbing
I arrived at the top of a mountain
2000m above sea level, 671m above the lake and Riaño
It took me 4 hours to get to the top. I sipped the last of my water… if it took the same amount of time to get down as it did to get up I may shrivel into a prune.
It took less than 1 hour to get back down and I live to tell the tale.
I admire the people walking the full 780km over the mountains to reach Santiago.