From Asturios we walked to Requego de Sanabria, on what was my worst day of the whole camino. I would strongly recommend that walkers stay on the main road until at least Palacios de Sanabria, if not longer.We followed the arrows off-road and had not gone far before we camme to a set of four arrows, 2 pointing to the left, and 2 to the right. The German and Dutch guide books agreed that we should go right, and as the track to the left petered out to nothing, to the right we went. It was a nightmare track of deep mud and running water. We followed it as best we could but were sorry that we had not kept to the road as others had done. Then it started to rain, quite heavily at times. Back on the road finally, we walked to Puebla de Sanabria, where we climbed the 130 knee-burning steps up to the castle. Once out of the town we were directed by the arrows towards the river, and having delivered us into a quagmire, they disappeared. The rain got heavier and we gave up all thoughts of following the trail and stayed on the road. When we arrived in RdS I stayed in the Casa Cervino at a cost of 12 euro for the night. The others stayed in the public albergue. Dinner at a bar in town, and I very happy with Casa Cervino.
The Casa Cervine had a coffee machine so we all had ccl's before leaving on the walk to Lubian next day. All the guide books agreed that it was wise to stay off the normal trails after heavy rain, so we followed the bitumen road to the top of the hill and walked through the tunnel to the other side. We had a great morning tea at Padornelo, and our 2 Spanish friends demolished a big breakfast complete with bottles of beer. After this we went off road and struck a lot of tracks with running water, but they were navigable! Arrived in Lubian and found the albergue - it is about the first building you come to in town - but it was a Sunday, when hospitaleros swap over, and the new hospitalero had not put up her contact details on the door, so we could not get in. We went to a bar
who rang one of the hospitalero team and who was able to tell us who to contact and where to find them. The albergue was cheap at only 3 euro, but the single toilet had no lock on the door, and one toilet for so many people is not enough. Bar Javi in the main street had double rooms for 35 euro and single rooms for 25 euro. We had dinner there, with the MDD for 9 euro pm, beginning at 8
PM
Alan
Be Brave. Life is joyous.