Hiking through the Earth of Bufones in Asturias, Spain | Camino del Norte from Celorio to Bufones de Pria – Day 19

On the Day 19 of our Camino de Santiago del Norte we got from the town Celorio to Bufones de Pria in Asturias, Spain.

We left the camping Troenzo traditionally late and we felt like it was getting harder and harder for us to wake up – the tireness of walking many days in a row was accumulating and getting over us. The muscles were chronically aching, not much but constantly. And we were thinking about taking a day to rest because we didn’t make a one in the whole Camino. Just the spot had to be suitable.

The night was cold and we had to wear our warm clothes and hats and in the morning the wind was still kind of cold. We discovered that the back of shell indicators of the Camino actually show the right direction where to go. It was great because before we were confused by them and didn’t guess why they are always turning in different directions. So it was good to know it finally.

The first part of the way was going through the eucalyptus forest so it was very refreshing and nice trail. Then we got out to the beach and walked a bit along with the car road. The view was splendid with the natural rock arches and the perfectly aligned waves – massive and so powerful scenery.

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Then there was a crossroad where the Camino offered to go along the road and GR E9 that was following the coast. So not hard to guess which one we took – of course the GR one. We also learnt that this GR us crossing the province of Asturias from East to West and it’s not as big as some of the others but it’s quite good signed and we were and will be following it quite often.

So walking this curvy route we passed by several unique beaches, saw bufones – this unique phenomenon of air passages through the rock holes and of course lots of beautiful cliffs and rocks in the water. This Asturian coast is very photogenic and we are already in love with it, enjoying it a lot. But most of the trail was going through the fields and with almost no shadow so we were really hot all the time.

It was the Earth of bufones where the water was crashing into rocks and ruining it step by step. And we were wandering how long it took to create the rock islands on the coast and how it looked like few hundred years before. So the unusual relief was the speciality of the region for sure.

The GR E9 indicators sometimes were confusing especially on the crossroads where they were much needed, so we wouldn’t advice following it without using gps. And also you will definetely need more time to get to the same spot compared to the Camino route – it is much longer.

At the end of the day at around 19 pm we got to the camping that we counted on at least to buy some food cause we were running out of everything. But it was closed and its website had no information about it whatsoever. So we had to change our plans and go to find a stealth camping spot. But it wasn’t the worst. The worst thing was that we almost had no food – no fruits or veggies, just a bit of leftover cereal, cookies, some chocolate and bits of bread. And all that food we had to split to eat two times in the evening and in the morning and then walk several hours to the nearest town to resupply.

In our search for the spot we hiked 3-4 kms further and all we found was a field with a mowed grass quite close to the private houses which wasn’t perfect at all. But there wasn’t any forest around, just the rocky cliffs and beaches. But it was getting dark and we had to rest somewhere. And so on a bit of a hungry note we finished our day.

Here is the link to Google map to follow the hike: