Following the GR E9 – great alternative to Camino del Norte | From Navia to Tapia de Casariego – Day 28

On the Day 28 of our Camino de Santiago del Norte we got from Navia to Tapia de Casariego in Asturias.

We woke up to a quiet chilly morning in the field. At night it was windy but we were warm because we covered all the sides of the tent with a hay that we found at a place(sometimes we use tree branches, leaves and fir depending on a place). We discovered that it helps a lot to keep the warm air inside especially in an open space area like that day and when the nights are getting colder.

So we started the day very early and we didn’t even have any breakfast because cooking and eating it takes up extra hour. The plan was to take the train from Navia to the station Caridad which was 4 stations to skip the road part because there were no paths whatsoever looking at the map. And then continue on to Ribadeo to our camping site that fortunately to us was still open(when all the camping were closing the 30th of September).

So we had hour and a half of time to enjoy the coastal trail we started yesterday. It was almost 9 kms long but we didn’t want to miss any of it because it was stunning all the way long. This coastal route was one of the best during this hike and it would be one of our favourites of all times. And even though we were almost late to the train and had to run in the end we didn’t regret it.

We didn’t see much of Navia cause we were rushing through it but we could see quite big port facilities and a medium sized town. So we were lucky to finally take the train from the 3rd try and it was a very particular one. Very small, working on a diesel engine and sounding like a bus but very comfortable at the same time. It was a very interesting experience to take it.

So we got off on our station and were aiming to follow the Camino for the most part because we saw on the map that it goes better than it normally does quite close to the coast. But it turned out that our map was also on the alternative part and it was following the GR E9 that we already followed some time ago. It wasn’t a problem for us because we always use gps for a help and are not afraid to get lost or anything. And in this part the destination was the same – Tapia de Casariego where we needed to get.

So it was 15 or so kms to that town and they were quite scenic for the most part, we got out to the several viewpoints with the overview of the coast and walked along the fields for some time. The weather was extremely windy that day and it was hard to walk with the cold wind blowing in our faces. So we understood that the weather changed to the more autumn side.

Tapia de Casariego was a nice little town at the coast with a little port quite similar to the previous one Puerto de Vega that we visited the day before. The lighthouse in it was quite unique located on an island and connected to the town by a bridge. From the viewpoint on it was seen all of the coast on a very long distance, it was spectacular.

Then we had to walk another 6.5 kms almost in the dusk to get to our camping site that was very hard especially with the bag of groceries in the hand. And completely exhausted and extremely sleepy we got there in the dark. And promised to ourselves to never be doing again such a big distance of 30 kms because it’s killing us.

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