Depart Grado 9:45 am. Arrive Salas 5:20 pm. Miles today 14.77.

I thought yesterday was hilly. Day two even more so. Feet, calves and thighs are screaming. The rocks, the mud, the rain…oh my. Not too much rain though. Clearly, the mud was an accumulation of days gone by.

As a reminder, there’s plenty of animals to catch our eye. Even the ones that barely move 😅

One of the great things about walking somewhat aimlessly is that you find joy in the simplest of things. We get to enjoy nature and quiet, and focus on things of importance – like the good fortune of being able to take trips like this.

I did bring up politics briefly to Caleb this morning and got a noncommittal response. I didn’t expect agreement or disagreement, just food for thought. I moved on, mentally and physically.

Some views are just a mystery, how does this happen?

You have to wonder what they were thinking with this display (below) hmm?

Our ailments described yesterday are no worse, and no new ones have surfaced. Grateful for small mercies.

We got rained on a couple of times, nothing too bad. It was actually somewhat refreshing.

Our lunch stop was disappointing. I ordered a chicken sandwich and it was mostly raw chicken. However, we had just stopped at a bakery shortly before and had a lovely cheesecake pastry with a strawberry topping so I wasn’t that hungry.

Should I have sent it back? Probably. But when you’re too tired to wait for a replacement, you just move on. Lesson learned. Order the beef sandwich, not the chicken!

Having said it was a tough journey…

Ok, this lasted about 200 yards, then more torture. Spoke too soon.

Running water always lovely

That was about 5 miles from our stopping point, so a nice break before starting out again.

One thing I’ve learned while on the Camino, is that when you’re nearly at your physical breaking point, you come across something so lovely in nature that you just have to hold your breath and take it in, giving you the boost you needed to continue. That happened a lot today.

As we enter Salas we see a village that is an historic site with plenty of cultural landmarks.

That was all the culture we could muster today. I’d like to say you’ll get more culture tomorrow, but I can’t promise. However, it’s early days, and tomorrow looks to be a shorter walk, so I’m optimistic.

We saw a couple promising restaurants on our way to the hotel. Here’s a surprise – we ate at the hotel. Our legs barely got us downstairs. Caleb took food photos at my request. Starter – beef croquettes (shared), lasagna for main, and panna cotta for dessert (shared).

My goal tomorrow is to give you more historical information. Putting this in writing may prove the incentive I need 😎. Good night.