Author: charlie

Bus stop

There is an extensive local bus system that will take you just about anywhere you want to go, albeit maybe only one or two buses a day. This place was pretty remote.

Bathtubs

We must have passed at least 50 old bathtubs in the fields along this walk. You see them all the time. One house had seven of them laying around. We’re not sure exactly what they are for. Possibly to hold water for the stock to drink? That doesn’t seem quite right. Anyway, here’s another one.

Last view of the ocean

A couple of days ago the Camino del Norte turned inland for 30 miles or so. It goes back the coast at Gijón but we are stopping before that, leaving the rest of the Norte for next year.

I am shocked, shocked to find this fence has voltage

When we walk in headlands right by the ocean it us usually through cow pastures (Asturian cows like ocean views) so we have to cross fences. We saw some barbed wire fences in Basque Country but in Asturias they are usually single wire electric fences. Some are clearly live, some ambiguous, and some are clearly fake. I guess the cows learn not to touch them and so the fake ones work.

Usually we have to go over steps or a ladder to cross on fence, sometimes a narrow zig-zag that a cow would not fit through. A few days ago we had to cross a wire and then a ladder. I went underneath, scraping it with my backpack and getting my hands damp from the grass. The fence was an ambiguous one so I decided to lift it up so Wynette could go underneath. Zap, it was not fake. The shock was very small though, like something you would get from a 9-volt battery. I remember getting shocked a few times with batteries as a kid doing electricity things. It is hard to believe such a mild shock would deter a cow but maybe it startles them and they avoid it. I guess cows are not big in the cogitation department.