March 28th: Payares to Lugones

Was happy to wake up knowing that today was the descent out of the pass, I had till 6pm to get to my destination about 65kms away so I was ambling about in the morning, had 2 coffees, oats and peanut butter blah blah… chit chat with the other hikers getting ready to depart… then on the road!

The descent was pretty awesome, but also a bit scary! I covered the first ten kilometres in about seventeen minutes… made my first stop just under an hour after starting, at a fancy grocery store where I got a hot sandwich and a cold coffee… weather was great again today… it’s back to being pretty hot now, should’ve realized that mountains have a pretty strong influence on weather conditions… or maybe it’s just a hot day…. Anyway it suits me and hope for it to continue to be hot so that I can camp for the next week on the coastline

Today was a pretty non incidental day… I saw an indoor Padel facility, poked my head in to check it out… I should’ve asked the people lazing around there for a hit but they didn’t seem very keen to talk with me or to pick up a racket… so I left… next time I see Padel, I will ask… but in general, getting better at this “fear of rejection” thing… as I have already been rejected a bunch of times on this trip… more than I can remember ever being rejected…. But then sometimes people say yes too!

I’m waiting outside a bike shop now, hoping that they will take in poor Maria and give her a makeover… I can’t ride her on any terrain that threatens her at all right now because the chain keeps slipping and gears are a mess… hopefully this shop which is massive can help…

Tonight I am meeting up with Sugeins.. she is a warm showers host just outside of Oviedo… I hope it goes well!

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