Sabana Grande - the community we are staying in - is part of the region of Totogalpa and sits next to the smooth and winding tarmac of the Pan-American Highway. The nearest two cities, Ocotal and Somoto, are both 20 to 25 minutes (in opposite directions) along the Highway by bus. As Sabana Grande has little in the way of local services (a small medical centre, three bars and four little shops) a trip to either Ocotal or Somoto is needed for internet / telephone access, banks and any shopping needs beyond the basics. The relatively frequent local buses, roughly hourly, [View Full Entry]

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A week and a half into things and we’re feeling surprisingly settled and at home in our new surrounds. We seem to have found what we were searching for in our time of exploration. A community that is working hard to place itself in balance rather than at odds with nature and who has not mislaid its humanity and been distracted by materialism. Sabana Grande is a community that still bears the scars of recent hurricanes and less recent conflict. The family with whom we’re staying have been fantastically welcoming. Jorge (27) works as Warehouse Manager at the nearby Solar Centre [View Full Entry]

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Our first day post arrival in Managua felt highly intensive. It involved lots of forgetting of names, lots of nodding knowingly when we had no idea what we were being told in brisk Spanish and lots of trying to be nonchalant about places and situations very removed from anything we had previously encountered. Under the wing of Susan, the leader of activities here, we were navigated around the chaotic streets in the sticky heat of Managua. The primary mission for our day in Nicaragua’s capital city was to have ourselves recognised by the National Engineering University as being part of a [View Full Entry]

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The ten days back in England passed quickly with whistle stop tours of both families north and south. The familiarity of home seems to always have an incredible quality of instantly settling you back into your normal existence no matter how removed from the experiences and routines developed whilst away. With everything on our kit list for the next nine months present and correct we were ready for our imminent departure. Miraculously we squeezed it all into our big packs and two small day packs. Carrying everything on our backs for three months had clearly focused and honed our minds for [View Full Entry]

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The ferry back from Bilbao to Portsmouth gave us far more than we had bargained for. Our ears pricked up when shortly after departure we had an announcement on the Pride of Bilbao (our ferry) from the ships Wildlife Officer that he was imminently to give an introductory talk on our whale watching opportunities in the Bay of Biscay. We keenly clambered up to the top deck and listened hard through the noise of the ships engines and sea breeze to understand how to be a successful whale watcher. Enthused and clutching our hired pair of binoculars, putting our expectation levels [View Full Entry]

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The remaining stages of our journey onwards to Gijon passed without major incident or impediment. Notable mentions go to three drunken locals (with megaphone) waking up the entire campsite in Ribadesella with three hours of sustained shouting starting at 5:30am and also a night where our accommodation options dried up and we had to pitch in a field on a 30 degree slope. So we have arrived. Gijon marks the end of our three month walk. Having carried our bags along Northern Spain’s Camino paths for over one thousand kilometres some interesting statistics (subject to a certain degree of gue [View Full Entry]

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With the excitement of the Picos now ten days ago we have returned to more sedate wanderings along the north coast enroute to Gijon. Gijon is where the campsites on the Camino del Norte dry up and the path turns inland. From Gijon we will take a bus back to Bilbao to meet our ferry. We crossed from Cantabria into Asturias several days ago. Although we have covered limited ground in our latest region of Spain Cantanbria’s beaches and coastal town are much the superior. The highlight of our time so far in Asturias has been our gastronomic encounters with the [View Full Entry]

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When the person in the tourist information described our chosen walk as 'straight up there, turn left at the little house and follow the path back to Fuente De' you are led to believe that it will be pretty straight forward. With our detailed map and having given the terrain the once over for signposting we felt confident. However, The Picos de Europa with its copious shear rock faces is not walking territory for the faint hearted. In fact we think to describe its high peaks as walking terrain is totally misleading, challenging hiking or mountaineering more accurate. So we embarked [View Full Entry]

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Our pace on the Camino Norte is somewhat more sedate than the Frances. There are two principal reasons for this. One, there is only about five days walking on the Norte by the coast that is supported by a good number of campsites (our preferred accommodation choice). Two, the beaches are extremely pleasant places to be with their relative under-population and lively waves. From Comillas we walked on to San Vincente both of which warranted three nights stay to fully explore and gain maximum benefit of the beach which at both locations was only a stones throw away from our little [View Full Entry]

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Today we’re sat on a beach in Comillas. Things have moved on somewhat since our last entry. Our testing and ultimately abortive day attempting to return up the Camino del Norte gave us only one realistic option to that plan. Abandon it and commit thoroughly to memory all the stories and circumstance of that challenging day for future telling and embellishment. For those without a world atlas in front of them open on the Southern Europe page Comillas is in Cantabria on the Northern coast of Spain about 50 kilometres west of Santander. This is some 500 kilometres from Melide where [View Full Entry]

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