On from Santiago

Well, the sunsets on all adventures at some point. It was worth walking the last 20km to the west coast and then the 32km to the official end of the world. tears of elation and joy. But this is only a chapter in life, however much fun.

Arrival in Santiago

I arrived before 9am in the morning then spent 36 hours bumping into people I had walked with and who had supported me on the way

I have arrived!

After a mamouth day of around 38km yesterday (felt like 20!) I had a 5km stroll into town this morning. picked up my Compostella & foudn Wil & Wart in the hostel. A big releif to have made it & everything still be intact: even my boots.

No great thoughts of wisdom to share. The being alone with nothing but thoughts for most of 5 weeks is something I would recommend to those that are not faint hearted.

Boots

I have been betrayed by my boots. An external seem has started to come undone. It progressed significantly further at 50km. I am debating if I need to buy trainers incase they give up the ghost in the last 40km (yes that is all that is left to go). I have gaffer tape and crocs. They might get me through. But is it a risk worth taking???? If it rains I will be somewhat stuck.

Into the last 100km...

I will be in Santiago by Tuesday at the very latest. I can´t believe 769km plus all the evening walking has come to an end in less than 5 weeks. I might walk the English pilgrimage route to the airport in A Coruna. Depends if it rains or how good the cloths shopping is. Not yet reached enlightenment but have had a great time & still a week left!

More food

This Alberge fed over 40 with this paella.

Down the last mountain

Suddenly the buildings have slate rooves.

Not smiling?

A lot of wine was consumed with the medieval meal. I had had the sense to have my rucksack taken down the mountain in a taxi. Best 7 euro ever, saved the old knees.

Medieval banquet on top of a mountain with Candaians. I laughed so much.

I would post the pictures of the food, but then I would look like a glutton as I obviously ate it all & it was almost half a pig.

More symbols of Christian faith.

This was on the way up to Fero de Cruz, whicxh is the high point of the walk (I am talking literally).

Still not figured how to rotate these. I am in Astorga here ( I think, I am ashamed to say it really is all merging into countryside or town). Anyway another pilgrim statue to try & imitate.

Follow the signs

There are sufficient of these arrows that you have to be really day dreaming to get the route wrong. Needless to say this does happen. Someone shouts or whistles to correct things pretty quickly.

Thunder

It is thundering like mad. Perhaps the rain will finally come.... hope not....

Any one gone to see that Charlie (oops Martin) Sheen film yet?

Parador in Leon.

No domritory in Leon.

Took a room to get away from the snoring!

This is Alison, a Canadian lady I walked with for a few days. Same sense of humour. Deadly. Someone actually laughing at my jokes...

Tired anyone?

Can´t figure out how to rotate pictures this evening!

La laguna next to my alberge on the Messata

Walking over the Masseta has not been the most beautiful, but the early moring I left here there was  a lovely light mist.

Photos taken near Pamplona with the Wilkie-Jones'

I walked 32km today, let me tell you about it...

17km of 'roman road'. ie straight and dead boring. I mean I wanted to 'go home' boring. Instead of paying attention I just became really introverted and stopped at every bench (not enough benches by the way). Twas hell. My feet, my NEW blisters (I could say more).

Anyway a cafe appeared at at 17km & I discovered everyone else was having just as bad a time. How uplifting that was. No I am serious. It was a relief others found it just as hard. Anyway I had my daily chocolate malt drink & some pain killers & life became dandy. Suddenly I was walking on my own rather than in a procession and instead of stopping at the 17km mark (which I had been promicing myself for most of that 3 hours) I walked 32 km and am now in a delightful SMALL alberge with a great ambiance and am about to have dinner. I just realised I have not cooked for 3 weeks. How good is that!

No more picutres. 2 days from Leon. Should be interesting. I might bail out like I did at Burgos. Lets see!

Another one for Julie:

There are so many poppies.

A new obsession:

Now a lot of EU money has been spent creating these roads for the camino pilgrims to walk on. I am not very keen on some of the decissions in executing this 'investment'. As I have explained, I also have a lot of time on my hands to think important issues through... well the Spainsh ants are very prolific. They spend all their time undoing the EU inviesment. I think I might be a fan of their activity... Each one has different qualities, colours, shapes and sizes. I could now write on this topic endlessly.... they also change with rain...

A convent with a road through it... my route..

At this point I had about 450km to go. So nearly half way. I think it has taken me 15 days to walk 400km (OK minus the 20km I had to take the bus into and out of Burgos, but who wants to ruin a good trip, their feet & sanity with 20km of industrial suburbs?)

View from the aulberge terrace

My escape from Burgos complete.

Cheating?

Now, I think I explained how it is totally acceptable, on the Camino, to talk to complete strangers about the state of your blisters and show them. Spotaneous treatment centres even occur as mutual advice and support is asked & then ignored. Now I can tell you are wondering where this is going. Not being on the Camino you are probably squerming slightly in case I post a picture of really bad feet. I wont. The photo is important. My feet where in an interesting way (blister the size of a euro as it turns out on my heel - ooops sorry!) I walked 10km and got a bus into Burgos. The best 85 cents to cover 10km EVER. I then duly toured the cathedral. Then I had a melt down. The city was over whelming. Dr Wart & Wil to the rescue (when they eventually stopped gossiping with some MORE Dutch people they met in the cathedral. We got bus tickets to the nest village out of town & found a delightful Aulbergre in a pretty village. I also saw a flock of vultures soaring in the afternoon thermals. Fabulous escape from city turmoil.

Another hill top view

It is not even 7am. And it is the usual view of pilgrims striding out. Please note I like this walking surface. An OK camber of reasonable, but not too, compacted clay and chalk in the dry.

Sharon`s last night on the camino 2011

Sharon is doing this in stages. This is the last night of her 2011 week. This is the communal meal in the bell tower. A lovely evening with a very special atmosphere as everyone did their bit in a great setting.

Symbolic Church window at Granon

This has all the symbols of the camino. It was beautiful with the sunshining through. If only I had some skill with the camera.

The bell tower

This is the worst and best accomodation I have had. Very thin matteresses on a platform in a church bell tower. The woman sleeping on one side kicked me in the back twice (I think in her sleep) and the bloke the other side nicked one of my covers (again in his sleep). I was not impressed. But the atmosphere was great in the waking hours.

Dinner in an Aulberge

I may have already posted this picture, but it is the only one I have of a communal meal in a refugio. The restuarant pilgrim meals are great at 3 courses for 10 Euro with wine, but it is better when a bigger group eats together. Here we are all tired, sunburnt and rather pleased with the disances covered and that the pain in our feet did not hinder our progress.

Finally I can post, but we are having a dinner party in the courtyard of this convent I am staying at!

The computer is free, but dinner calls. Two weeks of sunshine and a Friday evening with some French and Canadian fellow walkers. I will endeavour to report in later!

Tendonitis

Today I had to stop cos I thought my foot was going to explode. Turned out I had cramp and that my ankles are now better. Goes to show you...  Luckily it means I can now walk to the bar with some others now... byeeeeee

Distances

I passed a sign today that said 577km to go to Santiago. So I must have 560km left now. I will reach Burgos the day after tomorrow. I have planned to arrive early so I can site see once register at the Perigrinos (Pilgrim) Hostel.

Last night I stayed in a church bell tower (I am sure the photo´s would do it no justice). A rubbish nights sleep in a loft with 20 others. Got kicked in the back twice by this loud Aussie woman. Well she was loud when she was awake and could not keep still when she was asleep.

We dried our laundry in the eves of the bell tower. I took a good picture of the stained glass window with a te pilgrim references in it. Shame I can´t upload it....

Sunburn

The back of my legs got burnt today (Are you still reading this?  I have 16 minutes left of credit... just a warning). I am walking west so only one bit is getting burnt. The back & left. Hnmmmm

Singing

MaryAnna advised me to learn some songs. I failed to do this. Last week I ended up singing the music to Lassie TV series. ´Lassie come home'. I can assure you it had no real relavence to the trip, but I would ove to know where it came from.

I now know I know no songs. I have taken to humming and making up words. Since I am no poet this is mixed at best. As part of my let it all go regime I have taken to saying them out load. They are not memorable so there is no repetition. Noone has yet caught me dong this. it does kill a few minutes when walking through industrial estates. (Have I mentioned them yet?)

Another thing I like doing:

I like swinging my pole about like I just dont care. This can only be done on a very smooth relatively flat surface. Otherwise I tend to topple over. Not yet fallen but tottered quite a bit. That makes me laugh. If anyone else is about they tend to laugh as well.

What to do when walking for 6 hours a day?

My new favourite hobby has developed into ranking the road surfances that I am walking on in terms of comfort. Now since this computer can not download pictures for some unbelievably compliated reason (in Spanish) I feel the need to use my 2 euros (that I put in before I realised) to give you the list. Please note it is likely to require upgrading as weather conditions vary.

Staring with the worst (I cannot see this changing:

1. Tarmac of a quality to take lorries. Hurts the feet like hell after 10 miles.
2. 5cm ish pieces of stone. Put down to ´improve' the camino. Hurts like something close to hell and hard to balance on.
3. Cement roads. They are very keen on these here. YUK
4. lots of road surfaces as yet unidentifed fit into these places
5. 1cm pices of stone on hard compacted dry clay - you get caught out easily  and have an ankle wobble and it has no give.
6. Compacted cinder track
7. Compacted gravel track with sand
8. Dried slightly uneven dirt track - the unevenness actually helps the feet and cses less pain. Not sure why I guess the foot rolls more. I will spend some time working out a theory NEXT WEEK (did I really sign up for all of this????)
9. Soft dried dirt track is a good surface
10. A new one in yesterday is wet well cambered compacted sand on gravel after a 30 minute heavy down poor. I love this surface. it has lovely give and actually helps the feet feel better than ever. I don´t want to ask for rain, let me make that clear. But I like the effect.

La Rioja

ThisThis just about brings you up to date. 577km to go and after tomorrow I will have walked across Navarra and La Rioja. I can report cuisine and wine are good. The path can be painful in lots of ways (feet / mind) but I have not stopped smiling since I started.

Vianna: a lesson in Camino friendships

I walked 30km this day on strapped up ankles. When Sharon & I made it over a horrible rocky track Wart & Will told us all the accomodation had been full since 1.30pm. I thought they were joking. They weren´t but they had arranged with some Spainsh people that we had also been walking with over the last couple of days to share a flat. It took a coupl eof hours for the releif to register that I had not got to walk another 10km to the next town.

For Julie: Tamrid trees in flower

Feet at the knackers door: Viallamenor DeJardin

 No apologies  for place name spelling I left my book upstairs and this internet is costing a small fortune! Dr Wart from Holland strapped up my feet adn saved the day from my tendons exploding in protest. Beers on a lovely terrace to distract me from the pain.

The top of Alto de Peron

You can´t see but I have lost an inch around my waist in less than a week.

A typical view

I am about to walk up Alto de Peron away from Pamplona. This means the photo´s of my day 3 saviours will be out of chronological order. A super day starting at 6am as usual and leaving the Pyrenese behind (but being Spain not the hills).

Preparing for the off in Saint Jean Pied De Port

Little did I know how hot the day would be and how steep the last 5km, it took all my strength to get over the ´hill´ into Spain.

Preparing to sleep on the couchette from Paris

Little sleep was had and I had 27 km to walk the next day over the Pyrenese.

No foot no horse...

A collection of Mary Anna's top tips:

• Go slowly
• It's not warm
• Avoid cotton, rubbish when you sweat
• Beware matcho pilgrims who are competative
• Avoid people who sponge, whose lives are composed of travelling the world and such routes on no money
• Learn some songs before you go
• Listen to your body
• Take a large mug you can use as a bowl 
• Don't listen to the advice of others, do it your way
• No foot no horse, lavish love on your feet.

Route Maps

Inspirations

These are the two ladies that put the seed into my head to go to Spain. I met them last year walking the West Highland Way. They were over from Barcelona.

Rucksack frustrations

I bought a rucksack that holds 40 litres so I can be sure I can lift. Now I have to cull my stuff to fit it all in. That will be less than 2 of everything then!