Day 32 - Santiago!

Well I did it. Despite the world conspiring against me in nearly every way possible for the last 10km (I got sick, twisted my ankle and got very cold and wet) I managed to make it. The mass was good and they did light up and swing the incense! I was in the optimum position for being crushed if their slightly dodgy looking knot didn´t hold too which made it all the more exciting.

Now i´m trying to work out how i can get out of here. Its never as easy as one would hope. The only ´direct´ flight from santiago to my preferred next desination of berlin has a stopover and costs $800, I´m sure i´ll find something though, it just won´t be as simple as i would like. I´m still planning to walk to finesterre tomorrow if my body hasn´t completly fallen apart.

Day 29 - Not really sure

I forget where i am (i never know when i write these posts actually, but normally I have my book next to me, but not so much today), it´s irrelevent anyway as we can´t stay here since its full, we´re only waiting till 4pm for the store to open so we can buy some food as the road ahead has no shops and maybe not even bars. Its only 65km or so to Santiago now, but i´m pretty commited to walking on to the end of the world so again its not really relevent.

These last few days are a lot more hectic and are less enjoyable and I think it will be a relief to get past the toursits and keep walking past santiago. As always internet time is limited, and i´ve pretty much run out of time. I´ll probably post again when i´m in Santiago!

Day 27 - Sarria

Well I took the longer route today, past the monsestery in samos. We didn´t go in because it was 3 euros and it was all in spanish, but it was a wonderful sight from the outside. I´m now only 110ish km from santiago, but I think I will goto finisterre, I think i would regret having walked 7/8 of the way across spain and not finishing the job off.

I´m yet to get a blister, so it seems like im missing out on the camino experience. Just to force it i´ve been too lazy today to wash my socks for the second day running (Well yesterday it was because we slept in the church of Triacastila and there was no wash basin...) so if i´m going to get blisters, tomorrow will be the
day.

I still don´t quite know what to do when i finish. but my mother has helped by telling me i can fly to frankfurt from santiago, I guess I can head from franfurt to berlin by train or bus. But i´ll investigate other options too probably when i hit santiago in 5-6 days.

Yesterday sleeping in the church was quite a story. The Xunta albergue was full and they wouldn´t let us sleep on the floor. My friends refused to pay 7 euros for the private ones. My book said that the xunta one had overflow accomodaton in the church. They denied this, but after sending 2 of the girls off to talk to the minister of the church, he said he´d concider it after the mass. In the end he let us, but he wrote down all the passport details of the males - apparently females were ok...

Anyway, i´ve run out of time.

Day 24 - Villafranca del Bierzo

It seems like a long time since i last found internet, but it´s only been 3 days. But it´s been a much more eventful 3 days than the long constant meseta. There´s been hills, people claiming the world will end in 2 months (Tomas the hospitalero in manjarin), small children tipping over wheels barrows, several culinary inventions - Jam and tuna sandwiches, panic when i thought my camera had broken only to find it had run out of batteries and another case of me almost seeing the last of my walking stick when i left it in astorga.

It´s crazy to think that i´m under 200km to go now and will probably finish in 7-9 days. I´m thinking about continuing walking on to finesterre, but i´m also aware of the impending flight back to australia and the huge amount of friends i´d still like to visit. I haven´t even started to look at how i will travel round, so i guess it´s going to be expensive. On the bright side the camino and spain in general is dirt cheap. Last night i paid our tab after 2 drinks each at a bar for 5 people and it came to €13, I could easily spend that on myself in Melbourne.

Walking in a group has also slowed me down a lot, not so much in distance as in getting up later and arriving later. Today I got to the albergue at 7:20pm (though 40mins before the stragglers at 8pm), but it was an amzingly beautiful walk over the hills through the vineyards in the setting sun.

Arriving late seems to work well the overflow beds are always better and quieter than the dormitory ones and we haven´t once been rejected (well it happened once to the others when i stopped in sahagun). Tonight we again have our own private room for the 5 of us. It´s funny that we do so well for beds by arriving late, when there are people who get up and leave 2 hours before its even light just so they can get the first beds - yet they only end up in the dormitory of 20 or more snorers and miss the sites along the way.

Day 21: Astorga

Well it was a long day, but I made here here in the end. Probably arrived around 6pm. Nothing too much else to say really. While everything hurts, its only a little bit - I still haven´t had a major affliction. Only 260km to go, I suspect i´ll be in Santiago by the end of the month.

Day 20: Villar De Mazarife

Well I made it in and out of Leon, despite a close call with a learner driver on a pedestrian crossing. Leon was fantastic and i´d really like to explore it again in a non camino mode - it´s hard when the albergue locks the gates at 10 and the nightlife doesn´t start till after that. The cathedral was amazing too with all the stained glass, but i decided to respect their wishes and not take photos despite the fact that everyone else was.

Leon was also the first bit of walking in the rain - it only lasted 20minutes, but it sure did pour. I think we´ve been lucky so far, but it doesn´t seem like it will last. There were more threatening clouds today coming out of Leon. Tomorrow we´re planning to push for astorga, my book claims its 34km, but i´ve heard others claim as low as 24.

The albergue (Albergue de jesus) here is fantastic. I´m going to sleep out on the terrace (by choice). There is art work done by pilgrims scribbed all over the walls, a wonderful courtyard, 2 amazing kitchens (thankfully it was my turn to cook too) and it´s all only for a donation. The garden there has beds in it, a pirate ship and an inflatable swimming pool that is sadly out of action.

Day 18 - Mansilla de las Mulas

Well I made up for my short day due to sickness with a 37km effort today and it felt fine. I started just before 8am and could have left later as it turned out my walking companions hadn´t managed to find beds and had slept on a tennis court and didn´t manage to make a move until 10am (it´s a lot harder getting up from a night outside). So i over took them by walking 10km before they´d even gotten up.

Tomorrow is only a short day to Leon, even though i feel fine after my longest walk yet, i´m glad tomorrow is a shorter day.

Using my short day in Sahagun I managed to upload several new photos before the internet cut out on me. I still have a lot more, but it sounds like i´ll have a lot of time to sort them out in melbourne as my job prospects initially upon my return look bleak.

Day 17 - Sahagun

I had this idea in my head that once i reached the half way mark, it would be an easy stroll (albiet a 370km one) to Santiago. Last night was a reminder that a journey ahead is still long and hard. I blaim it on the tortilla I had in the afternoon, my companions blamed in on the cheap tasting wine - what ever it was i didn´t sleep much last night and spent a long time hunched over a cistern.

Though I struggled on and managed to make it to sahagun today (almost 20km according to my guide book, but even in my fevered state, i´m sure it wasn´t quite that long) before siesta even and managed to get things from the pharmacy. My friends went on, but I think with a good nights sleep tonight I should be able to catch them tomorrow or the day after. It will be nice to have a little time by myself again before i manage to rejoin them.

Day 16 - Ledigos

Well I´m past half way! only another 370 odd km to go.

To expand on the ice story. I´m now walking with in a group of 5. Two Austrians, a German, a French and me. We decided it would be a fun experience to camp out in a field just after Villafranca Montes de Orca. So we bought a bottle of wine (for a whole €3) some chocolate and some bread and found a nice field full of straw.

All was good until we woke up very cold and wet (dew - which we were expecting) at 5am. We pulled out our emergancy blankets and that kept us warm till the sun arrived, but it was then that we noticed that there was frost on our bags and sleeping mats.

We also had a visit from a farmer early the next morning telling us we needed permission to camp there, he gave up after he realised none of us spoke spanish, and those of us who did, didn´t at that hour anyway.

Anyway, there is a spanish man sitting next to me gruntting, which i think means that once i´ve finished trying to track down a rather large missing payment on online banking, my time is up.

Day 13: Hontanas

There is a lot i could write about the last 5 days, such as the night camping in the field where there was ice, burgos and the various other places, but the internet is horribly slow and there is dinner is more important. But its nice to have walked over 300km, though hitting half way in a few days will be even better. I´ll write more when I can.

Day 8: Azofra

Well it was my shortest day yet, but the choice was 15km to azofra or 30 to santa domingo so 15 was the obvious answer. My french companion also had a gammy leg, so the two of us had a slow hobble from ventosa. I also0 had a bit of a shoick this morning to discover my hiking stick/photo monopod was missing from teh bin of sticks at the entrace. I´m still suspicious of the circumstances it left under (it seems someone has tryed to scratch off the identifying markings?) but apparently it was left by a fountain just before Najera and pciked up by another gentleman whom i happened to run into. So no major disasterç


The albergue in Azofra resembles a resort with 2 people per room and a small pool and massive courtyard for only €5. And the town is in Fiesta!!

Day 7: Ventosa

Well another 30km to complete the trifecta of towns starting with V. I managed it but only just. The long distances has taken its toll on my knee and its now starting to hurt a bit, i´m not sure what exactly is wrong. It´s nothing major but it will slow me down a little while i wait for it to stop. It was the first time i didn´t coat my legs in voltaren so maybe it did help after all.

Ventosa is a lovely little down about 1/2km off the main route. The albergue is small only catering to 30 or so people, but like cirauqui was run by a wonderful woman.

Dinner was a delicious pasta and of course a €2 bottle of the local wine. The woman runs a small shop out of the closet of the entrace and has everything the passing pilgrim could want - such as soap for the pilgrims who accidently left theirs in viana....

Day 6: Viana

Well today was the longest day yet, I made it to viana, 30km. I also had my first foot problem requireing attention. I learnt a valueable lesson - be carful walking with a hiking stick when wearing sandles. I didn´t do too much damage, but theres a quite impressive wound on the top of my foot. Luckily no sign of blisters and such yet.

I have 3minutes left, and only 2 photos uploading, but maybe i can do more later tonight.

Day 5: Villamayor de monjardin

Can´t write too much as i can upload photos instead. But last night was in Villamayor de monjardin. The albergue was basic, but was by donation which was nice and provided breakfast.

Day 4: Cirauqui

Well Its been 4 days, just a tad over 100km. Last night I spent hte night in Cenzor minor at the albergue run by the nights of malta. Cenzor minor turned out to be a good choice as the town was in fiesta mode - I was very suprised to see the party still going as i started walking at 7am. I guess Spaniards know how to party.

Still no problems with any limbs or extremeties, though I´m still applying voltaron emugel liberally and taping thing things that I think might hurt if left uptaped (I leart this from climbing!). This afternoon it was so hot i decided to walk in my sandals and that seems to have been fine too.

Now i´m in the amazing hilltop town of Cirauqui with amazing views out the balcony. I´m hoping I can mantain my average of 25km a day and manage to reach Santiago by the end of the September, but time will tell.

There are certainly a lot of characters on the trail, sadly I think my speed has meant i´ve left a lot of the more diverse ones behind (But this also means I run into new ones!) and seem to have found a group of people who walk at the same speed. Today I walked with two french guys who weren´t that good at english, so our common language was failing together at Spanish.


Still these frustrating internet machines that suck up € by the 15minute and offer no ability to upload photos, are incredibly slow and seem to sporadically stop working for no reason. I´ve already filled up one memory card (though it wasn´t empty when i started) so i need to find a real computer soon before I fill up my second card!