Day 45 Tuesday 11th May Another terrible night’s sleep... We were unlucky enough to have one of the two snorers in the whole room right beside us... So again we were up early - no point just lying there listening to his rumble - and off on our last day’s walk. We only had about 20km to walk to reach Santiago but it was actually quite tougher than I’d hoped as I’d already started celebrating the end, and so my legs were quite unwilling to take me the last stage. And to top things off, it drizzled almost the whole [View Full Entry]

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...end of May... Porto Dav and I managed to grab a lift down to Portugal with Ben and Lauren as they had hired a car and were picking Lauren’s parents up from the airport in Porto. Their plan was to check out some of Portugal with Lauren’s folks, and then head back up to Santiago at the end of the month in preparation for their wedding in early June. So, after saying goodbye to Ben and Lauren at the airport while they waited for the flight to land, Dav and I caught a bus into Porto. There we went to [View Full Entry]

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Santiago After completing the Camino, we spent a couple of days exploring Santiago. We managed to score fantastic accommodation only 5 minutes walk to the cathedral - a three bedroom apartment complete with full kitchen and washing machine (fantastic news as did we have some smelly clothes badly in need of a wash). On the Saturday night while we were waiting to meet up with Ben and Lauren, who should we see but Michael, one of the two English guys we had met on the Primitivo route, and Rod, the German guy we had dinner with earlier in the Camino [View Full Entry]

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Day 39 Wednesday 6th May I had a great sleep and was feeling much better - much more enthusiastic which was a nice change from the last few days. We had another climb out of town to start the morning just for something different... but it was pretty much our last big climb as we are leaving the mountains today. We stopped briefly in Castroverde to grab some supplies for lunch, and then stopped atop our last hill for the day to enjoy some lunch. The weather has been really heating up lately and the last 12km into Lugo was [View Full Entry]

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Day 29 Sunday 26th April The Danish couple, the only other pilgrims in the albergue left quite early so it was nice to have the place to ourselves and sleep-in a little. A fog had settled in the valley overnight and so was a gorgeous sight as we ate our breakfast. We didn’t set off until about 10am, having a nice short day with only 9km into Cornellana, arriving around lunchtime. The albergue was at the back of the monastery and was quite newly renovated in 2002. It included two dorms as well as a kitchen and full laundry, so [View Full Entry]

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Day 30 Monday 27th April After a lazy sleep-in and some treats from the panaderia for breakfast, we didn’t set off until about 11am as we only had a 10km walk ahead of us. Our stop for the night was in a town called Salas but as our guide had noted that it didn’t have a particularly nice albergue, we instead walked about 1.5k off course what was meant to be a better albergue. While it was definitely longer than 1.5km (our guide always tends to underestimate distances...), it was quite lovely, being an old school that had been renova [View Full Entry]

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Day 33 Thursday 30th April We woke to a rainy morning so we didn’t end up getting away from the albergue until after 9 am - late for us these days! The road out of town was really gorgeous with some really friendly dogs and cows. We stopped atop a hill out of town for a snack, sitting on a little-used road as it was the only place to plant our bums in front of a Camino sign. A car did drive past so we had to move, but then the driver stopped, jumped out of the car and wandered [View Full Entry]

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Day 31 Tuesday 28th April Up nice and early, we walked into Salas where we spilt from Ben and Lauren as they had their morning coffee and we continued on the way. The initial ascent out of town looked quite steep on the maps with a 500m climb up over 8km, however it turned out to be quite a pleasant morning, with lovely rainforest scenery and mostly easy walking. We arrived at La Espina, the town on the crest of the hill, about 11.30am. The winds were freezing so we ducked into a bar to have a hot drink while [View Full Entry]

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Day 34 Friday 1st May After talking to Michael and Hew we decided to take a slight detour from our guidebook’s recommended route, instead walking the ‘Hospitales Route’ for the day. It was part of the original route and is about 20km without any access to food or water plus quite a tough climb, and hence not very pilgrim friendly, with most pilgrims now walk a re-directed route through towns instead. From the albergue we set off for a small town of La Mortera where we hoped to buy some supplies for the day. We eventu [View Full Entry]

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Day 35 Saturday 2nd May We were up and out of the albergue by 8am, and incredibly were the first pilgrims to leave - that is a first for us! We really wanted to get a good start so that we would get into the next town at a decent hour after yesterday’s long day. The climb out of town nice, although a little steep in parts, was really beautiful, taking us back up to 1100m and along a ridge with the ever present wind mills which have dominated the horizon in recent days. It was then back down again [View Full Entry]

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