Category: 2017 El Camino de Santiago

We took 43 days to hike approximately 575 miles. Every where we went in Spain, we walked. We walked to Spain!

We only have had 4 days off from hiking in the last 6 weeks. Even the average American worker would have had 12 days off during that period. Now imagine how I feel because I would have only worked 18-20 days during that same period. I’m tired.

We didn’t swim in the ocean at Fisterra, but we did wade in at Muxia. I’m ok with that because it’s not going to be any warmer than it was at Muxia and it was dam cold there. Pam’s biggest regret is that I didn’t burn my shirt at Fisterra. We were just too tired to head down to the beach to do it (burn my shirt, I mean).

Friday morning, we had to be out of the albergue by 9. We made it with 1 minute to spare although at a cost–we didn’t get to shower. We said our goodbyes to Katherine and then headed down to catch the bus back to Santiago after we had some breakfast. I was looking out for Pete along the way.

We had an unexpected surprise when we got to the bus stop–there was an earlier bus than we had on our schedule. But even better, we ran into two college girls from Boulder, CO–Kate and Annie–that wanted to make the noon mass at the Cathedral. They asked us to split a taxi with them. We agreed. We got back to Santiago before 11 when we didn’t think we’d make it until almost 4–it was like having an extra day to play.

Kate and Annie have already done a lot of traveling at only 19. They’ve been to Europe twice, the second time hiking the entire Camino Frances. One of them took a year off from college to go to Australia. They agreed with Shaun’s assessment that everything in Australia wants to kill you.

We went to the pension where we had made reservations. The woman that owns the place told us the room wouldn’t be ready for a while but let us drop our bags. She showed us where to get my hair cut and told us where we could do laundry. My highest priority was to get this dam beard off. Every night I felt like bugs were crawling on my face. This was my first and last beard. Pam didn’t want me to even have this one.

Clean shaven with short hair, we headed shopping. Pam had her list of must haves from the pharmacy so that was first stop. Next came grocery shopping for our first week on the GR10. Last was food. Then we went and got the key to our room and did a very Spanish act that we will miss greatly–siesta (I don’t think it’s an accident that it rhymes with fiesta).

We have a couple days to get ready for the next hike. It’s not very likely that we’re going to know anyone in town this weekend since almost everyone we knew finished a week ago. We were walking back from a Mexican restaurant (not like we had hoped, more like a pilgrim meal chopped up and served in a tortilla but different is good) when we were running down the people we hadn’t seen that we would have liked to. Top of the list was Mike, Pam, and Rachael. Just as we said their names, we rounded a corner and there they were. It was very much a Beetlejuice moment.

They didn’t get to finish the Camino because of all the plagues that attacked Rachael. She had bad feet early on. Then she had the same mysterious vomiting and diarrhea that I had. The clincher was the sun poisoning. She still had sores all over her from where the blisters had exploded. They decided it was best to stop BEFORE the locust came after her. She was definitely getting signs that this was not the time for her to do the Camino. We talked with them for a little bit until they had to catch the bus to the airport–they are headed home.

On the way back, we found an outfitter that had a nice selection of boots and jet boil stoves. They were closed but open up at 10 in the morning so we would be able to get Pam a new pair of boots and a new stove for us. The alcohol in Europe doesn’t burn as hot as what we can get back home. We’ll be all set for France now.

Sunday afternoon as we were leaving our pension to go grab some grub, we walked right by some familiar faces we hadn’t been expecting. Sherry and Janicke were sitting right outside our pension. Janicke’ husband, Bjorn, had flown into Santiago last weekend and walked with her to Finesterre. This was their last night in town (as well as ours). Sherry is flying to Iceland in the morning for 6 weeks while Janicke and Bjorn are returning to Norway (our dream destination). We got all caught up with each other over a bottle of wine.

They had plans to meet up with Andrea and Caroline later for supper so we planned on joining them for drinks at the very least. We were too hungry to wait until later to eat because we hadn’t eaten since early morning and it was already 6p. We all met at the horse fountain outside of the Cathedral.

Andrea’s daughter had flown in to spend some time with her this weekend. They will do some traveling together before returning to Australia to sell Andrea’s house. This was one of the things we discussed the first day we met Andrea outside of Pamplona–whether to sell at a loss and be free or stay chained to a place with limited potential. We have a new member of the homeless crowd in our midst. Sherry sold hers before this trip. Pam and Mike are going home to move their stuff into storage. And we’ve sold all our stuff (except for what George made us keep in his basement). It’s very freeing.

Saddest story of all is Caroline. She has to leave at 3:30 in the morning to catch a plane back to Belgium. She has to be at work tomorrow. On the bright side, she’s a teacher so they will begin their two month summer break in one week so she will get to readjust then.

This is the completion of our second trail of the 6 that were planned (but I think we are adding a 7th in England). So far, we have hiked over 750 miles of a planned 1600 miles this year. We did more miles on the Camino that we originally planned because of the addition of Muxia near the end, but it was well worth it. I wish we had spent an extra night there on the northern coast of Spain.

Would we do the Camino Frances again? Let’s put it this way, if we do, that will be the second required miracle which should qualify me for canonization in the church. We are glad we did the Camino for so many reasons–it’s one of, if not the, most popular hikes in the world, it is not expensive to stay in Albergues with showers every night (I hope we haven’t gotten too lazy), food in Spain is ridiculously inexpensive, and the most important reason to hike the Camino–the incredible people you meet from all over the world. Of the 30-40 members of our Camino family, only 5 were Americans. We now have friends in Australia, Switzerland, Norway, Canada, Argentina, Spain, France, Germany, Sweden, Russia, Taiwan, England, Wales, Holland, Denmark, Belgium, and New Zealand.

Do we have any regrets? As my feet heal from all the road hiking and the pain lessens each day, absolutely no regrets. This has been an amazing experience and we want to thank everyone we have met, talked to, and hiked with along the way. The individual connections are what make the Camino the great experience that it has been for centuries and will be for centuries to come.

Buen Camino

Katherine was antsy and wanted to get going. Pam and I are still not early risers and the weather isn’t supposed to be that bad today so we opted for a little more sleep. She brought us in coffee in the hopes of enticing us out of bed. I drank mine and laid back down for a few minutes.

We’ve got our routine down pretty well in the mornings by now. It didn’t take us 10 minutes to get ready. We were packed and ready before Katherine was. We loaded up and headed out front for a picture with Rose (the owner who had quit to come to Spain and start a new life) and Agnes (who had rented a bike to ride to Muxia and Fisterra–but the bike was crap so she didn’t make Fisterra).

There’s only one restaurant on the way to Fisterra and it’s about half way (10 miles) so we have breakfast in Muxia before we leave. It was just after 8 when we started walking.

The trail is straight up out of Muxia for the first 4 miles. Fortunately, it’s overcast and we have an actual trail in the woods. Katherine is worried that she won’t have sunshine again this evening for a sunset, but Pam and I are overjoyed with the missing sun. We have planned our first 20+ mile day on the Camino to be our last day of hiking. If the sun was out, we wouldn’t make it.

We play leap from with a group of 3 Spanish women all day today. Katherine feels like it’s a competition and we need to beat them because they have only walked from Sarria and we’ve come all the way from France. What she doesn’t consider with us is that we are carrying our full packs and don’t really care about speed in the least bit. Katherine complains about her feet hurting and her legs, but she pushes hard every day. Pam and I are in this for the long haul and we can’t afford to push to the point of injury. She’s going home in a couple of days. We’re going to hike a longer and harder trail in the mountains.

When we got to the half-way restaurant, Katherine helped a girl with directions. It turned out that the girl was Romanian and was cousins with someone Katherine went to school with. It’s a small world, but I wouldn’t want to paint it.

Romanian Andrea recommended that we take the coastal route into Fisterra. The second half of the day is not as hilly as the first half (thankfully). Even so, we still needed to stop to break up the day. Pam was going slower and we normally stop every 3-4 miles but without restaurants, we just had to stop on the trail.

When we finally caught sight of the ocean, Pam and Katherine wanted to push on thinking that the town we were seeing was Fisterra. I wanted to stop because I knew we had another hill to climb. By the time we got to the edge of town, they both realized we still had another 2 miles to go. Pam and I had to stop. Katherine agreed to stop but didn’t want to.

Since we were so close, Pam and I did something we haven’t done since the second day of this pilgrimage–we had a beer before we were done hiking for the day. We were hoping it would help numb our feet with the road walking that was ahead of us.

Katherine has been shipping her pack forward the entire time since we left Santiago so she was also making reservations of where to stay. Personally, I hate being tied into someplace to stay ahead of time. It limits our options on what we can do. If we want to stop earlier than planned or later or we don’t like a place, we can move on. With a reservation, you’re stuck. Katherine has bought into the hype that everything will be full in Fisterra. I know this is BS. All of these towns can handle the high season which isn’t until July and August. If they are full now, they would pass up easy money in the high season–no one is going to let that happen.

We got into the Hungarian Albergue right about 6. We dropped our packs, changed our shoes, and grabbed our credentials to walk the final mile and a half to the lighthouse and the end of the Camino at Finesterre (the end of the earth). When the pilgrimage began over 1000 years ago, this WAS the end of the earth. They believed that the earth was flat and that an idiot like Donald Trump would make a good leader. Thankfully, times have changed. Or have they?

To complete the Camino (for the third time for us) we needed to get the stamp at mile 0.0 and then present our credentials before 9 at the municipal. After we do that, then we’ll have free time to eat, get in the ocean, and burn our clothes (preferably not while we are wearing them).

We completed everything just before 8:30. We wanted to eat next, but I didn’t want to carry our credentials with us any longer. I told Pam and Katherine to waitwhile I run everything back to the albergue. I run uphill to find Pete standing outside waiting for me. He figured out that we would be staying here and that we’d show up before 9.

Pete joined the three of us for drinks and dinner down at the harbor. We decided to have one last pilgrim’s meal. I was the only one to order white wine. They brought a bottle of red for Pam and Katherine, a beer for Pete, and a bottle of white for me. Everyone finished before I had finished my bottle of wine so they took off and headed to bed. I finished my bottle of wine–my mom didn’t raise a quitter.

We were on the mosquito coast last night. Pam and I both got bitten several times through the night. No, not bed bugs, mosquitos. I know because I killed 4 in my ear. I finally broke down and covered up with a blanket even though it was still Madagascar hot.

Both Pam and Katherine were talking big about getting up early and hitting the road to get into Muxia before it gets hot. I decided to show them who is full of it and who isn’t. As soon as I woke up, I got out of bed, dressed, packed, and fixed up my bed. I was completely ready to go before either one got out of bed. When they finally got up, I was in the kitchen making coffee for all 3 of us. Not only am I an efficient hiker, I am up for husband of the year bringing coffee to my wife while she sleeps in.

The morning was comfortable–not cold, Katherine. There was a low fog all morning so no sun. I hate hot, sunny days when hiking. I hate hot sunny days when I’m outside. I hate hot sunny days in Spain without rain. I hate hot sunny days. (I think I might be Seattle material.)

When we finally got to a town with a cafe, Katherine decided she was too cold to sit outside. Pam decided to sit inside with her even though she was dripping sweat. There was no way I was going into a warm building even if the guy working the counter had a great sense of humor–he was handing out free hard boiled eggs as today’s special. Katherine grabbed one and tried to crack it only to find that it bounced. A German hiker came in, grabbed one, and headed outside to enjoy his boon. When we left 15 minutes later, he still hadn’t tried to crack it open.

Katherine doesn’t like to take breaks and just wants to walk as fast as she can. Pam and I are believers in frequent breaks which include taking our shoes and socks off to cool off our feet. We came to another town and Pam said she needed a break and I agreed. Even though she wanted to keep going, Katherine stopped as well. She still thought it was too cold to sit outside, so she tried to borrow a coat hanging on the wall of the bar. The guy who it belonged to thought she was trying to steal it so he came over to take it back. The bar tender understood enough English that he went to his car to loan her a coat while we relaxed a bit.

After a couple more miles we could see the ocean. The only problem was that according to the distances we had, we were still at least 4 miles away from Muxia. I tried to contain my enthusiasm because I knew it couldn’t be our destination in front of us. Sure enough, we had another 2 miles of road walking before we got to some forest walking.

The forest trail was a pretty steep downhill. When we emerged, we were standing on a beach looking across a small beach and bay towards Muxia. It was a gorgeous little Mediterranean town sitting on the Atlantic. We had two alternative routes into town of which we chose the mile and a half (2.5K) board walk over the back of the beach.

We got into town and saw the Albergue Katherine had sent her pack to (no, she’s not carrying her stuff and she tells us we aren’t allowed to judge her for being lazy, but Shaun carried everything the entire way from St Jean, didn’t complain, liked to take frequent breaks, didn’t mind hiking later in the day, and only walked fast when the smell of beer was in the air). This was a Hungarian owned Albergue. Rose had reserved the only double bed for Pam and me. We were right across the street from the beach.

First order of business after settling in was to get in the ocean. It was perfect ocean weather, overcast and no sun. It doesn’t really matter this far north since the water is always cold. I walked in up to my knees while Pam and Katherine just screamed and over dramatized how cold the water was. The swelling in my feet went completely away.

Once again, we’ve been having money issues. Not that we don’t have any, just that we can’t get to it. My ATM card expired while I was in Wales (someone forgot to tell me to check expiration dates before we left). I also forgot the pin for my credit card so we were cash low and I need to get this resolved ASAP. First, I needed food to deal with this problem. We went to a restaurant that took credit cards.

I’ve been in touch with my credit card company, but they have to actually talk to me to make sure it is me before they will reset the pin. After lunch, I needed to find a way to call them and get a new pin. Pam and Katherine decided sight seeing was more important than mundane things like survival so off they went.

I tried the tourist information center but wasn’t having a lot of luck explaining my plight. All they could understand was that I wanted to make an international call which they can’t allow. Collect call doesn’t translate well with my poor grasp of Spanish. I just know that collecto callo isn’t the right translation.

Luckily, there was a woman from Barcelona in the information center that spoke English fluently. Paloma explained my situation to them and they agreed to let me use their phone. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get hold of an international operator. Paloma agreed to let me use her phone to call the company and get everything straightened out.

After securing access to money to enable us to eat and continue our trip, I talked to Paloma and Julio for a bit and told them our plans. In my near panic state of only have 15 Euros left, I forgot to get their picture to include in the blog, but I do hope they contact us so that we can at least take them out to dinner when we get to Barcelona after we finish the GR10.

With money in hand, I was transformed back into Zen Curtis. I was now willing to do a little sight seeing in Muxia. The three of us walked out to the end of the peninsula to see the church and pilgrim sculpture. We also climbed the hill above town for some pics. In retrospect, I wish we had decided to spend an extra day in both Muxia and Finesterre rather than have another 3 days in Santiago when we are done. Muxia is just such a quaint peaceful town.

This area is called the dead coast, not because of comatose residents (which they aren’t–the people here are extremely friendly and inviting). The Romans believed that this area of the coast is where the souls of the dead travelled to before they left the earth. All I know is that it is a very peaceful area. I would love to spend the night in the church during a violent storm bombarding the coast.

The Camino gives and the Camino takes. Today, the Camino gave us more miles than the maps and sheets said. It also gave us higher temps than were forecasted so we got very near 38C (100F). The Camino took all of the patience I thought I had built up. The new Zen Curtis might have taken a small leap backwards.

I suppose it started with the dog barking at 3:30 this morning. I normally love dogs and miss Ilana terribly, but she knows to stay quiet at night. The hound from hell that was allegedly guarding the cow herd 50′ from our window (the cow herd that is adding to climate change with their bovine emissions–I’d like to kill them all and have a big barbecue; only those who actually read this blog are invited). Cow smells do not grow on you through the night. After 10 hours of constant manure barrage, the smell actually settles in your nostrils so you have the shadow of the smell with you all day.

After our breakfast at 7 which we paid twice the amount we normally would (I suppose they must make up for all the bed fees they don’t collect), we started out with road walking. In fact, over 12 of the miles we put in today were on roads. This was easily one of the worst hiking days since the Meseta. The first stop was almost 7 miles of road walking before we finally found a cafe. The list we have is no where near accurate or up to date.

I’m not an easily irritated person (everyone needs to shut up now because I only get irritated with stupidity) but today got me. The visitor’s center in Santiago is handing out maps and trail listings that are crap. The further you get from Santiago, the worse the errors become. 4 miles of error isn’t bad if you’re driving, but it’s a real ball buster if you are walking (that’s referring to the balls of your feet). Since the majority of the trail is on road, it wouldn’t require a Herculean effort to drive out and make sure the listings are accurate. I know; this is Spain–manana.

Even the trail split between Muxia and Fisterra wasn’t right. To the highway department’s credit, it was well marked with a new intersection. The only bright spot to today is that we ran into Fanny again before the intersection. She is still so sweet to us because of the first day on the trail. All we did was make sure she was OK and she hasn’t forgotten that we stopped to check on her. We told her our plans for the rest of the week and she may come along with us.

There was an article in the paper in Santiago that said Camino attendance is UP 20% this year. The Camino is big $ for Northern Spain as evidenced by all the new highway construction and revitalized small towns. Maybe spend a few minutes making sure that maps are accurate as well (but I digress).

Dumbria also moved further down the road by about 3 miles. Katherine had her pack shipped forward to the Dumbria Municipal Albergue. We passed an Albergue on the edge of town, but it didn’t say it was the municipal. We walked another half mile into town to only find out that was the municipal after all. 3 different people told us there was only one Albergue in town and we passed it 1/2 mile ago. I was livid.

I was too hot and pissed to do anything other than sit down and cool off. I headed to the only open bar on the street and ordered an ice cream and Diet Coke. Once my core temperature went down, I had the energy to make the trek back (I hate to back track). There was no attendant in the Albergue but they left a note saying to choose a bed and they’d come back later to collect the 6 Euros. We chose the furthest empty room in the hopes that we would get a private room since no one in their right mind would be out hiking in this heat. Ultimately, we were right. We got an 9 person room to ourselves.

With 6 Euro beds, there are some things missing like wifi and food. Pam took a nap while I took a shower and did laundry. When her majesty got up and hosed off as well, we went into town in the hopes of finding an open restaurant. We got lucky and found a restaurant/super macado that served good (albeit expensive) pilgrim meals. This tied our most expensive meal on the while Camino at 12 Euros (for salad, chicken breast, potatoes, ice cream, bread, wine, and water).

When we were finishing up, Fanny came in and joined us. We discovered she is a Buddhist and vegetarian. She has had pretty slim pickings on this trip. Pretty much bread and salads at restaurants and fruit from super markets during the day. She also invited us to visit her in Taiwan which she may live to regret because I’m trying to figure out how to add that into our winter in SE Asia in 2019/20. She also bought us all after dinner coffees and a bag of chips for tomorrow. We also discovered she has been traveling to Europe for at least a month every year for the last several years.

Pam and I picked up a couple of bananas for breakfast tomorrow and headed back to the Albergue. It was after 9 and Pam was afraid she was going to turn into a pumpkin.

I woke up about 10p because the lights were on and the AC was off. The coolness quickly dissipated and the windows wouldn’t open. I was melting once again. Once I get woken up after a bit of sleep, I have a hard time falling back to sleep. I tried getting caught up on Candy Crush (I’ll never forgive Martha Johnson for getting me hooked on this game). I eventually fell back asleep about 12:30.

Here’s something that is going to be a surprise to Pam and Katherine–at 12:45 the electricity went off and the fire alarm sounded with flashing lights. This went on for about 10 minutes, but no one moved. I figured I would go down with the ship and turned towards the wall. No one died, but I did hear some people considered murder.

The intended victim was moi. It seems like I managed to fall into a very deep sleep after the alarm. I never felt any of the earthquakes (aka Pam shaking the bed), but I was startled when the towel landed on my face. Thankfully, Pam opted to not hold it in place until my legs stopped spasming but merely threw it on my head in the hopes of getting me to roll over.

When Pam’s alarm went off at 6:15, Katherine was already up in a panic because someone had stolen her shorts in the night. Pam’s got a $1,000 camera, I’ve got an iPad and a wallet with a couple hundred Euros sitting on the floor, but the target of the thief was Katherine’s shorts–they are very precise on their choice of clothing. The shorts were eventually found sitting on top of my pack. I was NOT the thief; Pam brought in all the laundry and was confused as to who’s clothes were who’s (or whose, whom, who’s–this has always been a rough spot of the English language for me).

After Katherine’s panic attack, she wanted the lights turned on–everyone was already up so why not turn on the lights. I tried to not point out that everyone was awake because her and Pam had been talking and that there were still 2 sleeping French men–Is the Camino helping me to grow? Perhaps, if I had not mentioned it now. The lights came on and the French men beat us out of the Albergue. They gave me dirty looks on the way out. I’m not sure if it was my association with Pam and Katherine or my alleged snoring in the night (which I’m pretty sure was Pam’s echoing off the walls).

As usual, we had a plan. As usual, the plan didn’t work. As usual, I said let’s not plan any more because the plans always fail. As usual, I was told that I’m pessimistic and I should be more positive. As usual, I shut up and walked by myself. As usual, I was right and got no credit for being right.

The plan was to walk 4 miles to the first cafe before we ate breakfast. The sheets and maps were wrong and the first cafe was almost 7 miles away. When we got there, all edible food was gone so I got a coffee, an OJ, a banana, and some chips. They both opted for chicken abortions suspending ham in it. I topped off my breakfast with some Oreos I forgot I had been carrying.

The bright side of the plan was that we were going to start hiking by 6:30 which we almost pulled off. We had begun at 6:45. It was only Madagascar hot at this point. I am so looking forward to the GR10 and altitude to cool things off. The trail continued to be nice and not crowded.

The breakfast disappointment was our only stop today. We plowed on through trying to beat the progression to Africa hot and came darn close, but not quite. We made it to Maronas where we thought the Albergue was by 12:30 which would have been great if it were actually there, which it wasn’t (more plan failures). After backtracking, convinced that we had missed it, we met a cow farmer that understood Casa Pepa enough to tell us to hit the road for another mile.

You might think an Albergue in a rural area that isn’t a recommended stop might try a little harder to get people to stop. They might be friendly to arriving patrons. They might even act like they see you when you walk in. The Albergue is not bad, but the people running it are confusing. They seem to be a little on edge with the guests and have a tendency to yell quite a bit at each other (and possibly us; my Spanish is not good). We might go check out the other Albergue in town for supper.

An added benefit of the plan failing is that we walked an extra mile or two that we hadn’t planned on today, so the “plan” for tomorrow might be to walk only 13 miles with 12 the day after to get into Muxia. That’s the plan for now, but I wouldn’t bet on it. I’ve got to finish my beer and go check out the other Albergue–there’s a lot of yelling in the kitchen right now.

As usual, the Albergue signs lie about how far they are. The nearest one said 1/2 mile so we knew we could count on a 2 mile round trip, but for a good dinner, not a problem. When we got there, it didn’t have a kitchen. The next one (only 100 meters away) didn’t have anything either. We stopped at a cafe between the two, but the flies and heat were somewhat of a put off so we decided to head back to our place. We grabbed an ice cream bar for the road (George would be proud of us–ice cream before, or possibly in place of dinner). The meal was surprisingly good at our place. They still haven’t collected our 12 Euros for the night, but I don’t feel too bad about skipping out on this one with the bad service and disorganization (plus the 60 Euros we’ve spent on food, beer, and snacks.

An added bonus of this Albergue is the cow barn adjacent to our open window. Pam and I grab bunks by windows to have temperature control of the room whenever possible. I’ve got the windows full open and Pam is very conflicted about the cow poop smell. She needs to learn to appreciate where her food comes from–the windows are staying open; I have the bottom bunk.

This is a sad day for us for so many reasons. We are leaving everyone behind today to continue on to Finisterre via Muxia. We started off first thing this morning saying goodbye to George (who was very rushed to make his train–he apparently overslept a bit since him and Richard violated curfew and didn’t get in until well past 1:30).

George is heading back to St Jean tomorrow to retrieve the rest of his junk. It’s going to be a two day journey for him to get there so he’s going to have another couple of nights in my favorite city on the Camino–Pamplona. He’s still a little too early for the “running of the bulls” but it’s probably just as well since it would quickly turn into the goring of the George because his feet are still hurting. George has hiked well over 400 miles between the Camino and the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path. Not bad for his first attempt (and he’ll probably say “last attempt”) at long distance hiking. Hats off to George for sticking to the trails and walking through all the pain. I’d really like to know how much weight he has lost–too bad he will probably eat it back on in the next 3 months of sight seeing he is planning.

After George got off (meaning on the way to the train station; I have no idea what all he was up to last night), Richard cooked us breakfast once again. Richard knows his way around the toaster! We had fresh peaches, coffee, and toast–a fortified pilgrim’s meal if there ever was one. We quickly packed up and vacated the apartment to head to the Plaza do Obradoiro to meet Katherine at 9.

Richard dropped his rucksack off at the pension he is staying at tonight and just brought his speedo and thongs in a sack to see us off. He’s planning on water somewhere today but hasn’t decided where yet. He’ll also spend some time with Kat and Shaun today before he heads back to England tomorrow.

When we got to the plaza, Andrea, Caroline, and Margaret were just arriving. Caroline has hiked all the way from Belgium and speaks 7 languages that we could count. She is an amazing lady. We’ve been hiking with them on and off since Pamplona where Andrea started the trail. I’m glad we got to see them again before we left. We might get to see Andrea next weekend when her daughter flies into Santiago. They are also planning on Finesterre this week, but not Muxia. We might even see them out there at “the end of the world.”

Goodbyes completed (we will visit Richard in England and he might even hike with us for a trail in November) we hit the road with Katherine. It feels extremely weird to not be hiking with Shaun. He was one of the first person’s we met on the Camino (way back at the airport in Biarritz) and we spent way more time with him on the trail than anyone else. I’m sure he’s relieved to see us go after more than 5 weeks together. Shaun is amazingly funny and really made our Camino a fun experience–we will miss him.

The forecast for the day is 35+C (95 F) so all the smart people were starting out to Fisterra around 6a–we started hiking a little before 9:30. Spoiler alert–we eventually run into Pete and he arrived at our Albergue at 10:15 and was having a beer before we even got off the concrete of Santiago.

To quote Matthew Broderick “It was hot. Africa hot.” Being from the Midwest we all know it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity. It was just a shade below 150% humidity. It felt like I had just gotten out of a swimming pool, and not in a good way where your clothes are cool. It was miserable walking and we had 14 miles of this to look forward to.

On the bright side, the trail out of Santiago is actually very nice and has a lot of shade. We were truly walking on a trail in the woods. We had a climb right away leaving town, but it afforded us great views back of where we had been the last few days.

Even though the view was great and exhilarating, I was ready for a break. Unfortunately, the first cafe is over 6 miles out of town and we were barely started. It was great to have the crowds of the last 100K into Santiago be nothing but a bad memory. We never saw more than 5 other people at a time. Still more crowded than we are used to, but this is a great transition to the GR10 for us.

Nearly 5 miles in, we came across an entrepreneur selling hot coffee and warm drinks in the forest. 95+ out and both Pam and Katherine get hot coffee. I opted for a very warm Aquarius and a melted KitKat. Not the most satisfying second breakfast, but I needed fuel.

Not a half mile after our forest break, we emerged on to a road with a real cafe which we had to skip. There was supposed to be another bar in just another 2 miles that we could stop at instead.

2 miles turned into 4 before we finally found a place. Even though I always carry a couple liters of water, I rarely drink it. When we got to the bar, we exposed feet to air, got some snacks, and I downed over 1.5 liters of fresh cold water straight from the bathroom. If I get sick again, I am definitely blaming Pam since she got me the water. I know she’ll claim the bar as the water source, but I have my doubts.

In theory, we only had 5-6 miles left to Negreira, but Africa hot makes distances grow exponentially. After a couple more miles, I told Pam I was going to have to have another stop before we made it to our planned stop. Pam’s face was the color of a lobster, sweat was dripping off her face, and her butt was trying to eat her underwear–she was in agreement. Katherine is shipping her pack ahead so only carrying a light weight day pack. She has a tendency to skip a lot on the road and tell us to hurry up, but even she was sweating a lot and agreed to a stop.

We saw a nice flowing river off the side of the road which had a shady bar next to it. Nirvana. More salty French fries, olives, and a Diet Coke and I was ready for the final 3 miles. 1/8 of a mile later, I was ready for another stop. Africa hot!

Surprisingly, we eventually made it into Negreira and found the Albergue Katherine had shipped her pack to. When we went into the dorm I was in shock–air conditioning! Most building in Spain have stone walls over 2′ thick so they usually stay pretty cool. We’ve only been in AC one other time in Portomarin (which caused me to drink for a bit longer than usual). The host offered us our choice of beds in the air conditioned dorm with 28 beds, or the more intimate, smelly, non AC dorm with only 10 beds. I could work with the crowded AC dorm (there were almost 20 empty beds).

It was only 4, but we were beat. When we dropped out packs, Pete woke up enough to ask us what took us so long. He had his first beer at 10:15 and was getting a little bored after nearly 6 hours in the AC. We said we’d wake him up when we were ready to go eat.

The restaurant next to the Albergue serves beer and pizza along with the usual pilgrim meals. I need a break from tuna in my salad and pork in it’s many forms, so I opted for pizza trying to expand my culinary pallet and opting for something new. It’s not Mackies in Marion, IL–the best thin crust pizza in the USA (John, that’ll be a complimentary pizza next time I’m in) but it wasn’t bad.

After an after dinner ice cream, I was ready to call it a day. Pam wanted to cut nails. I told her as long as I don’t have clippings on me or my bed, I was all for it. I was out before 9.

Oh what a joy to sleep in and not hear people packing up their crap at 4:30 in the morning to race ahead and get into the Albergue and take a nap all afternoon. We didn’t have to be up and out by 8, we could sleep all day if we wanted. We had a washer in the apartment and soap. All we had to do today was sleep and go to mass at noon.

We got up a little after 8 just to prove we could sleep that late. Richard made us breakfast–toast and coffee (plus yogurt and fresh fruit) so we were slowly transitioning back to non-pilgrim food.

Richard lead us to the Cathedral a little before 11 for the noon mass. I warned everyone to not sit too close–I haven’t been to a mass since my sister died 25 years ago. I’m sure God has decent aim, but lightning bolts are not pin-point accurate. We took turns looking around the church while we were waiting for mass to begin. Richard has already been here so he gave us good directions of what to look for and expect. Pilgrims continue to walk up and hug the statue of St James all the way through the mass.

After mass, it was still hotter than hell (ironic with all the pilgrims about). Richard went exploring (he’s still fresh with only 5 walking days) but Pam and I went back for afternoon siestas. It’s been 14 days straight since we’ve had a day off and we were tired. It’s going to take a few days to get us back up to 100%. George also opted for the siesta.

We decided to check on travel arrangements at the pilgrim center. George got train tickets for Pamplona for in the morning. We decided to go ahead and get train tickets back to Hendaye for a week from Monday. While we were finalizing travel plans, I decided to pop into the credentials line to see if there was anyone we knew waiting. I was hoping to catch Helen one more time. Surprise, surprise, surprise! Helen and Lise were taking turns waiting in line. Helen look wore out but was happy to see us. We tried to get them to meet us for dinner around 8 but they looked like rest and sleep are on the agenda.

We had planned to try to get together with everyone for dinner tonight if we could find them. Shaun told us to go higher up in the old town. We ran into Chris with his cousin and he gave us better directions. We met up with everyone and had dinner in the same plaza and did a little table jumping. We got one last picture and said our goodbyes. Pam and I are heading out to Muxia with Katherine in the morning and George is heading back to St Jean then on to Barcelona. Pretty much everyone is moving on in the next day or two. Shaun is going to shut the city down and drain all the beer taps before heading out to Muxia on Tuesday.

We had said our goodbyes and didn’t want to dwell on it any longer. We just had one more thing to do before bed–ice cream.

Shaun, George, and Richard went out for another drink after the ice cream, but Pam and I were beat and went back to the apartment and bed.

The final day of the Camino. Or to look at it another way, our first false ending point. Pam and I are planning to hike to Fisterra and Muxia which are both potential ending spots. The Camino is right around 500 miles and if we go to Fisterra and Muxia, we are looking at about another 75 miles of walking. At best, Santiago will be a resting spot for us before we finish.

The real focus of the day is getting to Santiago and seeing everyone who has became a part of our trail family for the last month. The walk, itself, is inconsequential today. Only around 12 miles and nothing too exciting.

About 2.5 miles up the trail, we go through a tunnel under the highway and emerge to find a cafe where we stop for some breakfast. Everyone is fairly quiet and subdued. The day hikers are a little irritating and I have really come to despise bicyclists. After our breakfast, we all just power on to the end.

We stopped at one other cafe for a quick drink and saw a few people we knew, but it’s really just a blur. By the time we got to San Marcos on the outskirts of Santiago, we were starting to drag a bit but we just wanted to get the walking over with. We went to up to the pilgrims monument to get our first views of Santiago de Compostela. George was starting to fall back a bit at this point. He caught up and rested while we looked around.

Richard and Shaun took off and headed into Santiago. We hung back with George and started down the hill on our final road walk of the Camino. There was a huge military style bunk complex to our right. This is the largest Albergue on the trail. In it’s minimal capacity, it sleeps 400, but when the Camino is at its most crowded in July and August, it will hold up to 3,000 people a night. George is hearing conflicting information that attendance is down almost 20% this year which we find hard to believe.

When we got in town, we found a paper confirming that there is a 20% attendance difference this year–an increase. Emilio Estevez doesn’t strike me as a Hollywood powerhouse, but his movie, “The Way” is still making a huge impact on Northern Spain. The increased attendance is showing up in the form of new highways, reworked villages along the route, new hand paved streets in little villages, and an increase in Albergues, restaurants, and stores along the Camino Frances.

When we got to the edge of town, Richard was waiting for us. Shaun kept powering on because of his knee, but he’s only a few minutes ahead of us. George is out of water and Pam is having to pee. I’m hotter than hell and just need a sit down for a few minutes. We’ve still got 2 1/2 miles of city walking to go before we make it to the Cathederal. I don’t want to finish the trail crawling on my hands and knees, with George’s tongue swollen and hanging out of his mouth, and Pam peeing her pants with a trail of urine behind her. Richard is doing pretty well, but he is sweating profusely and wringing sweat out of his tissue every few feet. We decide to make one more stop before entering the old city center.

A few cold drinks, ice creams, and toilet break later, we were a new bunch of pilgrims and not the pathetic bunch we had been just a few minutes before. The route the end of the Camino takes is designed so that you don’t see the Cathedral until you are standing in front of it. We enter the old town and can see the tops of the spires but keep losing sight of them in the narrow streets. By now, we’re caught up in the flow of pilgrims–hundreds of them.

I keep getting pushed ahead. I finally step out of the flow so I can get back to where Pam is. I want to finish this trail together. As we head down the steps beside the Cathedral, Michele shows up and walks the final few meters with us. She and Rob have positioned themselves where they can watch for us coming in. They arrived yesterday.

We entered the plaza and saw everyone at once. Chris and Bob, Michele and Rob, Adrian and Edele, Jim and Katherine all greet us. We have officially completed the Camino Frances.

We are all excited (Pam and I are relieved as well to be done with all the road walking). After we catch up with everyone and make plans for later, we head down to the pilgrim office to get our certification of completion. We have been collecting stamps the entire way from France to prove our route, now it’s time to prove that we’ve done the trail. We head into the office and I blanch–it’s almost a 2 hour line to get your credentials. There’s no way I can stand in the heat for that long.

Pam and I decide to come back later when the line is smaller but George, Shaun, and Richard wait it out. We went and joined Michele and Rob for a beer. I also decide this is a good time to get the keys to the apartment we’ve rented for the next 2 nights. This turned into a mini-panic attack for me. I was overheated and dehydrated. I had to find a way to make contact with the owners to get the keys. Michele loaned us her phone, but they didn’t speak English and my Spanish is terrible at best. I think we agreed to meet in 15 minutes at the place (but where that is, I have no idea).

I learned two important lessons about Apple maps today: 1) if you key in the address while in wifi, Apple maps will remember the directions once you leave wifi and show your position on the map, and 2) Apple maps are not that accurate in Spain. Even though I could show where I was on the map, it wasn’t where I needed to be. With the help of 2 random people, I eventually made it to the apartment.

This must have been the first time they rented the place out through booking.com because there was a lot of new items in the apartment. A new toaster, new shower curtain, new washing machine, and a good amount of groceries for us to use. It was a mother/daughter who met me and they were extremely nice. The apartment was listed as a 2 bedroom which wasn’t quite accurate. It was a 3 bedroom so things would work out great because we have invited Richard to stay with us.

I head back to Pam, Michele, and Rob a bit calmer now that we have a nice place to stay. I had ordered a beer before I left, but only had one sip. If someone didn’t drink it, it was going to be hot. Fortunately, Rob had me covered. I got back to a fresh beer and all was good. While we were sipping on our beers, Muz walked by. We thought he was going to finish a few days ago, but he decided to slow down and enjoy it a bit. He was on his way to the train station to start his tourist phase now that he was done with the Camino.

 

After about another 45 minutes, the three amigos showed up with their certificates of completion. They must not be too strict–Richard got his. I’m not sure if he listed St Jean as his stating point or Sarria. We like to kid him about being “Bus Man” but he’s the one that came up with the name. He came out with the intention of only walking one week on the Camino but ended up doing much more. Even after going to Italy for a couple of weeks, he came back to actually walk the last 100K with us and become an official pilgrim.

George also overcame a lot on this trip. This is his first real long distance hike. We had just done the Pembrokeshire before starting the Camino. Instead of making George stronger, the Pembrokeshire messed up his feet. With his clown size feet, he has trouble finding size 16 (now he’ll need 17) hiking boots. The Keen boots he had proved to NOT be up to the task of protecting his feet. He pulled off some pretty impressive days along the way (including crossing the Pyrenees in a single day when we had planned for two days). He still walked well over 400K (250 miles). I’m glad we all finished together. I’m also glad that he will be doing some sightseeing now. I felt a lot of guilt and angst for getting him to go on this trip and for all the misery he experienced along the way.

Shaun also deserves a special mention here. Shaun and Megan were the first two people we met on this trip. We actually flew to France on the same plane from London. When we first met Shaun, we didn’t know how well he would handle the trip. He is a little larger than average but he has will and determination like no one I’ve ever met. Fortunately for him, Australia has burned up his internal thermometer. Pam and I would be melting in the heat and hiding in the shade whenever we took a break–Shaun would sit in the full sun and talk about what mild weather we were having. At first we thought he was just showing off trying to get a laugh. Later we realized, he’s just f’d up when it comes to temperature. He wore two shirts every day of the trail–a long sleeve black shirt under a short sleeved white shirt. He never complained once even with his knee hurting him and having a few blisters on his feet. Shaun walked the entire trail–no buses, no taxis, no bikes, no horse–the only time his feet were not on the trail was when he was sleeping (or had them propped up on a chair drinking a beer).

Pam and I also carried everything and walked the entire way. It was important to us that we treat this as a hiking trip to get us prepared for the next hike we will do in a couple of weeks–the GR10 Pyrenees traverse from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea in France (just shy of 600 miles). This is our prep year for starting in on the Triple Crown next year.

 

Pam and I went around 7 to get our certificates with the plan of meeting George afterwards. George, Pam, and I walked around town a bit while Richard went to the pilgrim’s mass at the Cathederal. In both masses today, they did swing the incense. We are planning on going to the noon mass tomorrow and hope they will swing it again with so many pilgrims finishing today.

Shaun stayed in an old Monastery tonight while Richard joined the 3 of us in our apartment. We went out to dinner with Pete, Linda, and Katherine. We DID NOT have pilgrim meals. Pete and I decided to have one beer, so we had to make it count.

For having almost 40 people in our dorm last night, we slept surprisingly well. We had agreed to meet Richard and Shaun around 7:30 at the cafe and then walk on to Arzua for breakfast. We thought we were running late, but when we got there, we were the first ones. We decided to grab some cafe con leches and Napoleons (chocolate filled croissants) to have for first breakfast.

George had sent us a message last night that he was in Arzua. That means that we should catch up with him today and all of us walk into Santiago together tomorrow. It’s been a tough trip for George and I’m glad that he’ll be able to complete the Camino with us.

Shaun showed up last. This is the first time he’s overslept the whole trip. Usually he is first up and wakes us up. Maybe the 7 beers and pain meds to help him forget his knee caught up with him.

Today and tomorrow are going to be relatively easy days for us totaling only 26 miles in the two days. The trail started out on quiet roads today. Richard is a natural conversationalist and can talk to anyone. He heard an accent he recognized from his youth and started talking to a couple from Southern England now living in Wales. We also joined in when we heard Wales since we have just done the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path. They have been living in Cardiff for the last 20+ years.

When we got to Arzua, we stopped for second breakfast. Surprisingly, Pam and I aren’t loosing a lot of weight on this trip even though we are carrying heavier packs than everyone else. I guess our metabolism hasn’t kicked up yet. Or possibly, it’s the two breakfasts, lunch, two snacks, huge supper, and a beer or two every day that are taking their toll on us.

The walk today was, again, nice, except for the crowds and the humidity. We kept making frequent stops and seeing people we have known for the last month. There is a feeling of melancholy that’s starting to set on us that this pilgrimage is coming to an end. In the past, it was not unusual for us to knock out 10 miles by lunch. Now we are all slowing down trying to stretch out the days to keep it from ending.

Really, the walk in Galicia has been the best part of the trail with the exception of crossing the Pyrenees. Today was almost all trails. The trails gradually morph to gravel then to blacktop as we get closer to towns. We have pretty well decided to stop at every other town at this point. The next stop is Salceda.

We actually pop up into Salceda unexpectedly. There’s an OK looking bar/cafe, but we have also taken up stopping at the second bar/cafe in a town with the thinking being that everyone stops at the first one so the second one tries harder to be nicer to draw people in. This thinking is having a >90% success rate for us.

When we passed up the first one, I had a feeling we might have made a mistake. The trail turned back to dirt. I almost wanted to turn around but decided we were going slow enough without backtracking. We did emerge onto a highway. I could see the second bar ahead on the road. It looked pretty dumpy but we stuck to our rule of seconds. When we went in, it looked like a flea market. As we looked closer, what we thought were rags everywhere were actually pilgrim shirts that people have taken off and hung from the ceiling.

The woman at the counter was very friendly and patient with us. She offered to fill Shaun’s water bottle and even put ice in it. We ordered our sandwiches and food and ended up with way more than we could eat. While Pam and I were waiting, she poured us some yellow, herbal drinks which were some kind of local brew. Maybe it was the brew, but we walked away not caring about the mess the place appeared to be.

The remainder of the way into O Pedrouza was forested track. It was only 5 miles into town. We really thought we’d run into George by now, but we figured, worst case, we catch up with him in town. It was already past 4 by the time we made town. Linda was the first to see us when we walked in. We still had no idea where we were staying so we agreed to meet up in a bit.

We went to every Albergue and every one of them was “completo”. This is the first time it looked like our not making reservations might bite us in the butts. We ran into Kat while looking and she gave us a few ideas of where to look, but everything was full. When we went back out to the Main Street, we found George.

Richard tried a pension while we talked to George. Chris came up to us and told us he thought there were rooms in the pension they were staying in. Richard came out and told us the owner had called another pension and had them holding rooms for us to check out–this turned out to be Chris’ place. When we got there, the rooms were only 30 Euros each. Pam and I got our own room right next to a bathroom for only 5 Euros a piece more than we would have paid in an Albergue–the Camino provides once again.

George finally got to meet St Louis Linda on the last night of the Camino. He had heard of her on the second day of this trip and had managed to not run into her until now. Pete, Linda, George, Shaun, Richard, Pam, and I met for a few drinks on our last night of the pilgrimage. After a couple, Pete and Linda turned in while the 5 of us headed to a different restaurant for our (hopefully) last pilgrim meal. We ran into several others we have been hiking with and we’re all in the same boat: tired from all the walking, sad to think it’s almost over, yet relieved that we can quit relying on John Brierley’s guide book.

Rain is out of the forecast for the rest of the walk into Santiago. I would take rain over hot sunny days any time. We started a bit after 7 with the intention of walking 2 miles before stopping for some breakfast.

The walk started out promising with overcast skies and a slight fog, but the fog quickly burned off and the humidity checked in around 300%. I started pouring out the sweat like mad. We stopped in a little albergue for some breakfast. It was a pretty cool old stone building and they had French toast. Pam and I got two slices each. Any change to the pilgrim menu is greatly appreciated after nearly 5 weeks of the same food every day.

Fanny walked in as we were finishing up. She is extremely generous to us. She insisted on buying us breakfast but we had already eaten. Instead, she went in a got us 4 fresh orange juices to have for the road.

The trail was really pleasant today. If the humidity could be lowered and the hundreds of day walking pilgrims were gone, you could call it near perfect. We continued our slow easy pace and ended up leap frogging with Kat most of the day. We took plenty of cafe breaks to cool down.

I know everyone hikes their own hike and you don’t know everyone’s circumstances when they are on the trail, but I was introduced to a phenomenon today that irked me–bus hikers. I think this is a great way for older people to get a taste of the trail, but when able bodied people are doing this, they just irritate me with the way they run down the tail, butt in lines at cafes, and are generally rude. What happens is a bus pulls up at the start of a nice section of trail and unloads about 40 “pilgrims” who are carrying their wallets and a partial bottle of water. The bus drives to the other end of the woods (or some designated spot) about 2 or 3 miles down the trail. The driver waits on the trail to divert his passengers back to the bus where they are then driven to their accommodations off trail. On the bright side, they don’t crowd up the Albergues since they would never consider sleeping in such conditions (which, coincidentally, I’m very impressed with how well Pam has adjusted to the Albergues–the crowds have to be wearing on her).

When we got to Melide, the trail becomes difficult to follow through town. Fortunately, there are other pilgrims that help with that problem. There are people who are riding horses along this section. All you have to do is follow the horse crap in the city streets. I’m sure all the restaurant owners appreciate having to clean up after the horses walking by their front doors and dropping loads. It’s also very appealing to those eating to have a sudden impact right next to the table.

We found a nice little bar/cafe that stretched the width of a block so we could sit out back away from the horses to have some lunch. I tried to order a hamburger (actually veal) but I wanted it well done. I tried “sin roja” but they interpreted it as “con roja” so I got the rarest burger I’ve ever had. Pam said there was no way she could eat it. I buried it in mayo and mustard (condiments!) and didn’t look at it at all while I wolfed it down.

The remainder of the day was a pleasant walk. With all the fresh pilgrims running along the trail, they tend to be bedded down by 1 or 2 at the latest. The crowds really disappear about 1:30 so we had fewer people to contend with. The afternoon was a lot of trail walking in trees. In spite of the humidity, the hiking wasn’t bad. We crossed several little creeks (called rivers here).

Pam, Richard, and I decided to take one more break, but Shaun wanted to keep going because his knee has been bothering him lately. Whenever he stops, it takes him about 15 minutes of walking to get it working right again. He was going to head on to Ribadiso and find a spot then let us know where we were staying. Richard and I went into a cafe to get ice cream and cold drinks for us. Richard couldn’t resist checking out the bus schedules–once a bus man…

When we caught up with him in Ribadiso, he met us on the road with his pack. He had tried every place in town and the only spots left were in the Municipal. We headed over to get in line. There were only 2 lower bunks left which we let Shaun and Richard have. We got upper bunks in a different building than them which is fine since they both snore. Shaun’s is steady so we’ve grown accustomed to it. Richard–that’s a different story. He’s doing much better since he came back. I think he’s using breathing strips. We’ve adjusted to him as well, but given the choice between adapting or avoiding, we choose avoiding. Not to say Pam doesn’t snore up a mean storm. I’ve never heard myself snore so I’m assuming not bad.

 

After the settling in routine, we met up at the cafe next door to the Albergue. We had a couple of beers to help cool us down, but there is a nice little creek running through the Municipal which would be perfect for soaking feet. Pam, Richard, and I went to soak our aching feet while Shaun gallantly held on to our table and continued to drink beer (the sacrifices one must make for fellow pilgrims).

It didn’t take long for our feet to turn blue. We headed back to the cafe to meet up with Shaun for supper. He had done an admirable job of keeping the table for us. The cafe had food other than just pilgrim menus so we opted for pizzas. Since this was only Richards second day back on the trail, the pilgrim menu still has appeal to him.

We went our separate ways after dinner. Pam and I got ready for bed only to see that I was sleeping in the same bunk with the girl we had seen covered in bed bug bites earlier. I had a hard time falling asleep imagining every hair blowing in the breeze as a bed bug on me. Pam was snoring long before I fell asleep–after all, it was past 9.