French Escape

I’m back home now. With feedback on the blog, it felt as though you were all walking with me. Thank you for your company. I felt very sad putting my rucksack away. I left a few essentials inside ready for the next adventure. The washing took very little time and of course, in glorious sunshine it dried in no time at all. I can't believe how quickly the trip has gone. Who would believe that I could walk 107.4 miles in a week?  It feels as though I’ve been away for ages. There were certainly a lot of emails to go through and the garden has taken on a slightly neglected appearance. Walking the Camino was a great experience. The weather was wet but it couldn’t dampen our spirits or drown our laughter. Thank you to all my Camino buddies and to everyone who sponsored me.  

Early start, early breakfast with hundreds of other walkers, cyclists…Rain was pouring down. The walk was through woods and hamlets, no major hills or challenges. A brief coffee stop, when we finally found a cafe that was open.    The last 24kilometres disappeared. We took a tiny detour off the Camino for further sustenance (in my case coffee and the biggest pain au chocolat I’ve ever seen - more of a loaf). It was still raining when we got our  first glimpse of the cathedral, at about 8km away. You perhaps won’t be able to identify it on the photo, but it’s there. As we reached the outskirts of Santiago de Compostela the rain stopped, as did the signs and arrows guiding us on our way.    More by luck than judgement we found the cathedral and after obtaining our certificates - all computerised, no monks in a scriptorum any more, we finally stopped walking and relaxed.  I will probably write more about my experiences on the Camino but for now, I will just rest and celebrate the fact tha

W e left Caldas de Reis without finding the promised hot springs. As ever we were dressed for rain with sunglasses optimistically to hand . A gentle 22km walk along a river, through woods and it didn’t rain until lunchtime.    Perfect.  Just one long hill (up and down) and one very heavy rainstorm. Pilgrims lunch - meatballs, rice, bread, drink and coffee- all for 6.50€. We seem to have this down to a fine art now. The rain came down after lunch and the views became more industrial as we got to the outskirts of Padron- our stop for the night.   Just one more day to Santiago. Sadly two of the group couldn’t join us today having lost the battle against burgeoning blisters but hopefully the rest will have helped.  (It was interesting to hear how many Camino pilgrims were on the bus with them). Finished the day with set menu dinner for 12.50€ including wine. Stuffed  Padrón peppers, steak and chips, Grandma's pudding, a (custardy chocolatey thing). They certainly look after the pilgrim

I couldn’t believe it when I woke feeling somewhere near human. I got up, got ready, went to breakfast and parts of me that I thought would never move again, seemed to be moving completely normally. We set out in the rain but it soon stopped and the walk took us through woodland, then agricultural land and vineyards.  Now that the coastal and central Portuguese Caminos have combined there are lots more pilgrims walking along the path.  All shapes, sizes, ages, abilities and nationalities. There was one manageable hill and the only other challenge, during the rest of the 22km, was putting on wet weather gear when the sky looked threatening and removing it a few minutes later when no rain appeared. Lunch stop was at a farmhouse cafe that was doing a brisk trade in tarts of octopus, tuna or chicken, tortilla, tomatoes, bread, cakes, fruit and chorizo (which for some reason they smothered in alcohol and set alight). All the family was involved and all the preparation was in their kitchen a