Now in (still) pictures

I've finally finished processing and uploading all these pictures I've taken on my road to Santiago (and a few more beyond that).

You can find them here.

Epilogue: The ball gets to Finisterre

As promised, here is the story of the ball, for the part that I know
On the Northern path, aka Camino del Norte, there was a Basque guy (the Camino starts from Irún, in the Basque Country). I did not meet him, I don't even know his name, but I know a bit of his story, and it is a beautiful one.
Every pilgrim has his reasons to go on that crazy and beautiful journey. One of his was to honour the memory of his late brother. Unfortunately, he could not walk all the way to Santiago, but he wanted the memory of his brother to keep on walking towards there, through the solidarity of his fellow pilgrims. To represent that, he used this yellow ball, and asked for it to be passed from pilgrim to pilgrim, travelling a bit with each of them, with each pilgrim carrying it writing his name on it, to tell the story of the ball, like the credencial tells the story of a pilgrim, with the stamps of all the places he went through.
So I was honoured, partly by chance, partly because I forgot about it for a few days in my backpack, to be the one carrying it for the final part to Santiago. I carried it around the streets of the old town in my pocket. I made it visit the cathedral, and symbolically put some holy water on it, to mark its passage there.
Then, I brought it to the end of the Earth, to Finisterre, where pilgrims traditionally burn some of the belongings that went with them on the path. Nowadays, forest fire hazards prevent you from burning things in Finisterre, but there is a tower where pilgrims attach these objects that made it all the way across Spain, or even Europe. This is now the new place of rest of the ball, of the memory of the brother of that pilgrim, and of a symbol of solidarity among pilgrims.

The tower, at the end of all things

The ball, attached high up on the tower

24th of August: Arzúa - Santiago de Compostela

Santiago, baby!
In the end, I didn't take another video from the cathedral square, I wasn't too much in the mind.
Arriving there as a pilgrim is quite impressive, when it is the end of a journey of several weeks. From the path, through the old city, you don't get much of a glimpse on the cathedral, but just before arriving on the square you know - I knew for sure.
I was going down an old street, when I noticed the series of old buildings were changing to something else, bigger, more beautiful, more everything: the buildings were morphing into a cathedral, into THE cathedral. When I realised that, I knew. I knew from the sight, I knew from the music. That guy under the arch in front of me was not playing bagpipes in a random place. He was adding solemnity to the last corridor towards the end of my adventure. I slowed down. I almost stopped. I wanted to enjoy every second, every step, every muscle movement, to take my time. It had lasted two weeks and a half that I will never forget, and as much as I was happy to get here, part of me did not want to finish yet. I wanted just a bit more. An hour, a day, a week ...just a bit more. I had walked about 40km that day, but I was not tired. I was more in shape, more awaken, fresher than ever, because I was happy, and thankful, to have lived that adventure. That gave me the motivation to end that path, end that adventure. With pride, peace and happiness, accompanied by the sound of the bagpipes, I took these last steps that got me out of the corridor into the big Cathedral square. I went towards the middle, contemplated the Cathedral. It was beautiful. It is the most beautiful it can be: when you have walked around 500km to see it, when you deserve to appreciate its beauty.

Then I congratulated a fellow pilgrim from the camino del norte, who arrived a few tens of seconds before me, we each took a picture of the other with his phone, to capture that moment.

Me, shortly after my arrival

Then, I went towards my friends Nerea and Paola (and Txirimiri) who arrived a bit earlier, and we stayed there, in a timeless bubble, chatting and contemplating the cathedral.

There was no way to get that smile off our faces. Note the cathedral's reflection in the sunglasses.

The ball did get to Santiago, it even visited the cathedral, but its path did not end there. More about that in a later note.

23rd of August: Sobrado dos Monxes - Arzúa

Not that much to say about this day where I forgot to shoot a video. Weather was quite grey, and when arriving in Arzúa, the madness started: we were merging with the camino francés, meaning there were loooaads of pilgrims everywhere. And even though there are many Albergues there, getting a bed was not an easy task (Nerea and Paola, who got lost, had to sleep in a gymnasium).

The huge backpack queue at one of the Albergues in Arzúa (you cannot see the end of it on the picture, but believe me, there is more).

22nd of August: Miraz - Sobrado dos Monxes

Another nice stage from Miraz to Sobrado dos Monxes. We arrived there at the time of the big yearly festivities of the town, with bagpipes and all!

We got to sleep in there:

And in the evening, there was a nice band playing, the festicultores:

It was quite funny when they had to relocate under the Arch that made the entrance to the monastery, and to the monastery parking lot. Each car that wanted to get out had to interrupt the concert and get booed by the whole merry assistance.
Also, when they were rehearsing, Agnieszka gave them a hand:

All in all, lots of fun was had in Sobrado dos Monxes!

21st of August: Vilalba - Miraz

A quite long stage we had on that day. The first part was quite misty, but with some nice views and colors:

Then after Baamonde, I didn't take many pictures, but it was gorgeous, mostly woody, and passing through a few nice little pueblos, with various wildlife encounters:

Then we arrived in Mirazat what might have been the best Albergue of the trip. It was managed by an English guy and an Australian couple, who were all very nice and gave a unusual touch to the camino. There we had great pasta cooked by Paola, then tea offered by our hosts:

That day ended in apotheosis with Nerea, Javi and the famous basque chef Coldo cooking great stuff for us:

20th of August: Gonzán - Vilalba; queue at the Albergue

A small video with a typical pilgrim scene in August: the queue to get into the Albergue, at its opening time. If you arrive hours before the opening, you simply put your backpack in the backpack queue, and go have a drink at the nearest bar ;).
The discussion you can hear behind is a French "back pilgrim" giving some cheese to Paola. What I call a "back pilgrim" (probably not the correct phrase) is a guy that went to Santiago, and that then keeps on walking, going backwards on one of the paths (generally a different one than the one he took to arrive to Santiago, so that it doesn't get too boring).

Also, I suspect it's in that Albergue that I managed to lose my nice merino T-shirt (that I'm wearing on the video). I hope some other pilgrim found it and had a good use of it.

There was a quite nice restaurant next to the Albergue where I ate both lunch and dinner; didn't see much more of the town, since we spent a good part of it in the waiting room of the hospital, since the girls (Nerea and Paola) were sick (or toothsick) and had to see a doctor. That's how I realise the places where you most easily meet other pilgrims are:

• the albergue
• the decent bar/restaurant nearest to the albergue
• the waiting room in the hospital

Bonus track: some more wildlife

19th of August: Lourenzá - Gonzán

Forgot to record a video on that day, so, instead, I provide you with a picture of the wildlife met on the way on that day:

Here you can see a mountain goat and a few cows.

18th of August: Albergue de Lourenzá, pasta puttanesca

This dark and badly framed video tries to show you Paola and Gabriele cooking pasta puttanesca. The result was awesome, and so it was a few days later when Paola cooked for us again.

17th of August: Tapia de Casariego - Ribadeo

Huuuuuuuuge stage of around 10km, because of the tough night that preceded, and to be able to sleep near the sea one last time. You may not realise it watching the video,but the bridge was quite long (600m IIRC), and quite high. That made it a challenge for Nerea to cross, but still not enough to stop such a strong and courageous girl! So we all made it to the other side, happy to be in Galicia!

16th of August: Piñera - Tapia de Casariego

Tapia de Casariego is a nice little town on the sea, a bit touristy but enjoyable. There is no hostalero in the Albergue, meaning there was a kind of improvised party on that night just outside of it. Great fun was had, until veeery late in the night (I think it was almost half past midnight when we went to bed), which made the next morning quite difficult, which made us shorten the next stage to go just to Ribadeo, around 10km away.

Also, I'm kind of wondering about Paola's smile in the background, is she really happy to listen to Nerea's music, or is she simply making fun of me making my silly video?

Bonus track 1: the view from the Albergue

Bonus track 2: Txirimiri resting at the bar after a tough day hiking

Txirimiri is a plastic seahorse that was abandoned on the side of the road. Paola adopted him, and he quickly became part of the gang.

15th of August: Cadavedo - Piñera, Albergue de Piñera

Here a small presentation of what an albergue looks like. You have to arrive early enough to secure a bed, else you sleep on the floor!

Nice story of the day: Piñera is very small, but we really wanted to have a full meal at a restaurant for lunch, after a long morning walking. We got the information that there was an area with a few restaurants about 1 km away from the albergue. Turned out we had to walk about 4 or 5 km to reach that. Since it was both Sunday and the 15th of August, all restaurants had a special menu for the occasion, at prices ranging from 18 to 20 euros, not exactly in a pilgrim's budget... Fortunately, the woman at La Kabaña was really nice, and made us an improvised pilgrim's menu, with delicious food in quantity for 9 €, and stayed a while to chat with us. This made us all happier, particularly Gabri:

14th of August: Soto de Luiña - Cadavedo

First rain! Wasn't so bad in the end, since the afternoon was sunny, which allowed for the clothes to dry well. The albergue in Cadavedo is very tiny, but we managed to get a bed, and had an awesome time that day, thanks to the cool restaurant we found there, with a nice pilgrim-compliant menu (good, cheap and nourishing) and nice chupitos, and thanks to the great atmosphere in the kitchen of the albergue in the evening, playing cards, talking 'bout stuff and drinking from Coldo's "wine purse".

13th of August: Avilés - Soto de Luiña

After two days on the bus for injury, I took the bus again, after 20km walking, for "technical reasons": we couldn't be bothered walking 40km with the heat and risk not getting a bed in Soto de Luiña, just because there is no albergue for 40km.

10th of August: San Esteban de Leces - Villaviciosa

TOUGH stage. After that one, I had to take the bus for two days, because of an infected blister and dying knees. Retrospectively the toughest stage for me, when I say "walking again tomorrow", it's an obvious lie: I went to the doctor's instead.

9th of August: Llanes - San Esteban de Leces

That was a nice big stage, arriving in San Esteban de Leces, a very small small village, with a big albergue. There we celebrated Paola's 27th birthday, with a candle on a tortilla. Doesn't sound like much, but, hey, it's not that easy to find a candle in the middle of nowhere!

8th of August: Colombres - Llanes

After that, we had some good time in Llanes, with of all the pilgrims the one enjoying it most: Max

Small update

Ok, not many updates lately because it's a pain to upload videos and am too lazy to type a lot on the phone. I've taken many videos though, and will upload them all when coming back home.

Right .is, I am in Lourenzá, and things go quite smoothly apart from sore knees when going down hill and a few blisters. Less than 170 km to Santiago now!

Comillas -> Colombres

Merry day of singing, with Manolo guest-starring this episode.









Also, this might have been the only day where I have seen a clear sunrise (it was often a bit foggy at sunrise time) on the path

Santillana -> Comillas

First day of walking! (and first day finishing with the bus for Ugo). Made it to Comillas, not too sure where we're going to sleep though.




Update: since we slacked on the way (we had a great all-you-can-eat breakfast in a hotel on the way), we arrived quite late in Comillas, meaning we could not get a bed in the Albergue. Unfortunately, in that Albergue, it wasn't allowed to sleep on the floor, which doesn't mean nobody did it...
Also, I'm making a bit of fun of Ugo: *Sorry Ugo!*, retrospectively, it's not fun any more, since he had to give up later due to the injury that was making him "crawl" in that video.

Departing soon

Here I am, hoping that I am not forgetting to pack anything necessary, and, more importantly, that I am not packing useless stuff, since I will have to carry that for around 500km. To prepare that, I made a list, I'll tell you in the end if it was a clever one :).
Now I have to ensure all of the stuff in the list is in my bag, eat some carbohydrates, and have a bit of sleep. Then, early wake up (I think I'll have to get used to that) to go catch my plane to Bilbao, from where I'll take one or several bus(es) to Queveda, where I should meet Paola and Ugo. Well, that's if all goes according to plan ;).

Next update should be "from the field" :)

Prologue

So, today I did a test hike with all the stuff I am gonna carry on the camino. Went quite well, though I learned a few lessons:

- having a gps gadget to know where you are is great, knowing where is the path you wanna take is better

- these shorts are not made for long distance walks

- 1 litre of water lasts 3 or 4 hours of walking at most with a warm weather; I wonder if I can count on always finding a water source on the way or if I should find a bigger canteen

UPDATE: forgot to mention one lesson:
 - cutting through a wood is not always a good idea, especially when wearing shorts.