CAMINO DE SANTIAGO - WEEK SEVEN
SUNDAY, 08 JUNE 2025
The Camino follows this "dairy road" for probably ten of the fourteen miles in this section. These operations look to have been in a family for a long time.
Every one of these dairy farms had some version of this. Some had wooden slats on the side instead of bricks. I do not know, but they sell miniature versions of them in the souvenir stores. As you can see, this one is fancy and has been built over the entry gate.
As I walked into town, the first possible place to get a stamp was a hotel and restaurant combination that looked like it was about to open. I crossed the street and entered the hotel. I asked the desk attendant when the restaurant would open. I was not just going to get a stamp and run, I wanted to eat too. I had walked ten miles. My oreos and granola were gone. The attendant said the restaurant would be open in about twenty minutes. I said that I did not have that time available at the moment and asked if he had a stamp. He did! I stamped my passport, thanked him and left. That was easy!
The cathedral is over 1,000 years old. After construction began, it took 136 years to complete. Every day at noon, the Cathedral holds a mass for Pilgrims who are finishing their Camino walk.
I left Sarria at 05:15 this morning. It was supposed to be pretty hot today and I had a 14 mile walk. I wanted to get way down the road before the sun came up. I packed up, put on my headlamp and started off. I was at the very eastern end of Sarria so I had to go across town and out on the west side. As luck would have it, Sarria is wider north to south than east to west. All I had to do was go about three blocks west and then over a hill. The old part of Sarria is built on a hill that rises up from the city center. You just have to walk up that hill and you are pretty much out of town then. I was walking on field roads in the dark this morning. There was no moon and no street lamps. I used my trusty headlamp to push back the darkness and keep from falling on my face. Let me say, LED technology has absolutely changed the flashlight game in the last ten years. Fifteen years ago I actually was the buyer of flashlights for all of NAPA. In 2010, LED technology was just becoming popular and it was quite expensive. Now you can buy LED lights of every kind for very little money. My headlamp will shine very brightly on a fully charged battery for four hours. It will shine SUPER BRIGHTLY for two hours. Honestly I use the lowest setting because the bright and super bright are too much. The low setting will last six hours. I just plug my headlamp into my phone charger and it recharges in about 30 minutes and weighs about two ounces all in.
When the sun came up enough to see, I was about three miles from Sarria, give or take. I was moving through dairy cow country. The little, unpaved road wound around and through the space between each dairy farmer's place. This morning the cows were coming to be milked. As I passed one farm, they were lined up and ready to take their turn in the milking shed.
Here is something else I need to look into. What are these structures?
Once again, it is Google to the rescue! They are called horreos. They were once used for storing grain. Basically it is a fancy corn crib! Who knew! I read that they are built high like that to help keep rats away.
I made it to Portomarin right at eleven a.m. after crossing a long, high bridge that spanned a reservoir to get into town. I checked into my hotel straight away because it was literally the second building on the right in town! My room also has air conditioning! I have just had a shower and lunch and now I plan embrace the Siesta time in the dark and cool.
MONDAY, 9 JUNE 2025
Just like yesterday, I left very early this morning. I left very early for two reasons. The first was because the forecast high temperature for today was 88 degrees. The second reason was that I took full advantage of yesterday's Siesta time and slept all afternoon. I woke up just in time to listen to the livestream from church.
This morning, I woke up at 04:00 wide awake. I got up, packed up, and was out the door and gone by 05:05. I had sixteen miles to walk today. I wanted to get as many of them behind me as possible before the sun came up. As I started out, there was another person in front of me about 300 yards ahead. I will confess that I sometimes follow the crowd instead of checking my map. If it is just one person I am following like this person this morning, I check the map. Like everything else, the bigger the sample, the better the accuracy.
The person and I made it out of Portomarin with no problem. When I got to the edge of town, the streetlights stopped. Not one light was outside the city limits sign and it was dark, let me tell you. I put my trusty headlamp on and set it to medium. I normally like it on low, but this morning was cloudy, there were no streetlights, and the Camino had turned off the road and literally into the woods. I knew it had plenty of battery to light the Camino until the sun came up enough for me to see the signs so I let her burn. I walked like that until about 06:30 when I could look around and distinguish color. I think if you can see green grass and red dirt you don't need a headlamp. Plus, this morning was very humid and that headband was dang hot. I will admit, I was posting a pretty quick pace for an old man with sore ankles. By my shotgun math, I was putting up about three miles an hour. In the spirit of full disclosure, the route this morning was fairly flat and the track was pretty smooth, so the going was pretty easy.
I kept the pace until about eight a.m., when I came out of the woods and happened on a tiny restaurant / bar kind of place. If it were not for Pilgrims, I don't know where the revenue stream would come from. Maybe the lady that was running it lived in the back, I don't know. I will give her credit. She made me probably the best cup of coffee I have had in Spain, or in my life for that matter. I had the coffee, and a huge croissant to replace the calories I had burned putting up the miles to that point.
Once back on the Camino, I found myself back on the "dairy road" for a bit. The Camino had forked again and I chose the "complimentary " (optional) route because it looked shorter on the map. I think it was a little shorter, because I managed to get ahead of the person I had followed out of Portomarin earlier.
As I was walking through one dairy farm, I began to hear someone speaking. I looked around as I walked along, but saw no one. Finally, I figured it out. The owner of the dairy farm had zip tied a portable radio to the fence and had turned it up so Pilgrims could hear the news as they passed. That was pretty cool.
After another mile or so I was walking through a small collection of buildings and I saw Mick. If you read last week's blog, you will remember Mick. He is from England. We don't hike together, but we always seem to see each other along the way. He also had gotten up really early because someone in the albergue where he was staying last night had woken him up before four and he just packed up and left. He was sitting outside today's albergue waiting for it to open. Mick had left so early he was at his new albergue and had nowhere else to go. We talked for a few minutes and then shook hands to wish each other well. It is very possible that we will never see each other again in our lifetimes because we both finish the Camino this week. It is also possible we could see each other tomorrow. You never know.
Mick's albergue was about four miles of easy walking from my hotel in Palas de Rei. I made it to the outskirts of town at about 10:30. As I was coming in, the city had an information booth for Pilgrims, and they had a stamp for my passport. As you may remember, I have to get at least two stamps per day from Sarria to Santiago. I am getting three just to make sure I am covered. As I was standing there giving my information to the lady, six bicycles come screaming by the little office where I was standing. Apparently they saw what the little building was and wanted a stamp as well. They skidded to an almost stop and came back. One had a Bluetooth speaker blaring as he pulled up. The lady behind the counter looked at me apologetically as I then turned and glared at the obnoxious fool that was trying to talk louder than his speaker. He was speaking Spanish and I was glaring. When he saw me and realized that no one was listening to him and he was still playing his speaker very loudly, he cut if off and acted like he had good sense from then on. I got my stamp and left them all talking to that poor woman at once.
My map said my hotel was 800 yards away. I was headed toward the destination on my phone when I realized I was ending up at a graveyard. I thought, "well it should be quiet, but I would like a roof and air conditioning for my money". I am not sure how the addresses work in Spain. Sometimes the map app works and sometimes it misses. Today it missed. I have found that it will also work if I put in the business name and the city. I did that and I was now about 300 feet from the correct spot. The Hotel Mica opens at twelve thirty. I am going to sit in front of the church and wait until then.
While sitting at the church, a man came up to the door with a husky dog on a lead and was looking around for a place to leave him while he went inside the church. The man basically told the dog to stay and left him standing at the steps to the front door. When the man went inside, the dog looked around and saw me. He looked at me like dogs do. I think dogs look at people and decide if they can trust them on the spot. When that husky looked at me, I said, "come here" and waved him over. He immediately came over to my bench and sat at my feet. When the man came out, his dog and I were sitting there waiting for him. The guy looked confused for a second when he saw a stranger with his pup, but when he realized I was just dog sitting, he called to the husky and off they went. As they walked away, he said "Thank you!" over his shoulder.
I ended my walk at 444.4 miles. I have 43.5 miles left.
TUESDAY 10 JUNE 2025
To get right to the point, it was terribly hot today. I left Palas de Rei at 05:15. By 05:30 everything I was wearing and carrying was soaked in sweat. I had my headlamp on and you could see the dust particles swirling in the light beam. It was just hot and dry. When the sun came up, I had about three of the eighteen miles for today behind me. I usually eat a little something as I leave and then get my second breakfast somewhere along the way at around 08:00. That was not to be today. Today's walk was pretty empty when it came to places to eat. There were several along the way, but none of them were open for whatever reason. It was not until I was about seven miles in before I was able to eat in Melide. I stopped at a place that had waffles. I decided that was for me. The server asked if I would like Nutella on it. What is this sorcery of which you speak sir? I had never considered that as an option in all of my 58 years. I said "sure, you fix me up!" I also ordered coffee and orange juice to wash it down. When it all came out, I ate the waffle and drank the coffee and the juice. Remember how I said it was very hot and I was sweating a lot? I decided I needed a Coke to help with the hydration as well. I drank it too and left. The waffle was good, but I still would not choose Nutella over maple syrup.
Back out on the Camino I was now about half way along and it was about 80 degrees at about 09:00. Thankfully the track was not too steep or technical. There was just a lot of it. These are the days when hiking is just not fun. It is a task that has to be done to get ready for tomorrow. That is all it is.
By eleven it was about 85. I had to stop at the top of a hill because I was overheating. If you are ever doing a strenuous activity and begin to overheat, stop immediately and drink all the water you can hold. If you have water with electrolytes, even better. I know when I begin to overheat because all at once I am pouring sweat from every pore on my body. That is my sign to stop whatever I am doing immediately. When I was a lot younger and new to hiking, I thought I could just keep going and sip a little water along the way. YOU CANNOT DO THAT. Trust what I am telling you. You can either stop, or your body will stop for you.
I made it to Arzua at about 12:30. I am staying in a hostel tonight and I could not get in for another hour, so I walked up the street to a restaurant, sat nearly under a ceiling fan, and ordered an agua con gas. This is Spanish for sparkling mineral water. I do not think there is a better liquid to drink when you are hot, thirsty, and tired than cold sparkling mineral water. Try it sometime. It hits the spot. Not that you care, but I usually order two mineral waters and a Coke when I have my big meal around two in the afternoon.
Stay hydrated kids!
I ended my day at mile 462. I have only 25.2 miles left until Santiago.
WEDNESDAY, 11 JUNE 2025
My day started very early this morning. When I say very early, I mean about 03:15. As you read in yesterday's entry, I stayed in an albergue last night. I don't have a problem with an albergue
Usually the worst thing that happens is someone will snore very loudly. When I checked in on Tuesday, the owner of the albergue asked me if I would be ok if there was a dog in the room. I said I did not care as long as it was quiet and the owner tended to it. I was assured there was no problem.
I had planned to get up at four so I could get my last big day of walking completed before it again got hot. That dog had other plans. I don't know if he needed to go to the bathroom or just wanted to play, but when he heard me begin to wake up, he came over and looked into my berth. The way this albergue was configured was different than any I have seen so far. Typically an albergue uses a standard set of bunkbeds and sets the room up like an Army barracks. This one, however, had eight beds, four on each side with the middle of the room open and the heads of the beds pushed against the outer walls. Between the two sets of bunk beds on each side of the room was a small set of steps so the people on the top bunks did not have to climb ladders. Finally, the four bottom bunks on each side had walls on each side of their berth for privacy and to make a stairwell for the steps to the top bunks. Think about a giant shoebox with one end torn out and that is what it looked like. When you came through the door, there was an open ended shoebox to the right and left, a set of steps on the right and left, and then another set of open ended shoeboxes past the steps. On the tops of the shoeboxes were the four top bunks. The shoeboxes were huge. They were about six feet wide, eight feet deep, and four feet tall. This left a foot of space all the way around the mattress so you could put your stuff in the box but not on the bed. I was in a bottom one and I liked it. There was power and even an overhead lamp.
Now that you have the layout in your mind, here is where the dog comes in.
I was on the left side bottom bunk on the left side next to the door. The girl who owned the dog was on also on the left side, but she was on the top bunk, diagonally above me. She had tied her dog to her bed on about a 20 foot lead. He was on the floor below her bed. Everything was good until about three thirty. When that dog heard me beginning to stir he ran down to my berth and jumped up into the space beside the mattress. When he saw me sitting up, he ran up and laid down on my pillow. Let me just say here, that dog needed a bath. I then stood up out of my berth, took hold of the lead and tugged it to get the dog to come out. He was not having it. He did stand back up in the space beside the mattress, but he was not coming out. Remember that while all of this is happening, there are seven other people sleeping in this room. I tugged again and that dog planted his feet. That was a good plan for him, except the materials they used to make the berths was coated in something that was very hard and slick. It was made to be easily cleaned between uses. When that dog planted his feet, I pulled that lead and slid him right back out the front. He had one of those harnesses that went around his body. There was no way for him to resist. When I got him out, the girl gave me a look like she was trying to say she was sorry! Child, if you are sorry, come get your dog!
I had already packed up my stuff the night before, so I just picked it up and took it downstairs. I put on my shoes and left at about 04:45 or 05:00. I did not look at my watch while I was wrangling dogs.
I am now sitting at my hotel for tonight. I got here at about ten. I am writing this as I wait for the doors to open in a little while. I ended my 13 mile walk today at 475.4. I have ten miles to the cathedral tomorrow where I will officially finish my Camino journey.
THURSDAY,12 JUNE 2025
All right everybody, today was the day! I woke up at 02:30, laid there until 03:10 and got up. I had already packed up most of my stuff Wednesday night, so there was not a lot to do. I ate a granola bar and some golden oreos and was out the door by 03:50 for the ten mile walk to Santiago Compostela. When I came through the front door of the hotel, IT WAS RAINING! This was the first that it had rained in about four weeks! To be fair, it was not a hard rain, but just a good shower "to settle the dust" as my mother used to say. The shower was short lived and then a pretty steady breeze and a bit of mist every now and again set me up for some cool walking. I was determined to get to the Camino office before they opened at 09:00 to get my Pilgrim passports certified and get my certificate of completion. I had read that the Camino office gets very busy this time of year and it is not unusual for Pilgrims to have to wait for the next day to get their certification because the number of Pilgrims is larger than the office can handle in a day.
With the trusty headlamp burning bright and my walking sticks clicking, I set off to the west at a pretty good pace. I ran out of streetlights about a half mile from my hotel. You know this intuitively, but I am going to tell you again. Spain is dark at 04:00 in the morning. Field roads had given way to one lane roads through the woods this morning pretty quickly. As I was walking along I noticed this light in the sky several miles away and wondered if I was seeing the lights from the Cathedral already.
I was making good time, but I still had one problem to fix before I could go to the Pilgrim office. I needed two stamps in my Pilgrim's passport with today's date. At this time in the morning, there were no mom and pop coffee shops open. I decided that when I got into Santiago proper, I would just work my way through town asking each restaurant, albergue, and hotel if they had a stamp until I secured two for the book.
It took me three hours and five minutes to walk the ten miles to Santiago. When I crossed the bridge that spanned the interstate to get into Santiago, it was 07:05. That was about 3.3 miles an hour over the whole trip. I think that was pretty for an old guy in the dark.
Back on the street, I saw a coffee shop that was open with people inside, right on the Camino route. I decided to go in and eat. When I finished, I would ask them for a stamp. The food was good, hot and quick. I ate my meal and as I was paying, I asked for a stamp. The lady replied they did not have a stamp.
Sister, you are in the Camino, in Santiago! Why would you not have a stamp? As I looked around, it occurred to me that I was the only hiker in there. Everyone else was on their way to work. The lady knew her clientele. I was was not part of that crowd today. At least I got myself fed, I thought as I went deeper into Santiago. There is a main road that goes directly through the middle of the city. This road is the Camino. Like many of the cities on the Camino, the cathedral is in the older part of town and you have to get through the new part of town first. This is where I was headed. After about a mile, I stopped at another restaurant that had the potential to have a stamp. There was an albergue beside it, so in I went. I ordered an agua con gas and asked if they had a stamp. They did! There was number two! I gulped my water, paid, and was out the door with a thank you to the server. As I was heading further west I realized that I was still using my walking sticks on the sidewalk. I briefly stopped, collapsed my sticks, and packed them away. I had completed the dirt portion of this hike. I will also admit, it was strange not to have anything in my hands while carrying a backpack. In a few minutes, I looked up and saw the towers of the Cathedral de Santiago! I did not run, but I also did not waste any time getting through the final few blocks. All at once, I found myself standing in the Cathedral Square. At that time of the morning, I was also pretty much alone there too. I am not ashamed to tell you that I stood there for a moment and cried. I had just walked 485 miles to get here. Thank you Lord!
After standing there for a couple of minutes, I went the last 500 yards to the Pilgrim office to get my Pilgrim passports certified and get my completion certificate. When I got there it was 08:40! I made it with 20 minutes to spare. I got in line and was number 16. When the office opened at nine, I was in and out in 30 minutes. I now have my passports certified and stamped and I have TWO certificates. One is in Latin and the other is in Spanish. Both attest to the fact that I successfully walked the Camino Frances, or The French Way. I am proud of them both.
FRIDAY 13 JUNE 2025
Today is the first day I have not hiked on the Camino since May 14 when I had the hurt ankle. I must say that the whole thing seems a bit strange. I woke up this morning at about 04:30 and was thinking about getting up when I realized I had literally nowhere to go except somewhere to eat and then later to change hotels. I only booked this place for one night because I originally planned to go back to Madrid. I am staying here until Sunday because it is much cheaper. My new place is about 13 minutes away walking. I have pared my pack weight down some. Every hotel or albergue I have been in this week has received a gently used gift of clothing or toiletries or something from my Pilgrim pack. I finally got my walking sticks to collapse yesterday. They have corrosion or something in one of the locks and they are problematic. Yesterday when I was standing in line at the Pilgrim office to get my certificates, I had a moment of panic when I realized I did not have my sticks in my hand. I looked around for them leaning against a wall until I remembered I had packed them in my backpack. Maybe the airport security people will let me carry them on in my pack. Otherwise I will have to leave them at the airport. You can carry hiking sticks on an airplane that originates in the US. I have read that Spain makes you check them in baggage. Since I only have the backpack, some lucky security person may get a final present from Pilgrim John.
It is almost noon and I am sitting in my new hotel. I am not in my room, I am sitting in the lobby waiting. Check in is around three p.m. I have put my pack in the luggage holding area and I think I will venture out to kill time and eat.
Well it is pouring rain. I did not leave. I have some food in my pack that will hold me until tomorrow. I am in my room watching YouTube videos. I will tell you that I cannot wait for Tuesday morning to get here! I am ready to come home!
