Santiago de Compostela

This morning we didn´t have to walk anywhere. no 30 km walk to set off in the dark. We had arrived. We woke up this morning in our (single) hotel room in the city of Santiago de Compostela. 774km, 480 miles, 37 days (with a few rest days) and some sore feet.

we managed to walk 36km yesterday just so we could finish. strange was that the first day we walked it rained then it has all been sunshine- so sunny that you cant´t really walk much after 12. then yesterday the heavens opened again. actually it meant we could do the longer day without suffering too much.

so we rolled into Santigo about 5ish and headed straight to the pilgrims office. this is the place where you show you´re credencials, which is the booklet that has to be stamped each day at the hostels to show that you actually have walked all the way across spain. then then ask the reasons why you have done it. hmmm. basically if you cant´t say that part of the reason was religious they will just give you a ´certificate´ written on the back of an old swimming width certificate or something. now if you can say it was religious (as we did ) you get the ´Compostela´ - a form written in latin (even your name) which apparently might do you a few favours at the pearly gates, if you know what i mean. adn some favours around Santiago i here.

so we have a few days to kill around santiago. got to see them saintly bones today and tomorrow we should be meeting some of the other guys we met on teh way to have our celebratory drink ( got kind of messy last time the wine came out in La Rioja so it should be a good night)

right where´s taht taxi to take us back to our hotel

the Compeed sponsored camino

so i won´t list every day. suffice to say we are still walking but we are making progress. we are over halfway now. in km (what they measure it in here) we have about 320km to go (out of 774km) i think thats about 280 miles.

we are a day out of leon (the spainish one not lyon in france). so we are taking a day off there. quite strange waking everyday knowing you have to walk nearly 30km.

so the lows. about 3 days ago we arrived at our hostel in some spainish town (they are kind of looking the same at the moment when i realised i didin´t have my howies jumper. now we have very few clothes on our trip so a jumper is a big deal especially my HOWIES jumper. i looked and searched. lisa even made lost notices with a little picture and my phone number but nothing. it was lost. i was sad

skip forward 2 days and about 50km. we stopped for lunch in a small town when a guy, another pilgrim called us over. hey amigos, did you lose a jumper? the man had picked it up on the path and recognised it as mine and remembered us because of lisa´s hat. amazing. i mean its something that he picked it up and carried for 2 days but to know whjo to give it to.

so the lows. well 28km per day is taking its toll on our feet. lisa ankles are sorting themselves out now but my feet have erupted in blisters. they are kind of like that bubble wrap. i´m sure if you twisted them they would crackle. i have a nice coating of compeed blister plasters ( that either don´t stick or stick too much sometimes on the smae blister)

thats it for now about 11 days left of walking we think. flat at the moment but the mountains are coming.....

a quick recap.....

so we are up to about day 8 of walking. we are in a very nice pilgrims hostel in a place called Los Arcos today. just to give you some idea of our trip it´s gone like this:

24 august: St jean pied de port (france)- Valcarlos (spain) 11km

25 august: Valcarlos -Roncesvalles 19km -over the pyrennees to the monestry where most spanish pilgrims start.

26th: Roncesvalles- Zubiri 21.5 km really hard day. very hot. walked too much in the midday sun. ( mad dogs and englishmen etc......)

27th Zubiri- Trinidad de Arre 18km a small rastifarian enclave of spain . yeah mon. an oasis of a hostal attched to a medieval church. oh it wasn´t really caribbean by the way.

28th Trinidad - Pamplona 4,5km woohoo time off. we did a short walk in today and found a very nice hotel for some privacy.

29th Pamplona yes still here. but it is nice just to chillax.

30th Pamplona- Puente la reina 22.5km really good day walking . got further than we thought.

31st Puente la reina - Estella 21.5 another good day but crap crowded hostel

1st september Estella - Los Arcos 21.5 phew time nearly out on internet but thats where we are you can add it up. 640 km odd to go though.

more flesh to this story later......