-
Rinse and repeat… in October
Just like foie gras, roller coaster rides, or crack cocaine, it seems the Camino de Santiago is incredibly moreish. And so it is that we’re getting very few hours of sleep tonight in order to catch a taxi at 3am, flying back to France early tomorrow, and then we rinse and repeat. Well… the first…
-
The kilt guys – wearing a kilt on the Camino
Before our walk, wearing a kilt was something I’d done only a handful of times at various events. Jeff, on the other hand, had been wearing various utility kilts for a few years or so – thus it made sense for him to hike in a kilt. However, his Home clan tartan worsted wool kilt…
-
We made it to Santiago de Compostela!
After 40 days of walking and 5 rest days, we’ve made it to Santiago de Compostela. We’ve each walked more than 1,000,000 steps and have covered more than 800km, and have had an absolutely awesome adventure. How did we celebrate this achievement? With beers, wines, and 2.1kg of very nicely cooked chuletón beef 😋.
-
Familiar Flora
As we near the end of our Camino, I’m starting to notice some familiar plants along the Way. The Cabbage Tree (which is endemic to New Zealand) is also known as a Torbay Palm tree in the UK. The growing heart of a cabbage tree is edible and tastes much like (wait for it)… cabbage…
-
From Castilla y León to Galicia, and the last 100km
Since my post from Foncebadón, we’ve done a lot of walking, and have finally crossed from the Castilla y León region into Galicia. You might think that neighbouring regions of Spain would be similar… but in terms of the trail, the difference was immediately obvious. Gone were the often graffitied metal way markers, replaced with…
-
Decaying Dwellings
Walking through many towns along the Way has revealed so many properties for sale – many of them in various stages of disrepair and collapse. I just love the stone walls and use of wooden beams in these old buildings. Sadly so many are destined to fall apart and return to a pile of rocks…
-
Galician flora
The past few days have seen very few new flora on the Way. Having entered Galicia we are seeing less fields of grain and instead more cows (and when you can’t see them you can certainly smell them). The Oakmoss has actually been present for ages but I only really noticed it a couple days…
-
Elías Valiña Sampedro
Today we officially walked across the border from Castilla y León into Galicia and arrived in O Cebreiro. For many pilgrims on the Camino this is a favoured starting point (and indeed it seemed there were many fresh faces wandering around this small town looking to escape the wet weather). I was particularly interested in…
-
Post-meseta flora
So many familiar flowers along the Way of late… but also loads of new ones – some completely unexpected. Some Nerium oleander – all three colours! Finally some more edible flora… We haven’t seen the grain fields we saw all along the meseta for a while now. Lots of sweet chestnut trees though! Note the…
-
The highest point on the Camino
Today, roughly 5.6km further than the Cruz de Ferro, and roughly 3.2km further than Manjarín, we traversed the highest point on the Camino de Santiago (on the official route, not off-piste up a farmer’s track or similar) – what3words address ///wrongly.portrayed.scatters. While many people choose to believe that the Cruz de Ferro is the highest…
-
The start of our second month
Today marks the start of our second calendar month: we started our journey from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France on May 12th and we’ve just arrived in Foncebadón, Spain today, June 12th. We’ve – thankfully, I’d say – passed through the mesetas, as the scenery was getting a bit samey and the lack of shade wasn’t the best…
-
Getting ready to gig
Last night we stayed at a wonderful donativo in Santa Catalina de Somoza called La Bohème. We enjoyed a tasty vegan pilgrims menu (yes, you read that correctly – we shunned meat for the evening) cooked by our host David. At some stage in the evening I offered to play for the guests. Fortunately (for…
-
Unexpected Turkey
I never expected to see a turkey whilst on the Camino… and this proud momma was working hard to stop me getting close to her baby. I didn’t press the issue!
-
Kings of León, the Moody Blues, and AC/DC
What do the above have in common? Jeff, as it turns out 😄. The Moody Blues On arrival at our accommodation in Villafranca Montes de Oca (day 14), we bumped into Kerri, a lovely Swiss lady we’d first met way back on the trek to Zubiri (day 2), and at a few other points along…
-
An ode, some woad, a Roman road
What’s the good of wearing braces? An interesting question, and one this post most definitely won’t answer 😜. Along much of the Roman road we recently walked – a subject covered by Jeff in his recent post – woad plants were present. I find the irony of this quite amusing – something stemming squarely from my…
-
The Calzada Romana Route
We chose to walk the Calzada Romana route from Calzadilla de los Hermanillos to Mansilla de las Mulas. A route not so often walked. John Brierley wrote about this stage… On the Calzada Romana we will encounter no asphalt roads, no sendas, no town, no farmyard, no house but also no water fonts and little…
-
Meseta Flora
The Meseta is over 200km. That’s a lot of plants to walk past and try to identify! I’ve included all the ones that I hadn’t already seen to date. My main criteria is that it has to either look nice, smell nice or be edible. Several are familiar in name – but it’s exciting to…
-
We’re going to Sahagún, we’re going to Sahagún…
Sahagún is generally considered to be the halfway point along the Camino, and that’s about right. Ultimately, it depends on whether you’re travelling past Santiago de Compostella and on to Fisterra / Finisterre or not (we hope to, but will see how our feet feel once in SdC). It’s also more definitely on the León…
-
The Meseta March
The meseta refers to the long stretch of plains between Burgos and Leon (about 180km in total – more than 8 days of walking). The weather can be changeable (although for us it has remained windy and stonkingly hot), the scenery is monotonous (fields of wheat, barley, lucerne and clods of earth) and the way…
-
Bibimbap on the Camino
As we left San Anton I was already thinking about dinner that evening (walking all day with a backpack tends to shift your priorities to more basic needs). We’d managed to reserve dorm beds in an Albergue in Castrojeriz that was run by a Korean – and the promise of Bibimbap for our evening pilgrim…
-
Deadly Flora
As we approached San Anton I noticed a unique plant that I’d not seen on our walk to date. Henbane causes loss of muscular control, dilation of the pupils, heart palpitation, hallucinations, delirium and in large doses, coma, and death. I marvelled at the beauty of its flowers – but didn’t investigate closer!
-
Adios Burgos
Since my last post on Day 14 from Villafranca Montes de Oca, we’ve covered a lot more ground (80.29km, in fact). We’re on day 19, and are now ensconced in the small town of Castrojeriz. We’ve firmly left the La Rioja region, and are in the largest autonomous community in Spain by area, Castilla y…
-
San Antón
Founded in 1146, this monastery (just outside of Castrojeriz) was handed to the Antonianos order (in the 15th century) who were devoted to tending to the pilgrims walking the Camino. As I was taking the picture of the rusting Jesus I heard someone say “it looks like they caught the guy who stole the roof…
-
Flora to die for
Not everything we see along the Way is edible – obviously! Some of the plants have such obvious names that you’d be a bit of a fool to even play with them! I met a wonderful young man today who informed me that “carrot” is “Karóto” in Greek! Thank you James!
-
Stinking Willy
It’s important to embrace your silliness from time to time… and so it is with our discovery of the Tansy Ragwort. The Tansey Ragwort is also commonly known as the Stinking Willy and Stinking Nanny. Not to be confused with the Hog weed!