Words and Walking

It has been a week since I last posted. I did write a whole post a couple of days ago but once again my phone managed to delete it before I could publish. In the past week we have walked 140 kilometers and faced various challenges, but we're still walking and are now approaching Santiago. To date we have walked 240km. Last week we completed a series of full stages, including the one known as the "leg wrecker" and another couple of 24 km walks with steep inclines and descents on slippery, stony paths. I will try and summarise some of our adventures over the past six days. We had three very long days from La Mesa traveling through the Asturian mountains until we crossed into Galicia and came down to O Cadavo. On the first of these days, the one known as the "leg-wrecker" which goes from La Mesa to Grandas de  Salime began in a downpour. The children did not even hesitate or question the wisdom of setting out in the pouring rain down a steep stony slippery slope. I...

Yesterday we had to choose between two routes: the main one through the valleys or the Hospitales route which follows the ancient Roman road over the mountain pass with no services, villages or water source for 24km. Anyone who knows my husband, knows we were always going to choose the path which goes up the mountains! In the past few days, many pilgrims have been some what incredulous at our children doing the Primitivo at all, and many expressed doubts about the choice to go over the mountains with them. But we know our children love mountains and nature and so took them anyway. The route was astonishingly beautiful but also quite hard. It has a timeless atmospheric feel as you follow the Roman road over the mountains and see the ruins of the old pilgrim hospitals that date back to the middle ages. The children loved it and declared it the best day yet. They found a horse skull, played hide and seek in wind wit...

Yesterday we left the joy and warmth of the albergue at Bodenaya and set off on our way to Tineo. The day was expected to be an easy day of 12 km, but for some reason we all struggled to get into our stride. The landscape was beautiful, but it was very hot and felt longer than it should have done, which made us feel rather apprehensive about the longer and more difficult walks that lie ahead of us in the next few days. We arrived in Tineo and found ourselves in the albergue which Christopher described as being "like a nuclear bunker". It was actually clean and comfortable, but felt very sterile and lacked the character and warmth of the previous places where we've stayed. We headed out to find something to eat and found ourselves eating greasy burgers in an alleyway, permeated with the smell of used chip fat. Nicky has developed  an infected bite on his arm, and Sophie had nightmares that the horse flies (which are plentiful on the Camino) were eating her...so...