Galicia marks the final lap of our journey, only a mere 150 km separate us from Santiago now. Walking the high peaks of Galicia, surrounded by endless mists, my mind traces back every step and I wonder how far I have come and how much further could I go yet? The Camino opens your mind to a deeper understanding of the self and of everything that surrounds it. But if…

With Galicia waiting just round the corner and Santiago now closer than ever, the time to leave Matavenero had finally come. Living here for nearly a week is a moment in my life that I will always cherish. Along the Camino you learn to appreciate the value of the simple things in life, and here more than anywhere we lived these experiences. A part of us wished to remain behind…

18th June 2014   [caption id="attachment_165" align="alignleft" width="243"] Rua El Cid[/caption] As we stepped into the streets of Leon we felt a heavy weight lifted off our shoulders. Soon we would be leaving the region of Castilla and Leon behind us, moving on from these monotonous stretches of farmland and heading for the more exiting scenery of Galicia. Known as the Mesetas or Tierra de Campos, this plateau region 800m…

4th June 2014   The Camino is as much a physical challenge as it is a mental one. That evening we went to bed in Estella tired, aching and drained. We woke hardly feeling any better. Even more disheartening was the empty dormitory we woke to at 7,30. Everyone had already set off and we were still there complaining. With some effort we managed to get going driven only by…

1st June 2014 Most pilgrims usually set off early in the morning: we never managed to get going until at least 9. After our night out in Pamplona, at 11 we were still in the albergue. All night the bars and streets had been heaving with people eating pinxos and drinking wine and at only 2 euros each it is a quick and slippery slope. With our ever-improving Spanish we…

30th May 2014 “Then we crossed a wide plain, and there was a big river off on the right shining in the sun from between the line of trees, and a way off you could see the plateau of Pamplona rising out of the plain, and the walls of the city, and the great brown cathedral, and the broken skyline of the other churches. In the back of the plateau…

27th May 2014 Our Camino begins in the quaint village of St Jean Pied de Port, today the principal gateway to the pilgrimage. Sitting at the feet of the Pyrenees, “Foot of the pass” Pied de port, the walled town still has a medieval feel about it.   St Jean Pied de Port Excitement woke us earlier than even the alarm we had set. Keen to start our journey, we…