All posts tagged: Camino Frances

Day 2 – Puente la Reina to Estella

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I leave Puente la Reina for this hike of 22 km, under lightning and thunder. The rain continues to pour down for most of the day, causing the roads and paths to quickly turn into rivers and small lakes. At first I walk on the edges as much as I can to avoid the water. I need to keep my feet as dry as possible, to avoid getting blisters. But as the day progresses and the rain continues, I give up. Nevertheless, I appreciate today’s stage. The landscape is beautiful and the forces of the weather do not make it any less so. Approaching the medieval hilltop village of Cirauqui. I didn’t run into many pilgrims today except Leonardo from Italy, who I bumped into now and then, whose cheerful yellow rucksack cover was the only reminder of the absent sun. Waterfalls in the steep alleyways of Cirauqui! Today’s outfit. The sun hat I bought also turned out to be a perfect rain hat, as it held the hood of the rain poncho in place …

Day 1 – Pamplona to Puente la Reina

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I’m exited to start my camino. This first leg is between Pamplona and Puente la Reina, a distance of 24 km, and I leave the hostel at 6:30. It turns out to be a beautiful day with sunshine, and I’m enjoying myself. Before I even leave Pamplona, ​​I meet Ricardo from Mexico. I notice him because he is walking very slowly. We team up and eventually find our way out of town. He is also starting from Pamplona and will go all the way to Santiago de Compostela. We share stories and have a good time before I tell him to feel free to move on, as I suspect he really is a fast walker, because he’s just described a religious ceremony in Mexico in honour of St. John involving two days of straight walking 90 km on asphalt, which he has done not once but twice. In the distance we spot the mountain we’ll have to cross to get to Puente la Reina. On the way at last and feeling very happy! On the …

Pamplona to Burgos – My Camino Frances 2024

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This year I wanted to experience another section of the Camino Frances, and inspired by last year’s cathedral-to-cathedral theme, I chose Pamplona as the starting point and Burgos as the end point. I arrived from Bilbao completely exhausted, because I spent the night in a hostel there to get a fresh start the next day, or at least that was the idea. It turned out to be a bad decision. Hostels in big cities with no connection to the camino, where everyone is a pilgrim with the same frame of reference, this hostel was full of young people who were partying right through the night and I didn’t sleep a wink. The Camino spirit begins already at the bus station in Bilbao when I met Hanna, a very nice woman from Sweden, who is also on her way to Pamplona and the hours on the bus fly by as we have so much to talk about. She starts her camino right from the moment we get off the bus, while I make my way to …

Day 12 Santiago de Compostela

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My ‘John the Scot’ would have been proud of me. I’m up by 4 AM and rearing to go at 5 AM sharp. When I descend the stairs, I find that the lovely Spanish family are all packed and ready too! We head out and it’s pitch-black outside. Never has a purchase felt so good as my new headlamp does now. Outside it’s eerily devoid of other people, even as we pass O Pedrouzo, and we walk for quite some time before daylight breaks and we begin to see anything at all. The darkness doesn’t bother me, but the teenagers Paula and Maria keep close, especially when a dog jumps up and start barking at us, seemingly coming from nowhere. Luckily there is a sturdy fence between us. We walk all the way past the airport before we come to the first café that’s open, Porta de Santiago. I am grateful to have a much-needed breakfast here, having walked non stop for 13 km, which is halfway to Santiago de Compostela. Here I meet some …

Day 11 Camino to Santiago de Compostela – O Castro

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In the morning I make the decision to take a day of rest. It’s not so much my bad knee that has swollen up and still hurts that is crucial. After many intense days of walking in wonderful company, surrounded by the extraordinary spirit of community that the Camino so generously provides, I feel the need to pause and wait for my soul to catch up and reconnect with my own Camino, because in tomorrow is the day I arrive in Santiago de Compostela, and it is an important day for me. I’m pleased to have come to this conclusion and head across the road to see if there is any breakfast to be had. Here I find Tine, who is trying to find plane tickets home, and after a while Suzanne arrives, who also has problems with her feet and is now taking shorter day stages. Eventually I gather my belongings and head to O Castro. It turns out to be an excellent decision. My new ‘home’ is a very nice little room in …

Day 10 Camino to Santiago de Compostela – from Palaís de Rey to Ribadiso

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When I left the house this morning at 6.30 AM, I notice that my left knee is hurting, making me almost limp. Oh no, am I not going to be able to walk today!? This is going to be another long walking day, as it’s 26 km to Ribadiso. Just as I’m leaving town, Melek joins me and I’m pleased to see him, because today I’ve brought with me Frankincense, the essential oil that helps with aches and pains, and he told me his neck is hurting.  We walk till we see a tiny café on the outskirts of the town, and enter. The place looks brand new and is very sweet, with lots and lots of lovely cakes, but it isn’t something you would want the first thing in the morning, so I just have a coffee. Anyway, it serves our purpose, and we sneak behind a corner. The essential oil is not supposed to go directly on the skin, so I’ve also brought a cream based on other essential oils, and we blend …

Day 9 Camino to Santiago de Compostela – from Portomarín to Palaís de Rey

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I never tire of these beautiful sunrises, the reward of early evenings and extremely early mornings. Today it’s uphill, uphill, and even more uphill for at least 15 km, right from Portomarín. However, it’s perfect walking weather, mostly overcast and occasionally drizzly. Even though it’s tough going, I’m enjoying myself. A new-born calf, and is that the mama cow anxiously watching it from inside the barn? If so, why separate them? A couple of times I pass the same couple, and on a particularly steep section of the Sierra Ligonde Mountain, I stop and rest on the same bench they are sitting on. We chat for a while in English, and then I ask them where they are from. Sweden, they answer, and we burst into laughter when I reply that so am I! After this I continue to walk with Bjarne and Grethel for a while. Then they point out another Swede, Melek, and we all join forces till we reach a restaurant where we stop to have lunch. We joke and say that …

Day 8 Camino to Santiago de Compostela – from Sarria to Portomarín

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I leave Sarriá behind me not long after 6 AM when it’s still dark. The first thing I meet is an express train rushing past me just by the trail! If I wasn’t fully awake before, I am now. The sunrise is particularly beautiful today, and I’m enjoying my walk. The first 10 km feels easy enough, and I rest for the first time at a café after two hours, where I have my breakfast, a coffee and a French omelette. I ponder again the difference walking the Camino from the last time, and the community spirit I’m missing when Wilfried catches up, and we continue to walk together. At A Pena we come cross the 100 km milestone! It has a huge significance, especially to those pilgrims who have hiked about 688 km up till now all the way from St. Jean Pied de Port. But, wait a minute! This isn’t how I remember this milestone from the last time! Yes, they have made changes since then, such as making new milestones and moving …

Day 7 Camino to Santiago de Compostela – from Tricastela to Sarria

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Today’s hike goes through the glorious Gallic landscape, that I love. There are two routes to choose from, the one via Samos and the other San Xil. I choose the San Xil route, because it’s the one I hiked last in 2012, and would like to re-experience it.  It is just as beautiful as I remembered if not more, as the sunshine makes the scenery even more attractive. Higher up on the mountain it is pleasantly cool, and a large part of the trail is shaded by trees. I absolutely love walking these appealing sheltered trails. In 2012, people made their way mainly by following the hand-painted yellow arrows and milestones. Today, the routes are clearly marked, so it’s quite impossible to get lost. I see many more pilgrims now, but no more than I can walk alone for many stretches. From time to time, I keep company with a Spanish mother and her daughter, and several times I bump into a German pilgrim, Wilfried, and we chat. Me in 2012 and 2023 in the …

Day 6 Camino to Santiago de Compostela – from O Cebreiro to Tricastela

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Late start today after unfortunately only getting 4,5 hours of sleep. There are some significant changes on the Camino since my last time here. One of them is that they have created alternative routes. At O Cebreiro the forest track I took 2012 is now a complimentary route, and the new one I take today is the official route. It’s a delightful soft forest path running parallel to the road, but you never actually see it through the dense forest, and sometimes it runs on a different level from the road too. It’s foggy and everything gets damp, including me, but it’s a pleasurable hike. The first café I get too is dark and crowded. I grab a quick coffee at the counter and want to exit, but there’s a bunch of Americans getting ready to leave too, and one of the girls has left a backpack right in front of the door. I wait for her to move it so I can pass, and she replies rather impertinent that I can just jump over …