Hello all! So I arrived in Santiago today (later in the day, per usual for me) and I’m very relieved to be finished! I’ll walk the final km from my accommodation to the Cathedral first thing tomorrow morning. It has been a challenging journey for me, almost every day…of course much to be enjoyed along the way as well, but it was more physically and mentally challenging than I expected.
I started in San Sebastian originally thinking I’d walk from Irun to Oviedo to Santiago with my 40 total days in Spain (35-38 on the way). But I decided to linger in San Sebastian with jet lag for an extra day and started walking from there…and then got tendinitis in my foot on my very first day of walking. I realize now I hadn't trained nearly enough and also my pack was way too heavy. After 2 rest days, I continued on quite slowly thinking any day could be my last for one reason (injury) or another. I was content to just see how far I could walk and whether I could get into a rhythm. For the rest of my time on the Norte, I was pretty liberal with public transport to keep my days short and eventually so I could make it to Santander by the end of April to catch a bus to Oviedo as I decided to prioritize the Primitivo. I also shed weight in my pack by sending not one, but two packages to Santiago! (The second was when I decided to shed my 3.5lb sleeping bag and rely on my silk liner + albergue blankets…only got me into trouble once at a Galician municipal with no blankets on a cold night!)
I took the bus to Oviedo April 30 and started walking the Primitivo May 1 determined to walk the entire way with no buses or taxis. I had several moments of being actually grateful for the continual opportunities to “adapt and overcome” in order to keep going. I continued to take it slow and include rest days but after Hospitales, I was feeling pretty good and confident and did a few full stages in a row. But by the time I got to Lugo, it was getting mentally tough again. I had already decided to take the Verde route from Lugo to Friol to Sobrado because I wanted to stay at the monastery there and I also wanted to avoid the hustle and bustle of Melide and Arzua.
Those 2 days on the Verde after Lugo I was at a low point, very sapped of energy. Unfortunately those are both 25km+ days with literally nothing in between for rest or as an alternative stopping point. So the first day I caught a bus in the middle and took it for just 6km justifying to myself that the Verde route makes it 108km from Lugo to Santiago so it’s not so bad…but then the day from Friol to Sobrado I was wiped. I either physically could not walk those 26km or I just really, really, really didn't want to. I walked 10 and took a taxi the rest of the way to the Monastery. I really enjoyed my time in Sobrado fwiw. Then I slogged on, willing myself to walk the next 3 days to Santiago. Turned out that meeting up with the “crowd” was actually a good energy boost the last day and a half.
I don’t mean to bog it down with a winding story… but that was my journey. And the question is: to Compostela or not to Compostela? (For the Primitivo)
I know I have broken more than one “rule” as it pertains to the (“most important”) last 100km…I didn't follow an officially recognized route and I didn’t walk the whole way from Lugo.
My considerations are:
*I was never particularly motivated by the Compostela (or even Santiago necessarily…for me, the journey is the destination)
*I did walk more than 100km in a pilgrimage to Santiago and it could be neat to have a commemoration of it
*Would it be helpful to the pilgrims office to know officially about a pilgrim who started in Oviedo? How important is it for them to know how many people are walking if not everyone on the path gets a Compostela? Do they have a formula that figures in the people who walk but don’t get the paper?
All that said: What would you do?
I started in San Sebastian originally thinking I’d walk from Irun to Oviedo to Santiago with my 40 total days in Spain (35-38 on the way). But I decided to linger in San Sebastian with jet lag for an extra day and started walking from there…and then got tendinitis in my foot on my very first day of walking. I realize now I hadn't trained nearly enough and also my pack was way too heavy. After 2 rest days, I continued on quite slowly thinking any day could be my last for one reason (injury) or another. I was content to just see how far I could walk and whether I could get into a rhythm. For the rest of my time on the Norte, I was pretty liberal with public transport to keep my days short and eventually so I could make it to Santander by the end of April to catch a bus to Oviedo as I decided to prioritize the Primitivo. I also shed weight in my pack by sending not one, but two packages to Santiago! (The second was when I decided to shed my 3.5lb sleeping bag and rely on my silk liner + albergue blankets…only got me into trouble once at a Galician municipal with no blankets on a cold night!)
I took the bus to Oviedo April 30 and started walking the Primitivo May 1 determined to walk the entire way with no buses or taxis. I had several moments of being actually grateful for the continual opportunities to “adapt and overcome” in order to keep going. I continued to take it slow and include rest days but after Hospitales, I was feeling pretty good and confident and did a few full stages in a row. But by the time I got to Lugo, it was getting mentally tough again. I had already decided to take the Verde route from Lugo to Friol to Sobrado because I wanted to stay at the monastery there and I also wanted to avoid the hustle and bustle of Melide and Arzua.
Those 2 days on the Verde after Lugo I was at a low point, very sapped of energy. Unfortunately those are both 25km+ days with literally nothing in between for rest or as an alternative stopping point. So the first day I caught a bus in the middle and took it for just 6km justifying to myself that the Verde route makes it 108km from Lugo to Santiago so it’s not so bad…but then the day from Friol to Sobrado I was wiped. I either physically could not walk those 26km or I just really, really, really didn't want to. I walked 10 and took a taxi the rest of the way to the Monastery. I really enjoyed my time in Sobrado fwiw. Then I slogged on, willing myself to walk the next 3 days to Santiago. Turned out that meeting up with the “crowd” was actually a good energy boost the last day and a half.
I don’t mean to bog it down with a winding story… but that was my journey. And the question is: to Compostela or not to Compostela? (For the Primitivo)
I know I have broken more than one “rule” as it pertains to the (“most important”) last 100km…I didn't follow an officially recognized route and I didn’t walk the whole way from Lugo.
My considerations are:
*I was never particularly motivated by the Compostela (or even Santiago necessarily…for me, the journey is the destination)
*I did walk more than 100km in a pilgrimage to Santiago and it could be neat to have a commemoration of it
*Would it be helpful to the pilgrims office to know officially about a pilgrim who started in Oviedo? How important is it for them to know how many people are walking if not everyone on the path gets a Compostela? Do they have a formula that figures in the people who walk but don’t get the paper?
All that said: What would you do?