alansykes
Veteran Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Except the Francés
It seems a long time ago that I was eating a tangerine across the straits from the Rif mountains. Possibly because it was quite a long time.
Amazingly, I didn't need to get my waterproof coat out of the rucksack for the whole trip. The worst drought in decades may not be good for the land or the reservoirs, but it is very pleasant for walking in. And it has now been raining almost continuously in Santiago since within a few hours of picking up my seventh compostela.
And what a great camino it has been, up there with the best (although that can be said of all of them - presumably at some point I will have a really rubbish one?). Especially good to walk in Portugal for the first time, and through some spectacular countryside. But the serranía round Ronda was fantastic as well, and even the flat first days of the Torres were enjoyable. And no blisters, for only the second time.
Not a huge number of arrivals celebrated at the pilgrim mass - mostly 67 young Méridan salesians who walked from Sarria, otherwise "from Holland, pilgrims from Holland; from Poland, pilgrims from Poland; desde SJPdP, peregrinos de Castellón; desde Sevilla, pilgrims from Korea; desde Almería, peregrinos de Alicante; desde Tui, peregrinos de Valencia; desde Tarífa, pilgrims from England." I think it's that mention at the start of mass in the cathedral that makes me continue to pick up my compostela each year.
Where to next? The original plan for 2018 had been to cross the Pyrenees for the first time at Somport, and later finish off the bits of the Lana I've not yet done between Santo Domingo de Silos and Alpera. But it's difficult to work out how to join the stages. And Portugal's call is getting louder. Vicentina it may be.
Amazingly, I didn't need to get my waterproof coat out of the rucksack for the whole trip. The worst drought in decades may not be good for the land or the reservoirs, but it is very pleasant for walking in. And it has now been raining almost continuously in Santiago since within a few hours of picking up my seventh compostela.
And what a great camino it has been, up there with the best (although that can be said of all of them - presumably at some point I will have a really rubbish one?). Especially good to walk in Portugal for the first time, and through some spectacular countryside. But the serranía round Ronda was fantastic as well, and even the flat first days of the Torres were enjoyable. And no blisters, for only the second time.
Not a huge number of arrivals celebrated at the pilgrim mass - mostly 67 young Méridan salesians who walked from Sarria, otherwise "from Holland, pilgrims from Holland; from Poland, pilgrims from Poland; desde SJPdP, peregrinos de Castellón; desde Sevilla, pilgrims from Korea; desde Almería, peregrinos de Alicante; desde Tui, peregrinos de Valencia; desde Tarífa, pilgrims from England." I think it's that mention at the start of mass in the cathedral that makes me continue to pick up my compostela each year.
Where to next? The original plan for 2018 had been to cross the Pyrenees for the first time at Somport, and later finish off the bits of the Lana I've not yet done between Santo Domingo de Silos and Alpera. But it's difficult to work out how to join the stages. And Portugal's call is getting louder. Vicentina it may be.
