What if I wimp out?

Don't.









http://www.grantgholson.blogspot.com

give it a try & trust your feet

there are buses in most towns that would take you ahead or back , but consider walking on , the people you meet on the trail is the reward . that part of the trail has refugios ever few miles and its worth the effort-darrell

You can make it without the bus.

Hi Joannie.
My father (58 years young with a recent knee replacement) and I walked from O'Cebreiro in 2003 and it took about 7 days of walking. Since we had planned a 14 day trip this gave us a couple of days to get to our starting point and a couple of days in Santiago.
I thought this worked out well. We didn't have to stress out about making long distances each day and were able to enjoy the walk.
I think this is preferable to starting further away and then taking the bus for some stretches. For some reason it seems a more "authentic" pilgrim's experience to me.

Anyways here's what we did:
We flew overnight from Chicago to Madrid then rented a car in Madrid and drove to Ponferrada (where we could return the car). Not sure, but I think the drive took about 3 hours.
The next morning we took a taxi up to O'Cebreiro (about a half an hour ride) and started our walk from there. Of course since you have a little more time than we had you might want to just start walking from Ponferrada, or do what we did and walk a little shorter distance each day.
If you start in Ponferrada though, you'll have to walk up O' Cebreiro- which may not be the most fun way to start your trip.
Here was our tentative itinerary before we started: (I can't remember if we actually stayed in Santa Irene or not- but it was somewhere around there.)

O'Cebriero
21 km to:
Triacastela
18.5 km to:
Sarria
23 km to:
Portomarin
27 km to:
Palas de Rey
26.5 km to:
Ribadiso
19 km to:
Santa Irene
23 km to
5/23- Santiago.

Hope this helps.
Buen Camino.

-Drew