I woke up to a dark and foggy morning. Out in the country, at Pazo Santa Maria, everything is eerily quiet, and that’s a good thing, no rain! Yeah!
I had breakfast in the lovely restaurant, and it was a buffet so that meant I could fill my plastic bag with the ”leftovers” from my many plates, of course when the waiter wasn’t looking. It was going to be a relatively short day, only 20km or so. After breakfast, a taxi had been arranged to bring myself and another couple back to Arzua where we had left the Camino.
Since I had left where Peter and Charlotte were staying, that is where I was dropped off.
They were just finishing their breakfast, and we were on the road at 8:15am. Annie and Kathryn were a good 6km behind in the small village of Castaneda, so they would be about 1.5 hours away. We hoped to catch up tonight since we would all be in the same area of O Pedrouzo.
So off we went, out of Arzua, following other pilgrims ahead of us and many more behind. Outside of the city, we had a bit of a climb and I took a photos of the fog still lingering over the countryside.
Every waymarker we’ve come across for the last 5 days has indicated how many kms until Santiago de Compostele, 100, 99, 98,97…. Just outside of Arzua was a waymarker that read 40km! OMG it’s almost over!
Charlotte and I were talking today while walking about how scared, nervous and worried we were before starting the Camino. How worried we were that we weren’t prepared enough, or that we would not make it the whole way. And here we were, one day away from completing what has been an incredible journey.
Theresa from Windsor Canada arrived into Santiago yesterday. Jim from California would be arriving today as will Terry and Allan from Calgary. And Peter, Charlotte, Annie, Kathryn, Tim, Agneska and myself will be arriving tomorrow.
There are so many people on the Camino now, when we get to a café/bar, the queues for the café con leche or the facilities are ridiculously long. So what took us 15-20 minutes for our coffee break drags out into 30-35 minutes.
We stopped at a pathside café in A Calzada about 6km out of Arzua for a café con leche, when behind us appeared, what seemed out of nowhere, a herd of about 20 cows. Who said cows can’t be pilgrims too? I asked Peter to take a photo of me with the herd and just as I cozied up to Bessie, she lifted her tail and unleashed a river of ”chocolate jello pudding” mere inches from where I was about to stand. As Maxwell Smart would say: ”Missed me by THAT much!” That was one heifer who didn’t give a s**t! Literally!
We had a lovely day, nice and overcast, just a few sprinkles here and there but no steady rain. There was one last climb to Alto de Santa Irene towards the end of the day and a manageable descent to O Pedrouzo. We walked through a lot of beautiful eucalyptus forests as well. I just wished it had been a warm sunny day as the heat would have certainly brought out more of the lovely fragrance from these trees.
I arrived at my hotel, the Pension Residencia Platas, in O Pedrouzo around 2pm. Peter and Charlotte where just a kilometer or so up the road in O Pino. We had gone to their hotel before I continued on to mine, and Peter had escorted me about half way to see where we would meet the following morning. We planned on leaving before dawn again to try and get into Santiago before noon.
While I was settling in, I received an email from Peter saying that Annie and Kathryn were staying nearby and were meeting them for dinner. There was a discussion as to whether or not it was worth leaving before dawn, since there was a slim chance that we would make it before noon to attend the pilgrim mass in the Cathedral of Santiago. So we decided to leave at sunrise, once again after 8:00am or so. Annie and Kathryn would join us and we would all be together tomorrow for our walk into Santiago. Yeah!!
I set out for dinner, by myself, hoping to see a familiar face in the pizzeria next door. A nice slice of pizza sounded so good after eating weeks of pilgrim’s menu.
As I walked in, who was sitting by herself, but Farrah who I had met the night before in Pazo Santa Maria. Lone pilgrims get so excited when we meet familiar faces. Then, a couple of lovely girls from India, who Annie and I had met a couple of days before, walked in right after I did. So the four of us sat down to delicious pizza, beer and wine. And lots of laughter!
Farrah and I
And so ended the penultimate day on the Camino Frances.
Today’s numbers 21km, 31,800 steps in 4:46 walking time.
S-A-N-T-I-A-G-_
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