Day 26 - Ponferrada - Villafranca del Bierzo

We didn't walk on Christmas day.  This had more to do with pain & laziness than religious reasons!

Here is a photo Gordon took from his balcony (we didn't have one) back the way we came.

Day 24 - Foncebadon - Ponferrada

Wow!

This was an amazing day.  The weather was incredibly unkind.  Howling gale and heavy rain that never relented.

Day 23 - Astorga - Foncebadon

Today should have been a shorter day but we had resolved to walk the extra 5-6km to Foncebadon rather than stop at Rabanal.

Dangers of bed bugs

Gordon just told us of a NZ couple who have been camping the whole way decided to stay in an Albergue one particularly nasty night. 

Picked up bed bugs and one of them reacted so badly that they have had to cancel their camino.

Sarria

No wifi again. 

We are now in Sarria which is where the majority of pilgrims start. 

We have now walked 500km. Just five walking days to go until Santiago & then another five to finish the walk to Finisterre & Muxia. 

Day 22 - San Martin del Camino - Astorga

Another uneventful day, things seem to have settled down a bit and we are taking most days pretty easy now…

Skipping O Cebreiro

We are going to skip another two stages. We got this email from Richard who is a day ahead of us. 

"I nearly died today. The camino to O Cebreiro was blocked with metre high snow dunes and I had to climb over them. I thought that I would never make it. Oh, and my headlight went dead and it was pitch black outside. Someone was watching over me this evening."

Orujo

If you have seen The Way film, there is a scene where Joorst appears with a bottle of Orujo. 

We tracked some down last night and had a night cap. 

There were two types:

The one on the left was slightly aniseed flavour & thick as if there was honey in it. Not bad but not fantastic either 30% alcohol. The bottle on the right could have been used as industrial paint stripper, 50% alcohol and my vision went funny after drinking it!

Day 21 Stats

Day 21 - León - San Martin del Camino

We left León before sunrise & headed out through the city…

So which way do we go?  This picture is just in front of the Parador, the luxury hotel they stayed at in the film.  I wanted to stay there but couldn't justify the $151 per night compared to the $90 at the other hotel

Day 20 - León

Having recovered from the tummy upset yesterday.  Today we explored León and have a few photos!

Day 18 Stats

You will note, of course, that RunKeeper paused itself again!

Day 18 - Moratinos - El Burgo Ranero

Nothing to report really and no photos!  Slight drizzle served to dampen our enthusiasm for getting the camera out.

First sign of tomorrow's tummy troubles started to show up today.

No WiFi

Last few days have had dodgy internet. Today is no exception!

Lots of stuff when we get to Ponferrada tomorrow. 

Lost or Stolen Wallet (now found)

Most likely lost but still a nuisance.

Struck by the dreaded lurgi!

Raised the white flag again. Skipped forward to stages to León. This time not feet but tummy. 
Gastro from a few days ago followed by five days of cephalexin means I can't go too far beyond a toilet. 
I've taken some loperamide & got some probiotic powder. 
Hopefully the cramping will stop soon!
Given that 200,000+ people walk this every year I reckon some toilets along route would be useful, even drop dunnies would be fantastic. 
Will resume walking tomorrow or next day depending on how I go.

Later that day:

Absolutely terrible day, glad I decided not to walk. 
Arrived at hotel in León and spent rest of the day either on toilet or asleep in bed.
Fortunately I have not throw up but I've felt like it a few times.
Running a fever too, so I've got that going for me, which is nice!
See how I'm feeling tomorrow but if I start throwing up or fever continues I will see a doctor. In any case, no walking tomorrow either.

Day 17 - A couple more pics

Just a couple more pics I missed before.

Day 17 Stats

As you can see from the map, we wuz robbed!.  I think we walked about 30 km.

Day 17 - Carrión De Los Condes - Moratinos

Today was supposed to be 26.8 km but the Albergue was closed so we needed to walk another 3.something km to the next town…

Day 16 Stats

Day 15 Stats

Day 14 Stats

Day 13 Stats

Day 15 - Photos

Here are the photos I couldn't post for day 15.

Day 16 - Población - Carrión De Los Condes

Another blissfully short day.  Today the guidebook advised us not to walk the recommended path but take an alternative route…
Of course, we ignored that!

Day 15 - Itero de la Vega - Población

A fairly short day in heavy fog. Much more comfortable with pressure off that nasty blister.

Day 14 - Hontanas - Itero de la Vega

A very bad day for me :(
Blisters have gone berserk, sore back (lumbar-sacral area) & a bout of gastro.  Andrew travelling well.

Some pictures at the start of the day of an ancient ruin: Convento de St Anton 14th Century.

I'm too miserable to do a long post...

Blisters

Don't look at this post if you have a week stomach!  I'm serious, you have been warned.

Day 13 - Burgos - Hontanos

A very long day…  35km :(

Taking a couple of days off

Andrew's Achilles has developed tendinitis so we bussed into Burgos, where we are staying until Friday the 13th to start walking again.

Hopefully we will be more lucky this time!

Stats - Day 10

RunKeeper stuffed up again so I think we actually walked two more km than it says :(

Day 10 - Nareja - Santo Domingo de la Calzada

As usual we started off at a cracking pace but slowed down as injury (Andrew) or hills (Wayne) became apparent.

A very helpful sign.  First time we have seen these but they were there all day.

Mini Report

Full report with lots of pics later.

Had a great night at the last Albergue. Very friendly volunteer hospitallero worked there. He comes from A Coruña and stays at the Albergue for a couple of weeks before heading home on the train. 

We've lost all of our original party now. I think there must be two behind us still but the other ones are probably a day ahead of us. Our Brazilian friends Emerson & Jocelin cheated they caught a taxi!

Speaking of cheating, we were offered a lift to Santo Domingo (7km) today. I said no but was cursing myself for the next hour. 

Stats - Day 09

Day 09 - Navarette - Nareja

Quite a short day.  The Albergues ahead of us were closed so we had to stop just after noon.

Stats - Day 08

Day 08 - Viana - Navaratte

What we thought was going to be a fairly short day was longer and harder than expected.  Andrew was suffering in particular from pain in his left Achille's tendon.

Stats - Day 07

16.5%

Day 07 - Los Arcos - Viana

According to one guide today could end in Viana but another guide suggested 10 km later in Logroño.  I'm not certain why we chose the shorter option?

Some Random Photos

These are a couple of random photos from Andrew's iPhone.

Day 06 Stats

D06 Estella - Los Arcos

Sorry about the delay in posting!  We walked to Los Arcos last nigh and although we had the Albergue to ourselves the internet was dodgy!

Fundraising

If you missed the early posts, you may not realise that we are also fundraising for the One Hundred for 100 campaign.

Stats - Day 05

Not certain why the tracking stopped in Lorca?  Anyway we noticed before we had moved off too far…

D05 Puente La Reina - Estella

Reasonable length walk but starting to feel the strain.  On the other hand, we have already walked 125 km!!!!!!

Stats - Day 04

D04 Cizur Menor - Puente La Reina

Less km's today!  More blisters & soreness though!

Stats - Day 03

For those that interested in here are our stats!

D03 Zubiri - Cizur Menor

Leaving the Albergue from last night we immediately headed the wrong direction.  We knew we had a long day ahead of us.  Unbeknownst to us but beknownst to God it would be our toughest day so far…

D02 - Roncesvalles - Zubiri

Today we walked to Zubiri (although Andrew and I have been calling it Zoombini), we could have gone onto Larrasoaña but our Brazilian friends advised us to stop at Zubiri as the town had shops, bars, restaurants etc and Larrasoaña did not.

Day One End

A very long day!

We woke up first but with the usual Stewart organisational ability were one of the last to leave. 

Stats - Day 02

These are the run keeper stats for day two:

The descents are easier aerobically but they are very painful and cause a lot of muscle strain.

Day One Start

It's 5:12 on the first day of the Camino. There are quite a few pilgrims here, some arrived last night after I had gone to bed. The room we are sleeping in has 12 bunk beds and I think they are all full. Lots of snoring & farting plus an overly heated & sealed room. Thank goodness for the YHA silk sleeping bag liners, I would be a molten blob if I'd been in my sleeping bag all night. I used it as a doona for maybe a third of the night and kicked it off me when too hot. This has all made for a poor night's sleep. I suspect this will be less of a problem tonight when I'm exhausted!

Stats - Day 01

Here are the run keeper stats for day one.

The climb is in metres and the pace is minutes per km.

Oradour-sur-Glane

On the day before we arrived at St Jean we visited the town of Oradour-sur-Glane. This was the site of a notorious massacre during WWII.

One week to departure

Snow on Saturday! 

One week until we leave, our first day walking 1st December. 

On the first day we have two choices depending on conditions. They block the Route de Napoleon in bad weather.  

New Boots!

One thing that was stressed in a lot of the articles is break your boots in prior to leaving!

Camino Map

This is the route we will be travelling.  I'm also testing the email to post feature of blogger.

Getting Organised

Well we've spent a busy last few days. Setting up websites, PayPal accounts etc

What's It All About

The easy answer is of course 42!
The more complex answer takes some explanation.
A couple of years ago I watched The Way which is a great movie starring Martin Sheen.  I said to Sally at the time "I should do that!"  She came up with the idea of me doing it with my son Andrew.