The Countdown

I'm in a place called Grandas. It's less than 250 Km from Santiago.

250 Km is a week at good speed.

Ergo I'm less than a week away from Santiago.

Less than a week.





























































































This feels really strange. It really doesn't feel like the Way was coming to its end.

The landscapes right now are absolutely different as I had imagined. A lot of mountains without trees, they remind me of some parts of eastern France and the basque Pyrenees.

It's August, the Camino and specially the refuges are all full. It's race or die if you want to sleep on a bed (I always choose die), people stay up very early, walk very fast with little or no interruptions and take all available beds from the next refuges before 13h. Many people are really unpolite and stay up really early making as much noise as a drunk elephant would, and others arrive at midnight from the bar. I have chosen to do the "Camino primitivo", which is supposed to supply Santiago with less than 5% of the pelgrims (Check here, here you can see how many pelgrims have arrived today. Right now it says 771. I fear that numbers.) Still, you see, there is not the best pelgrim spirit around...

So, it doesn't really feel like this is coming to its end. But it does.

It does!!!!

In the last days/weeks I have been having an internal discussion with myself. Should I finish this or should I return home inmediatly? I have already found what I wanted to find, and the stories you hear here about the classic way, which I will have to join soon to arrive at Santiago, are really scary. It was my decission to come here by foot, and it could be my decision to leave now. I'm not walking for anyone else.

But... On the other hand... I'm so close now (: !!

So, I have had a lot of headaches in the last days because of that. My friend Sabine, that has walked with me these days, has had a loooot of patience, has heard all my complains, and knows now all and each of my arguments in favor and against ending the Way. Thank you, Sabine (:



However, it seems that it is Santiago who is walking towards me and not me towards it, since I'm still here and now that I now that it is only some FIVE days more I want to go more than ever! I'm nearly done!!

I'm going to enjoy arriving and then travelling with the bus SO much. SO much.


Now let me tell you some very nice things that have happened.
Yesterday when we arrived at our destination (we did an extremely hard day of 47 km) everything was full, even the floor of the church. No surprise, but when we talked to a local, she told us that she was living on a small village (take a look!!) and she could drive us with the car there. We accepted very happily, and we arrived at a place that was like a fairytale. We drove trought a dirt road, and walked even a while more throught the woods and next to giant stone walls. The village itself was nothing more than three stone houses, one of them half destroyed. But the sky was so dark and blue, the moon so white, and the small lights that you could see inside the house so inviting... It was really like being in a legend!

I feel like my inspiration is not at its full power today. So I'm continuing another day. I cannot upload more pics, since my camera is dead. And so will be my pants soon, I fear... At the end of this journey I will make a list with all the list that havn't survived the walk. You'll be surprised.