So my Camino luck is finally out the rain started last night and did not finish. Had a nice meal with Alex an Irish guy and Xavier in a nearby cafe. The waiter was a grumpy no fucks given kinda guy and his way of working was humors. Slamming down the food and every time you asked him for something he shot you a look like you were sleeping with his mum.
We got back to the albergue and a symphony of snoring was already in full swing and didn’t stop all night. Waking up to rain the bag was changed to batten down the hatches mode and rain cover applied. It was a cool 14 degrees and pishing down so did feel very much like home. Today’s walk according to the map was 21.5 km and was through sleepy villages and Forrest paths. My phone was deep in my waterproof bags so very little pictures and I saw about an inch of my rain hood and some greavel and very little else for the most part. Even today with a relative short distance the last 10k was a bitch but at 12 ish we finished in Caldas de Rais. We rocked into the albergue only to be asked would you like a bunk bed for 8 euro or private rooms upstairs for 10 so easy answer we are on the second floor in a private room and bring the nice chap I am I let Xavier have the double bed and I’m in the kiddy single bed. But should be a quiet night. We have around 43/44 km to go to Santiago so should be another short day tomorrow and then a 25k finish on Saturday just in time to chill before Lauren flys in at 10.
Not a lot else to report today so I thought I would cover a topic of the last 100km on the Portuguese way and how has the Camino changed. Just to remind you the last 100k is the minimum required to get a compostella certificate and the French way as I have competed before the Camino changes a lot and is frankly a horrible experience with groups getting their bags shipped only staying in hotels, leaving no trash or mass reserving accommodation. Well the habit of reserving accommodation is still strong many times we have arrived in towns to be told the albergue is full due to reservations. I hate this system and think they should stop it and it should be first come first served. There are defiantly still some Disney grinos on the Portuguese way but I would say it’s defiantly not as bad and although it has made it more competitive to get beds we have been ok so far. However I will do a comparison in this once I have finished the ingles route on the best place to go if you only have time for the last 100k in my opinion at least. Is the Portuguese Camino easier or harder than the Frences? Well I would say there is not as much infrastructure so you really have to stick to main stages in the guide books and it would be harder to just walk and stop when you are tired. So it requires a bit more planning on the Portuguese way but terrain wise I would say it is easier however you will have to go further in your stages so be prepared to have to do some 33k days at least. I would not say it has been easy to do it in 9 days and some of the other ways could have been broken down a bit more but for me it’s been a good time and I have been up to the challenge. One aspect tho is I still do not feel as spiritually connected to this Camino as I was on the French route but equally I am not really on a spiritual mission like i was on the French route but I think the features of the route so not encourage this and the French route had way more focus on churches and spiritual lessons of the way and the Cruz de ferrol for example. The Camino has certainly been a lot busier since Tui and the albergues are full every night. Only two more days walking to go so tomorrow we walk to Padron to line up the finish.
Only pic from the day:
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