If you’re not first, you’re last.

​14th September 


I woke early to the sound of waves crashing on the shore. We got up at 6am and left just after 6.30, walking in the dark out of town and up into the hills again. We made good time and arrived in Betanzos just before 9am where we ate breakfast at a cafe in the town square. It was quite cold this morning but we knew it was going to get hot so after a quick stop in a supermarket we got going again. 


We met a few fellow pilgrims on the road and managed to keep up a good pace and did some overtaking. Just as it was starting to get uncomfortably hot we made it to Presedo. It was 12.40 and we sat in the shade and waited until 1pm when we were able to call and get the code for the key safe to let us in. This was another council run Albergue, quite small with just 14 beds. We managed to shower and use the washing machine before anyone else arrived. 


We walked half a km up the road in 29 degree heat to the restaurant where we had a meal. By the time we got back the hostel was full. It was a good day and I was really pleased that we made such good time as I don’t know how long I could walk in such heat. Very proud of the girls today. Hopefully we will have another good day tomorrow. 

Comments

  1. Anonymous14 September 2023 at 12:39

    Well done girls for keeping up with dad! , you're all doing great. Very proud of you all, luv mum x

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Final thoughts

​ 18th September   I’m heading home now but the girls are meeting Jocelyn in Madrid for a few days. It’s been a great little camino and I’ve really enjoyed it. I didn’t think Beth and Amy would make it after the second day, especially with Amy being so unwell over the past few months. They both proved me wrong so good for them, i’m very proud of them even if my tattooed leg does feel like it’s been stung by a nest of wasps.  I’ve really enjoyed having the opportunity of spending some time with Steph. We definitely don’t spend enough time together. She makes a good walking companion and sets a good pace, (amazing as she’s not very tall). She, like me, is happy to walk along and enjoy the quiet. I hope we can have more adventures together in the future.  So that’s it for this camino. I’m a very lucky man to have been able to have walked the camino de Santiago with all six of my children. I don’t suppose many people could make such a claim. And the girls want to go again next year so perh
Read more

Are we there yet?

​ 11th September   We arrived at Birmingham Airport 2 hours before our flight was due to leave at 8.35am. After checking in our bags (a bit of a fiasco) we were told to join the end of the queue for security checks. We followed the queue all around the airport and then outside the airport where we spent the next hour shuffling closer to the escalator. I managed to evict a pair of queue jumpers who tried to push in (much to the girl’s embarrassment). We were eventually fast tracked as we were running out of time and just managed to make the flight.  The flight to Madrid landed on time and we transferred to another flight to Santiago. This flight was more eventful due to the turbulence. Beth had her eyes closed and thought the plane was actually landing at one point but it was just being bashed about by the storm clouds. When we cleared the clouds the Americans behind us all started high fiving and fist bumping each other. I guess they were just glad to be alive.  We landed a few minutes
Read more

Snoring

​ 15th September   Last night we had a Spanish man in our Albergue who snored so loud that people were dragging their mattresses out of the bedroom and sleeping in the bathrooms and on the kitchen worktop. I think he suffered from sleep apnea or something. It was ridiculous, we didn’t get any sleep. The girls were all outside at 1am, I eventually found some earplugs and got a bit of sleep but not much.  We left at 6.30am with a couple of other pilgrims in tow as we walked up through the forest in the dark. There were two steep hills to climb and the early morning air was warmer than the previous day. The sun came up sometime after 8 and there was that perfect temperature that only lasts a while before the heat starts to get more and more uncomfortable. I walked with Steph for the remainder of the morning with the others catching up at break points. Thankfully the shade of the trees and a bit of cloud cover helped keep it cooler than yesterday.  At one point we approached what looked to
Read more