The Camino Ingles 2023

The Camino Ingles (The English Way) 2023

“Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” Terry Pratchett

I am just preparing for another Camino, just a short one this year. The Camino Ingles or The English Way was originally a short route for those who arrived on the north coast by boat and walked south to Santiago. Walking from A Coruna, the original port of departure is less than the required 100km for a Compostela certificate so I will be walking from Ferrol to give me 120km, plenty enough to qualify.

This year my daughters Stephanie and Bethany will be coming along as well as Beth's partner Amy. They wanted a Camino without the boys so I picked an easy one. We set off on Monday 11th September and start walking the following day.

9th September 

I’m all packed and ready to go. The girls are mostly there, just trying to work out what they need for their holiday in Madrid after the walk. Extra clothes and a hairdryer probably…

11th September  - Are we there yet?

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 late and after collecting our packs, ran to get a taxi. The taxi got us to the bus station just in time for us to push and shove our way onto the bus to Ferrol (no queues here). We walked to the Concatedral, (I assume a kind of mini cathedral) to try and get a stamp. The church, which was undergoing major repairs to the outside of the building, was of course closed. I said that it looked much better on the internet, Amy commented that I had just been catfished by a church. We met a guy from Transylvania who lives in Winchester and was trying to get hold of a credential for his Camino stamps. Don’t think he was a vampire, anyway, he took a picture for us with an intact corner of the Concatedral behind us to make it look better than it actually was. 

12th September  - The Pigeons here are like real birds

We left our rooms this morning at 8.30am, a bit late but we only had a short day of under 15km. We followed the estuary back northeast towards Neda, heading into the suburbs of Ferrol to find a cafe for breakfast along the way. We decided to take our time as the hostel we wanted to stay in didn’t open until 1pm. 

We stopped for a beer break to kill some more time and met some older pilgrims from California who were Camino veterans. They had been walking different Camino’s since 2014. 

Shortly after 1pm, just as the sun was starting to really warm up we made it to the hostel. It is a nice Municipal Albergue sat back on a grassy bank of the river just over the footbridge. We managed to find two sets of bunk beds together and settled into our accommodation. Mr Transylvania made it to the hostel along with a guy from Bristol who had been walking his own Camino along the northern coast. 

Quote of the day came from Amy who looked at the skinny little pigeons and said, “The pigeons here are like real birds.” That's not going to leave her for a while. 

We managed to get a cooked lunch in the afternoon and spent the evening playing cards in a local bar. Tomorrow we have decided to leave early and walk a bit further than originally planned. It is 25km to Mino where I have booked a hotel room by the beach. 

13th September - Vestibulum Wallap

It was a really nice Municipal Albergue last night but as usual, the experience was completely spoiled by something simple. A problem I’ve experienced before where the emergency exit has a ridiculously bright light above it that illuminates the whole room. I don’t think any of us got much sleep and we were up early. 

We left at 7am in the dark using head torches as we walked along the bank of the river estuary. Once we got out into the hills we walked through forest trails of Eucalyptus and pine. We managed to find a cafe at 8.30 for breakfast and again a few hours later at Pontedume where we took a break by the bridge over the river. Amy made friends with a pigeon that she named Stumpy due to its lack of toes. It looked just like a real bird. 

Steph wanted to stop at a watering point in the town. As she was getting her water bladder out of her bag I decided to wash my hands under the tap. The water pressure was very powerful and Steph got sprayed. She called me a bad name. I was very disappointed in her. Beth and Amy call me bad names all the time but I don’t know what the world is coming to when Steph starts using words like that. 

We then made our way up an extremely steep hill until we could see for miles back across the scenic coastline. As usual, the Galician landscape is very green with many small farms dotted around the landscape. 

Steph and I spent a lot of time waiting for Beth and Amy to catch up but as the sun started to heat up we decided to walk on ahead. There was another steep hill but we eventually made it to Mino after 2pm and got a cooked lunch in a cafe. As we finished our lunch Beth and Amy finally arrived. 

Tonight I managed to book a nice hotel right by the beach. The room has four single beds, is really nice and it was just as cheap as a private hostel. 

After explaining to the girls that the Compostela has their name in Latin written on it Amy decided to use Google Translate to check her Latin name which came back as Vestibulum Wallap. Thankfully they only use your first name in Latin. Beth was disappointed that her name in Latin was Bethany Baggs. 

14th September - If you’re not first, you’re last.

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. 

15th September - Snoring

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 be rows of chicken houses but as we got closer I noticed that the white creatures that were bobbing up and down in the wire crates were actually mink. We were glad to get past the mink farm which stank from all the dung that piled up under the cages.  

After 10km we stopped at a cafe run by a slightly mad old lady. I waited for ages to get served whilst she messed around selling camino tat to some tourists. After the tourists finally had their picture taken with her she decided to take our breakfast order of toast and hot drinks. She then followed me outside and made sure I put my feet up on one of the stools provided before going back in to sort out our toast. When it finally arrived it was just bread and jam, not toasted at all. 

Beth and Amy caught us up at the cafe. They had a cat in tow that had followed us from the Albergue for 10km. The crazy old lady chased the cat off with one of my walking poles but it just came back after she went back inside. 

We walked the remaining 12km as it was starting to get warm. My heat rash was beginning to flare up badly and I changed into clean socks at another cafe that had a full-size dinosaur outside along with a large statue of st James. The Albergue is another municipal one. This time it’s a much larger 42-bed place with a lot more space. We took beds at one end of the room along with a few other pilgrims in the hope that the snorer and his friends would go up the other end if they turned up. Sure enough, they turned up and got a bit defensive at our groans of disappointment. The only word I managed to catch was ‘natural’ I don’t think there’s anything natural about that. I’m lying in bed now and it sounds like someone slowly revving up a motorbike. I’ve booked a private room for tomorrow. 

16th September - Almost there

We left late today as there was only 15km to walk. It was mainly through woodland on well-maintained paths. The weather was overcast and it seemed that it might rain at any moment. The only cafe was after 2.5km so we stopped for breakfast and to kill a bit of time. The snorer and his friends turned up. He was outside the cafe having a cigarette and ordering a taxi. After that, we only saw his friends on the path until the girls spotted him in the supermarket at our destination. We all walked together for most of the walk with Beth and Amy keeping a good pace. 

As we walked into the town of Sigueiro we were approached by a student who wanted to ask us questions about our camino experience. As Beth and Amy said, I gave her a full list of all my years of Camino complaints. To be fair I did say that this had been a good Camino, really good paths, well signposted and with fairly good facilities. 

We found a cafe in town and waited an hour and a half for our food to be served. Then we set off to find our accommodation. Most people from our last Albergue ended up booking private rooms in the place we’re in. Thankfully not the snorer and his loud friends. 

We had thunder and heavy rain this afternoon but it cleared up in time for us to go to the supermarket. Not sure what time to leave tomorrow as the forecast keeps changing. I’m going to check it early tomorrow morning and decide if we need to get up and try to beat the rain to Santiago. Only 16km to go. 

17th September - Girls behaving badly

We had another pleasant walk this morning as we tried to beat a weather front into Santiago. The cool cloudy conditions made for good walking and a good pace as we walked the final 16km. 

I walked with Steph most of the way with Beth and Amy trailing behind and catching us up at our mid-morning cafe break. We also had a South African mother and daughter in tow, Anna and Carla, as they don’t like walking alone. We’ve learnt a lot about the sad state of their country from them over the past week. They are the first Afrikaans speakers from South Africa that I’ve met and were good fun to be with in the hostels. 

As we got further into the city we finally found an open church where an enthusiastic man was keen to stamp our credentials. We made it into the cathedral square just after 11.30am and took photos before going to the pilgrim's office to collect a ticket and wait our turn to get our Compostelas. 

The man at the ticket machine waved us straight around into the nonexistent queue and we collected our Compostelas without waiting. I was a bit surprised because in the past this has taken between 2 and 6 hours. 3,000 pilgrims arrived the previous day so I had anticipated a long wait. 

As we walked back through the square and up the road to our Albergue the heavens opened and it’s been raining on and off ever since. 

After leaving our packs at the hostel Beth and Amy wanted KFC so we went there for lunch before visiting the cathedral. We joined the long line of tourists and pilgrims waiting to go down into the crypt to see the golden reliquary that holds the remains of St. James. The prayer kneelers have been removed so there wasn’t time for more than a quick prayer of thanks for bringing us all safely to our destination before we snaked around and up to hug the statue of St. James, the first time since 2019 that this has been allowed. 

The rest of the day involved showering, a short nap and then the part I had been dreading- the tattoo. Apparently, I had once agreed with Beth that if she ever walked a Camino with me we would get matching tattoos. I don’t actually remember this but there are too many witnesses who do for me to wriggle out of it. All I’m going to say about it is that it wasn’t a pleasant experience and I won’t be doing it again. 

Freshly tattooed and a little bit sore we went for ice cream then stopped in a bar for a few drinks. We went to an expensive restaurant for dinner where the waiter took Amy’s half-finished bowl of soup from under her nose as she wasn’t eating it quickly enough. The food was good but the pace of delivery was a bit too quick. 

More ice cream, more drinks and the next thing I knew the three of them were running around like children playing tag in the cathedral square. With two police cars parked there, I thought they might end up beating the boys and actually get arrested! 

18th September  - Final Thoughts

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 to spend 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 walk 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 perhaps it’s not over yet!