A day on the Camino

An 800-kilometer hike to Santiago de Compostela

I count my days on the Camino in stages. And a new stage starts when I arrive at the end point of the previous stage, often in the afternoon. I check in, take a shower, put on my other set of clothes from my backpack, and wash the dirty clothes of the day, Then, I either rest, eat, or explore the town where I have arrived.

Yesterday afternoon, I stopped a day of walking in Portomarin. I enjoyed drinks and dinner with another pilgrim, and I took the wide-angle picture of the church on the way back to the hotel.

I also took this photo, at about the same time.

Nights on the Camino are often too short, but today, I started a bit later than usual. The sun was up before I was, so I could leave Portomarin in the special light of the sun trying to penetrate the misty clouds.

The humidity has made walking difficult in the past days and the heatwave made it much worse. This photo shows the humidity and the low-hanging clouds of this morning.

I will remember today as a busy day on the Camino. Weeks ago, while in the Meseta, I could walk all day without meeting anyone, but now that I walk the last hundred kilometers, I pass walkers with radios on, school kids, and large groups that walk together.

And after this Alexnote, I have one more photo to share: the narrow path on the left that goes quite steeply downhill is also the Camino. The 500-mile route of the Camino Frances has many different forms. Sometimes you walk on a busy road with many cars, while at other moments it is just a narrow track like this one.

That’s it for tonight. It will be a short night again, in a hot room. After tomorrow, the temperatures should go down to normal summer weather. I can’t wait, it’s been quite challenging these days in the second heatwave of this summer in northern Spain.

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