Camino Francés part three

We’ve arrived back for the third and last stage of our Camino across northern Spain.

Our preference would have been to take the train but that was all rather convoluted and complicated. So today we flew to Santiago de Compastela (both agreeing the train is more pleasant) and had arranged for a car to take us the two hour drive to Ponferrada where we finished last year.

Despite hardly any rain for months in Surrey, there was a steady drizzle as we were driven along fabulous new autoroutes. The country is very hilly, up to 1,000 metres, and what took two hours by car will now take ten days to return to Santiago.

In 2023 we walked from the Spanish – French border to Burgos. Last year our journey was from Burgos to Ponferrada shown by the dot on the map. This year we will walk 200 km to Santiago de Compostela and then a further 100 km to Cabo Fisterra or Cape Finisterre, the most westerly point in Spain. Rest days are planned for Sarria just south of Lugo and Santiago.

It is 10° in Ponferrada this evening and damp. Nonetheless we are looking forward to being out on the road tomorrow. We’ve had busy weeks so it will be beneficial to have the road ahead of us and nothing else to arrange or consider.

I read today that Compostela is thought to mean the field of stars. One of the signs of the Camino is the Milky Way in the heavens. We carry on westwards following the Way.