Stage 25 – the day The Way was replaced by The Dung

Start: 6:25, 18 ºC, sunny

End: 13:35

Distance: 25.0/604.1 Km

Stayed at: Albergue La Escuela

OST: Vertigine (Elisa + Elodie)

[NOTE: it’s been a while since I last updated this website. It’s been more than two years, and I must finish this before my memories of the experience fade or transmutate entirely.

My views of the Camino already changed since I started Camino for Closers.

Now I am far more lenient: do the Camino the way you want, as long as you don’t bother me. I discovered I snore way more than in the past, and most likely I will stay in private rooms for my future Camino adventures. Not for me, for others.]

We are now beyond the 600 Km mark. 80% done.
What to say about this stage? Pretty crowded; many new faces, trying to extend the last 100Km with a handful of extra stages before Sarria’s horizon is crossed.

Which means, the lovely walk up the valley at 6am included generous noise pollution by a few families which had just started their pilgrimage. Quite annoying.

The morning breakfast(s) had become routine. My “hermano” who almost kicked me out the day before was almost tearful when I left. “East es tu casa”.

The reality is that I was tired.

I was tired of walking. I was tired of the routine. I was already tired of Galicia. Even the Wise Pilgrim App struggles to make Galicia exciting.

“the first part prepares you body; the second part expands your mind; the third part lifts your soul”.

Well, Galicia doesn’t have much soul lifting to do. It’s boring, it’s repetitive, it breaks your legs with relatively frequent changes of inclination… and it’s full of dung.

Cows are everywhere on the last part of the camino, and you can smell their tracks from a kilometer of distance.

So much shit.

I found an area which I’m 50% confident I visited in 2001 for my first Camino, by bik.e
nothing special: Galicia for us was a couple of days tops, back then.

Caught up with Nando at the albergue.

He taught me about “una cosa verde”, where verde means “erotic”.

Nando told me he didn’t study much at school, yet his English was not too bad.

He took all his notes writing on paper. With a pen! In 2023! Crazy, right?

He taught me: “se tutto va bene, avanti col pene”.

Nando was older than me, and he had the innocence and enthusiasm of a child. I miss Nando. Luckily this won’t be the last time we catch up on The Way.

I didn’t make many new friends in these last part. I was pretty tired.

And I was not exactly enthusiastic about engaging those who took a 5 days pilgrimage for a full relocation, e.g.

Tomorrow is the last stage before Sarria, the final piece of pilgrimage in the Camino Frances, before The Way mutates into something else entirely…

Next stage: Stage 26: La Laguna de Castilla – Triacastela