Day 188 – 191

Km 5978 to km 6133, La Mesa (Spain) to Arzúa (Spain).

Day 188

28/10/2022 – 41km

The rain begins. The forecast would suggest that it’ll be generally wet until the end, perhaps constituting the final hurdle. Thankfully I’ll be in hostels the rest of the way, so Spain can tip all the rain on me it likes.

I’m now in Galicia, the last region on my trip and I also passed the last big milestone: 6000km.

Day 189

29/10/2022 – 32km

Rain, rain and more rain. Only a couple of photos taken whilst hiking. I was again glad that I didn’t need to look at my phone for navigation, as trying to interact with a wet touchscreen using wet hands is a recipe for frustration.

I’m all alone in the albergue tonight, which surprises me, as the next one is 20km down the trail. I suppose it is the off-season.

Day 190

30/10/2022 – 41km

So far on my Camino hike I’ve been losing the stamp collecting game. I’ve mostly just got the ones from the hostels I’ve been staying at. Supposedly the churches have them, but I’ve stopped at almost every church along my way and 90% of the time they’re locked up. Perhaps I should go to more cafés and restaurants, but I don’t really want to do that for a stamp.

I was in the city of Lugo today. You can walk along the walls surrounding the inner city, so that was fun. I went to the cathedral, and walked around all of it looking for a stamp, but didn’t see one. Maybe they hide it away, fearing abuse of the stamp. I really didn’t feel like bothering one of the priests with my touristic endeavour. So I left. Stampless.

On the way out of the city I passed a smaller church, and, it being Sunday, a service was in progress. Finally, an open church, and I spy on a table, just inside, a stamp! I steal in and swipe it as undisruptively as I can to stamp at my leisure outside before returning it, hoping not to have disturbed the faithful.

So. There’s a glimpse into my stamp collecting journey. I think as I’m about to join up with the much busier Camino Frances and Camino Norte I’ll probably be drowning in stamps soon enough.

The weather was also perfect today. Sunny but cool.

Day 191

31/10/2022 – 41km

A meeting of paths. I’ve truly joined the stream of people heading to Santiago, as the way now combines multiple routes. It’s now rare for me to look around and see no one else.

As I suspected, more people = more stamps. There are also trail-side stalls and vending machines occasionally. After the route I’ve come, it seems quite funny.

Now that I’m so close to the end, I already have my last days roughly planned out. I’ll be taking a little detour at the end to check out Muxía (on the coast, north of Finisterre) as people say it’s nice and I’m in no rush. So unless my plans change, I’ll be finishing on November 5th.