Merry Christmas!

To wish you all a Very Merry Christmas! Thanks for your support during my pilgrimage! Yours Davy

Just in case you are interested here are scans of my Compostela and Credencial, well the bit that fitted into an A4 scanner.

Santiago Plus

Just to really annoy me the weather improved and stayed dry once the pilgrimage was finished! Above the clouds, where I am now on my way to London-Upon-Thames, the sun is shining! Some concluding details: Once the weary pilgrim gets into Santiago they go to the pilgrim office where they present their credencials, complete with stamps, to prove their journey. They are questioned about whether they really walked all the way. However, if you turn up stinking, covered in mud and look as though you have spent 5 weeks outside, the questioning is not too rigourous! It would be possible to cheat but only yourself. All being well you are then presented with your Compostela with your name written in Latin. You are asked for your country of origin and from where you started. This information is used during the Pilgrim Mass, held every day at 1200, and your details are read to the congregation. There is also an incredible incense swinger. The usual incense containers are about the size of a coffee pot but the one in the cathedral in Santiago is about the size of a British pillar box for street collections of mail. It is suspended on thick ropes, controlled by several men, which also swing it violently through the air. It almost hits the very high ceiling before swinging earthwards again, bellowing a thick cloud of incense smoke as it goes. It is said that it is so large and moved so thoroughly above the crowd because of the combined stink of many pilgrims! It just happened to be a major religious festival on the day of my mass and so the details were read by the archbishop and the Virgin Mary was much in evidence. The prayers were also very female centred. Spain is ashamed to be the European country with the worst record of domestic violence against women. One woman is beaten to death every 48 hours. This year the governent, itself over 50% female, is running lots of campaigns against what they are calling Gender Violence. So it was good to see the church, once/arguably still, a major offender in the supression of women, at least mentioning the issue. I will try and scan both the credencial and compostela and attach them to the blog. Biggles is just aiming for a hole in the gloom where hopefully London is waiting so I have to stop. The clarity is not great but here are some shots of London as we landed. It is a bit unpredictable how photos are ordered but I think they will be a. My Ex-Boss's House, Buckingham Palace. b. St Paul's Cathedral. c The London Eye. d. Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.

SANTIAGO

If I ever think it is worth it I will mention how very very grim the weather was yesterday. It was the lead story on all the Spanish news channels. However, at 1345 local time today, after a journey of 5 weeks, approximately 2.5 million steps and 1000+ kilometres I arrived in Santiago de Compostela and was awarded my Compostela Certificate. I would just like to say thanks to all the people who sent messages of support. I will write more but this is enough for now. The motto of the RAF REGIMENT is Latin "Per Ardua" or "Through Adversity" it is used to sign off. So, Per Ardua, Davy

VERY VERY FECKIN WET

Being Irish you might think I would be used to rain, maybe even like it a little? Well you'd be wrong! I live in Southern Spain because I hate rain. I've been hot (+54C Saudi) and I've been cold (-17C Canada) and I prefer hot anytime! Cold and wet, however, is the ultimate low. It has rained all day today. To give you some idea of how much; Imagine the power of rain that can wash the colour out of cheap chocolate in the pocket of a supposedly waterproof garment! That's what we are talking about. Water running in and out of your clothes like a river. Everything saturated and 40km to walk. Well I did it and was very pleased to get to the hostal and a hot shower. The hostal is leaking too but        not in the sleeping areas, yet! The nearby river is chocolate brown and has swamped the village laundry. I hope it does not join us in the night! The rain is continuing to beat down, if anything even harder. Global warming can't come soon enough! I have noticed that I can no longer lift my feet. If I had stayed in the country I may not have noticed but coming through the town of Lalin I realised that I couldn't walk off the pavement without turning sideways and stepping down. I had done so a few times before I realised. I imagine it is just general fatigue. There was also a moment of severe temptation today when I stopped for a coffee. The lady seeing my miserable state put a bottle of cognac beside my cup and told me to put a shot in the coffee. I told her that I was not drinking alcohol during the pilgrimage and she said that she understood. Then she took the top off the bottle, told me to put a shot in the coffee and went into another room so that she didn't risk seeing it happen! What would you have done?

Sent from my iPod, only 2 steps ahead of the cops!

MATANZA

The Spanish have a different attitude to killing pigs. We don't show a pig the knife before we kill it because we don't want to stress it out. This is not some humanitarian thing it is just that the adrenaline toughens the meat. I will always remember the SAS lad who showed us how to kill animals stroking the sheep to calm it before cutting it's throat from ear to ear. As it's last breaths rattled out of the hole he said wistfully "You know sentries make exactly the same noise as that" nobody thought he was joking. The Spanish system is to burn the adrenaline out of the animal by dragging it about with a hook until exhausted. Then it is stuck and the first dish of Fried Blood will be being eaten before the carcass is still. The 2 pigs in the photos have been dead for a while. The white one has been fully bled, singed, shaved and scraped with a piece of granite. The other is being singed with a blowtorch to help remove the hair. These pigs will be used for a whole year starting with Christmas. Some bits will be air dried, some smoked and I imagine nowadays frozen as well. The whole family is involved in the task and it has quite a festive atmosphere. Just like most Spanish families they have relatives learning English or working in Ireland and were happy to talk while they worked and have their pictures taken.


Sent from my iPod, only 2 steps ahead of the cops!

OURENSE

What a very beautiful city! Definitely one to come back to! The alberge had heating! The first in days so humours were high. Sadly Ourense is built on several hills so this morning meant climbing out of the valley. My chest, I mean the structure (not the lungs which are fine) failed me on the ascent. I suppose 900km with 16kg pulling you into a bad shape for at least 8 hours a day takes it's toll and I had to stop. It wasn't far off a 1:2 ascent but I was shocked that I couldn't trot up it as I normally would. Brian and Sandra of Pueblo Ingles both rang me and gave mean excuse/time to get my ribcage back into squareThanks guys! I think I have aggravated an old collar bone break. I remember that the bone was completely snapped, still rode the big Harley home, and it healed badly with one piece on top of the other so there is a large bump. I also remember having to pass a shooting test, or lose a great job, very soon afterwards and the thumping the rifle gave it probably didn't help either. I was just grateful it was 5.56mm ammo and not 7.62mm which would have rebroken it! Anyway, it is only days to do now, even though 2 of them are pretty big days. Mañana is 40km and so will be an early start and a late finish with a poor weather forecast. The forecast for the next day is not much better, nor is it much shorter but if all runs to time then the last day will be short ish at about 20km and who cares on the last day!

Sent from my iPod, only 2 steps ahead of the cops!

LAST 100KM

What with all the weather excitement I forgot that I have only got 100km left to do. This morning inwill leave Ourense and, hopefully in 4 ish days I should be in Santiago de Compostela.

LACK OF PHOTOS

Sorry for the lack of photos but the only computer I found needed administrator access to upload anything. Also when it is snowing, raining or blowing a hooley the camera doesn't come out much! However, there are some photos to post of snow and yesterday a roadside matanza(winter killing of pigs)

Cold, Wet and Very Miserable!

Well I have spent today walking in the rain. The general temperature is higher, that's why it wasn't snow I suppose! Having been drenched, lower body only, thanks to Akubra Hat and Lightweight Gortex, I am now in another wonderful Galician hostal, showered and getting a hot tea inside me. The Galician hostals are purpose built and are essentially sports pavilions with kitchens and dormatories included. There is nobody else here and I wonder if the 2 pilgrims from Mallorca/Majorca have stopped at the intermediate option about 14km ago. I was very very wet as I arrived near that village but the sky was bright in the West and so on the basis of "Fight the hazard, not the threat" I decided to keep moving and keep warm. I also swore that I heard a voice in my head, Scott Millington's I think, saying "Go on Davy just knock the f@@@ers in" it could have been anyone of that quality of Rockape, as Kev Mackenzie would have said "Of the Ilk" It is a rare day when I don't think of the RAF Regiment, the things I learned and the quality of the non-politicals there. In any case the torrential rain had left me soaked to the skin and I have gone back to sandals as boots are even more problematic in the wet. Undersized gloves on snugly and your hands are dry, one of the only parts of your body. You need to pee, everything is totally wet and freezing cold. Do you just let go and enjoy the brief warmth, it's sterile after all, or do you get your hands and the inside of your gloves wet as well? Good question isn't it. What would you do? Anyway I am now safe in the hostal but it started raining again heavily about 2 minutes after I arrived, an hour ago, and hasn't stopped yet! I had some chocolate but it is gone so I hope it eases off enough to get out and buy some food. I have also discovered that there is no heating here so it's going to be a cold one!

TO A GUDIÑA

After a good fabada and a warm nights sleep it was off to the
mountains again. The day was grim beyond belief although it was
slightly warmer. I think that I walked in some form of cloud all day.
Sometimes it was raining, sometimes snowing but at all times there was
a fine mist penetrating everywhere. Soon everything was sodden but at
least the cold didn't get down to the bone. Lots of climbing to keep
warm too! in fact since the visibility didn't make it over 30m all day
I stayed on or close to the Tarmac all day. That pushed the distance
up to 40km

Some pictures of a snowy Galicia!

YES IT IS ICE IN THE FACE FUNGUS!

From Lubian (Place of the wolves)

Woke to screaming wind blowing a feckin hooley! It was hard to see if snow was falling but the ground was covered. The albergue was on 2 floors, 2 cyclists from Ibiza downstairs and me and the 2 guys from Mallorca upstairs. I tried to look outside and couldn't get the window closed again so it was out at speed wearing all my clothes. There were 2 mountain passes to climb and although the wind was blowing ice my body was quickly hot so I had to stop and strip off. Several times I disturbed Roe Deer (Corzo in Spanish) foraging in the snow and surprised that anyone would be foolish enough to be walking. Once I got to the top of the second pass at about 1250m I had climbed through the weather and it was cold but sunny. Irish people can do anything as long as the sun is shining. I noticed that I had lost a motorway and a national road then I realised they had been in a tunnel through the mountains but I wanted them for orientation. When I saw the motorway my heart leapt! the sign said Galicia, province of Ourense! Nothing bad can happen to me now. My friend Manolo told me years ago that there is a Celtic Goddess with big boobs who will always look after me. The big boobs were details of Manolo's but probably important ones, so I have never forgotten them. So now I am in Galicia, birthplace of the Irish people and somewhere in all that snow I crossed the invisible line that leaves me only 200km to go!

Walking in snow

The day started promisingly enough with a clear sky and a weak sun. By 1000 however the first sleet started to fall. I noticed on the overhead signs that lorries were being forbidden from overtaking on the parellel motorway between km96 to km124 because of snow. Broadly my journey today will be km86 to km114 so I suppose I will see some of it. Presently I am on a coffee stop and the snow is swirling outside but is not yet too bad. I have about 20km left to go and I will do all of it on the tarmac. I may even put my boots on instead of my sandals! There are snow covered mountains in every direction now and everything looks very beautiful when the sun appears. I hope it does that a bit more frequently as I do not want to walk the rest of the camino on roads in the snow.

TABARA

Leaving Zamora I met Beatriz by complete accident and headed off into the countryside. The Camino was, once again, following pointless detours even going East at one stage. I was getting fed up with not going North or West with my ideal being to do both at the same time! Anyway, as I came to another non-sensical sign pointing East I jumped ship and followed my compass. I soon came to a road junction and saw 2 names of places I need to get to. Unfortunately at 230 and 89km they were a little distant! Hoping that there would be somewhere in between I started walking along the side of the road. About 5km later a car pulled up in front of me on the verge with it's hazard lights on and a woman jumped out and ran up to me. It was as if I was her long lost brother! She tried to give me food and talked without pause about her own pilgrimages. If I was a lone female I would not approach me on a street on a sunny day much less an unkempt pilgrim close to nightfall! She wasn't sure how far it was to my destination but felt it was more than 10 km, it was actually 22km! Almost completely dark and starting to rain I thought I saw some lights in a valley in front. 30 mins later I was at a crossroads with a bar. I asked if there was accommodation and didn't get a clear reply. I hoped that meant some black market b&b! I have encountered it before, whole hotels supposedly closed to avoid tax while doing great business through the backdoor. It was one of those, so 12€ later I am in an en-suite room as the rain really started to hammer down outside. A good omen for my new direction I hope!

ROSE HIP REMEDIES

In honour of my mother, who takes the processed type, and of my Pueblo Ingles compañera, Sabela, whose family makes an old country medicine from them, I have been eating wild Rose Hips. They are one of the many things competing for the title of "Most vitamin C" and are guaranteed to ward off everything from Swine Flu to flat feet.

Dishonest Diversion

Today, for the first time on a Camino I encountered some deliberate obliteration of the signs, normally arrows, pointing the way. I followed them and missed the village of Bercianos De Valverde and the authentic Camino to Santa Croya de Tera. It is alleged that the staff of Bar La Moña in Villanueva de las Peras are responsible, attempting to attract pilgrims to their business. The arrows certainly point there and various people, in 3 villages, have them at the top of the suspicious list! Doubtless St James will roast their souls when the time is right!

300 TO GO

Fortunately it is now time to look at my pilgrimage in a different and hopefully happier way. I broke the 500km point just after Salamanca. The 600km barrier went the day before yesterday! Since I am now on a different route, which is not much walked, the only distance guide is now in descending order. The good news, according to it is that sometime tomorrow I will "only" have 300km to go! The statue of Santiago, dressed as a pilgrim, is one of the oldest surviving monuments.

RED KITES AND CROWS

I am aware there hasn't been a good wildlife call since the Fox. 2 main reasons. First, the large cities of Salamanca and Zamora have dominated the route. Secondly, the route in between is low crop, open and very windy! However, nature, never responsible for my entertainment, came out top today. I tried to photograph the scene, best efforts shown but it was all moving too fast! At least 7 Red Kites were flying wild patterns over 2 sections of woodland while some crows were making unhappy noises from underneath. I found it hard to understand what was happening and thought perhaps it was a mating display among the Kites. They were mirroring in pairs but were also engaging talons and plunging earthward locked together. As I got closer I saw one section of wood being divebombed by the Kites while the Crows appeared distressed. It is amazing how a big bird like the Red Kite can turn so sharply especially under the woodland canopy! It also really shows off their colours, particularly the white. I came off track to walk through the area to see if they had downed a Crow but there was nothing on the ground except lots of ejected shotgun cartridges.

ACHES ETC

The aches and pains continue with the exception of my feet which are now hardened to the point where I hardly need footwear. The soles are solid enough to stick a pin into them without me noticing and the upper feet look "glazed" where the sandals touch them. I haven't used boots in over a week. However, my shoulders are currently the weakest point and are extremely painful, in fact for the first few km I have to hold the weight of the sack with my hands behind me. My sternum also feels like it is going to part company. Just as painful but more amusing are my ankles which despite me taking my weight off them at night continue wanting to walk and sometimes do without me asking them to! My inner thighs are in tatters and look like the crispy skin on a fried chicken. All difficult and painful but no show-stoppers, I hope! Yes, I know... Tighten the f&£? Up! See I said it before you all did!