Santiago or Bust

Amenal, Spain
We left Arzua on a wing and a prayer this morning, even the roosters weren't up but the cats were rounding up the last of their nightly field mice conquests. We were armed with headlamps and iPhones. Mike considered retracing yesterday's steps, but we already had a long hike (25+ kilometers) without adding to it. I plugged tonight's lodging address into google maps and off we went, skirting farms and country houses on the backroads. Mike used the Camino app to verify progress towards the official trail. We were tracking right along when Cujo and his brother appeared out of nowhere. Mike quickly shifted his poles to the ready position, but it turned out the dogs were just keeping things in order since the usual little old Spanish ladies were not up yet. We passed without incident and connected with the trail farther down the hill. We spent the day walking through eucalyptus forests. Still haven't spotted any koalas. We passed a large tour bus parked at a crossroads. Looks like the Grand Circle Camino tour, dropping tourists off to have a go at the Camino before picking them up and whisking them off to luxury accommodations for the night. After 760+ kilometers on the Camino with multiple nights in questionable lodging, sure sounds good to me. We've also encountered students on fall break walking sections as a group, like the field trip of all field trips. We've heard that young folks try to get the Compostela to pad resumes, similar to our Eagle Scout. To each his own. A couple of hills, rivers and villages as well as the requisite café con leche, we made it to Amenal, our last stop before Santiago de Compostela.Read more