AKA, the day of the non walking wounded. The Camino is full of inspirational messages. Pain is part of the Camino. The relentless walking takes its toll on the body: tendinitis, blisters, which thankfully for the most part we've avoided, bursitis, burning knees and fall injuries. Resigned to our real rest day, we positioned ourselves…

Another day of pastoral beauty in the sunshine into the city of Sarria, which marks the beginning of the home stretch, the last 100k of the Camino de Santiago. Along the way we met a local donkey, a gentle docile soul used to pats and treats from passing peregrinos. We passed the cabbage variety grown…

The afternoon of our 37th day lead us through mossy tree tunnels with the sounds of birds and the water in a brook below the path. It was a long day. I told C that walking 20k with one painful foot only equals 10k of pain, but my patience was wearing thin when he told…

Galicia in the sunshine is a place of indescribable beauty. There was almost too much to take in for one day. The morning's views were green valley vistas, the mist settling in the distance. I was thinking of other scenes of Camino beauty and the rainbows of the other day came to mind. I realized…

Oh that Brierly Guide! All pilgrims who use it will tell you their annoyance with the incline charts, and even the narrative stating hills so small they won't be noticed. Anyone can tell by the scenery that's it's impossible to go anywhere without tremendous ups and downs. So up and down we went. The occasional…

A very full 25k day, 10 on horseback. Starting in the dark, walking through sunrise, we arrived to meet our guide who would take us to O Cebriero, a Gallecian town steeped in Celtic history. Seven of us, three coincidentally from Vancouver's North Shore, rode up the steep mountain over pavement, Roman roads, shale and…

We spent the morning chasing rainbows: This storm defied Accuweather, re-energizing itself again and again, dumping buckets of rain on our sorry peregrino heads. I've succeeded in keeping dry and happy from the waist down, but I have to work on the upper half. Stopping for lunch, even my bra was drenched. My poncho seems…

This really is a knitting blog, disguised as a Camino blog. For the benefit of those seeking yarn and needles I present a yarn bombed tree in Ponferrada back when it was sunnyish. When we returned to Ponferrada yesterday, our sweet woman cab driver, when told of the missing rainpants, drove us by the Decathalon…

Uh-oh. If you follow the Camino you know that this appears to be lack of progress; even a step in the wrong direction. After listening to a wild night of rain reminiscent of home, we called a cab to take us back to Ponferrada for a rest day with the intention of buying rain pants…

The long 25k day of frustration starting with 7k of downhill hiking including three long steep shale chutes… …followed by 18k of pavement, with a weather forecast of four days of rain to discover that my rain pants are missing. I've only owned them for a week. We both had our moments. After 17k we…