Cinco Caminos – Stage 20: O Couto Pequeno to Santiago de Compostela (31 km) 14°C – morning fog, then cloudy, a bit of sun and a bit of rain coming in to the city

By Laurel

A big day!  Our longest distance in one day!  And our arrival in Santiago de Compostela!

Lucia, our hostess at Casa Rico, fueled us up for the day with a gourmet farm breakfast of scrambled eggs, jamon, fresh fruit, yogurt, coffee, and more.  We hit the trail with well-satisfied stomachs and excited anticipation of reaching Santiago; on the path, we immediately met Chris, the Polish pilgrim, whom we had first met in Friol.  After comparing notes, he then strode ahead of us — we did bump into him a couple more times throughout the day.  For the first 19 kms, Chris was the only pilgrim we saw, as well as one lone woman walking across the highway from us for a short while on a parallel path — this is because for the first stretch of our day we were on a little-used variant route of the end of the Camino del Norte.  We were joining the much-used Camino Frances near the Santiago Airport, but not until we got briefly off-track and had to backtrack about 2 kms.  As we finally approached the merging point onto the Frances, we could see a steady stream of colourful backpack covers moving along the path!  Soon, ours were in the mix!  It’s hard to say how many pilgrims there were, but at the first village we estimated that there were about 75 having a break at the two bars, and more were constantly walking past while we briefly rested there.  From then on, we were part of an ever-changing progression of pilgrims making their way to the old town.  We arrived in the Cathedral square feeling tired but happy!  There, beside us, we immediately saw Jan, a pilgrim whom we had first met at O Cadavo and who had been walking the Camino in yearly stages for ten years, having started from his house in Germany.  Amazing!

There was some highway walking today (not our favourite).

Also, softer paths through the woods.

Refueling stops along the way.

Through eucalyptus forests, patterns when looking down and when looking up!

Merging with the Camino Frances, for the final leg into Santiago de Compostela.

Contrast!  Top:  only the Polish pilgrim ahead of us on the trail in the early morning;  Bottom:  lots of other pilgrims on the path once we joined the Frances.

We’re within the city limits.

The Cathedral spires are visible!

We made it!