ON FOOT, FROM THE AUVERGNE IN CENTRAL FRANCE…

…to Santiago de Compostela and the ocean at Finisterre, North Western Spain. The first entry, for those who wish to follow chronologically: STARTING IN LE  PUY-EN-VELAY… *** (For a different read, my short fiction blog is here.)

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LAND’S END. BLOG’S END.

By the Atlantic Ocean, well into spring. From the town of Fisterra, there’s one more tiny stage to complete: a walk to the lighthouse at the tip of the cape. Here it is. It’s a lighthouse, but with tourist and dining facilities. One can’t walk further than this. Last marker. Last cross. On the way [...]

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TO CAPE FINISTERRE

The track to Cape Finisterre is the only pilgrimage route away from Santiago de Compostela. The body of Saint James is said to have arrived there by boat, and his original tomb is said to have been at Finisterre. Like everything associated with Saint James, I’d have trouble proving it. For many, the ocean is [...]

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SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA

All the talk of early Christians floating the body of Saint James into the Atlantic, then round the coast to Galicia… All the stories about Charlemagne coming west to the tomb of the saint somewhere near Fisterra… The belief that Compostela means Field of Stars… Replace it all with some different stories. Will it matter? [...]

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HOME, JAMES

The last two days were spent dodging bad weather. On top of this, I missed a turn at Pedrouzo and had to do one of those thirty-plus kilometre hikes so foreign to my character. My approach to Santiago de Compostela was an undramatic scurry. Spanish agriculture isn’t usually this quaint. Galicia doing its Australian mimicry [...]

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CAVAFY, GEARBOXES AND THE END OF THE WAY

The Greek poet, Constantine Cavafy, wrote wistful verses in which people love hotly all the things they are losing or missing. He’s completely human, without philosophy or illusions: just a nostalgia too deep and too wild for pessimism. His relevance to this subject of Camino expectations? It’s this: You don’t get what you want, but [...]

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ARZUA THROUGH THE GUMS

Some years back, I saw a magazine article showing Portuguese farmers demonstrating with placards. The protest was against the Australian gum tree, or eucalypt. Species of eucalypt have been planted all over the Portugal and Galicia, exploiting similarities of climate and soil between parts of Iberia and parts of Oz. As a bush-dweller, I have [...]

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IN MELIDE. FROM A DAWDLE TO AN IDLE

Santiago not far, spring advancing: most pilgrims would be pressing forward in excitement, lengthening the stride, extending the walk-time. You know what that lot are like. Your dawdler had other things in mind. This was the first monument visited in the interesting historic centre of Melide. One of Spain’s most renowned pulperías, or octopus restaurants, [...]

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CENTRAL GALICIA

Best to combine two days in one post, since weather and other distractions limited photography. In Portomarin, there was a mass pilgrim dinner in a bar overlooking the Miño. Here I made several new acquaintances, including a New York priest called Bob, and a whip-cracking group organiser, an asturiano whom I later titled El Cid [...]

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GALICIA: STONE, MIST, SUN, WATER

To leave Sarria, the pilgrim crosses a medieval bridge, and this one is choice. Note the typical and delicious stonework: granite below, graduating to fine shale at the top. Those keen on masonry could well take a study holiday in these parts. I came to the church and monastery of Santiago in Barbadelo, still in [...]

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