30km (694.7km) – 102km to go ( but it says 99 on the Casa door)
Wednesday 20th April

No rain today 😊, but my boots are not smelling too good it has to said; a week+ of being wet and not drying out has left them with an odour of old cheese. I fear that when I walk away from a group of fellow pilgrims they breathe a sigh of relief, and some fresh air. I nearly bought new ones when passing through Sarria today but thought this was a bit rash, given my feet are at least feeling fine and to put them into new boots so close to the end was surely asking for trouble, so I’ll just have to put up with them for another 8 days.

Today was a day for just appreciating the perfect weather conditions and the lovely countryside and passing through many little old villages. I was supposed to stop at Barbadelo but as I was concerned that tomorrow would be less favourable on the weather front so I just kept going and arrived here in Morgade; a hamlet with just a small, very welcoming, Casa Rural – I now have only 102km to go. I was the only guest until a ‘bus’ party of 12 arrived, no doubt here to complete the last 100k of the Camino. You only have to do the last 100k to Santiago to receive your certificate (your Compostela ) so there is a large influx of would be pilgrims around this point. Of course after 26 days of walking and being at peace with the world I don’t mind at all that these pretenders have joined us hardy few…

I walked a bit of the Way today with an American from Michigan who told me he’d taken his family to the beach near his home in The States before he left for his pilgrimage and had them pick up stones and say prayers with them clasped in their hands, he had then taken five of his own stones and ‘filled’ them with prayers for recently deceased friends and family. He had carried ten stones to the Cruz de Fierro (mentioned a few days back) and had created a lovely little cairn with them. It was so touching to see how much thought had gone into this (it didn’t seem ‘corny’ or ‘New Agey’, it felt genuine and he came across as a very caring and deep individual). I felt like I had really missed something, that I should have made more out of my time at Cruz de Fierro and didn’t have the heart to tell him that my stone was from the hotel I stayed at in  Astorga, where I mistook a decorative bowl of stones for bowl of mints, popped one in my mouth on leaving reception (I’m not sure who was more surprised, me or the receptionist) and ended up with a stone that I wasn’t quite sure what to with (as I didn’t think I could sneak it back without someone wondering what I was up to 😱)…anyway that stone is now there with all the other stones…That said, although I haven’t held any stones and filled them with thoughts of loved ones I have been doing enough reflecting and thinking about everyone to not feel too bad about my ‘fake’ stone from a hotel in Astorga.