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I can recall Diane, Marta and Barbara and the lovely Susan from Melbourne sharing a table at Bar Luis the night before I left there. It had been a really long day and I knew that the following 2 days were shorter and for the first time I could smell the taste of reaching Santiago. I had never let myself think that far ahead really. I just had to take the next day, one step at a time and soldier on…I think because the whole thing seemed so daunting. The hardest thing was to get out of bed, walking clothes on and the BOOTS and take that first step out into the dark.

But NOW, I knew that I could finish. My feet had grown new muscles and the feet flapped away in my size 7 boots knowing that they were not going to be given a choice. Nature has a way of sorting itself out. One night I had taken my early evening bath, soaking off the dust…and there was lots of it…and the grime from the hours of walking. Originally I had used a couple of Compeed blister patches around some troublesome toes. That evening I realised that I had left one on so I gave it a tug only to find it was a dead flap of skin that had worn itself off!!  Gross  I suppose but my toe wasn’t complaining.

It was an emotional Adios to the lady at the pension..the one whose expression of help and support that I will never forget . But I spurted out into the dark again to cover a quick 10 Kilometers in the cool of the morning air. My GPS app for the Camino was a godsend…and so was the torch.

Typically I got through those  looming woods which at night are silent and the tree trunks stand like sentinels looking down on you as you pant by …when Diane catches me up at a bar just before dawn. She is so emphatic and jolly and her stories kept me enraptured. So we walked together again.

There was a sad story that she told me though.

She had explained how she grew up in small town and there were only 2 girls her age. Michelin, Lucy and of course Diane. They were the best of friends and did everything together. Most days they would wander down the lane to the farm and stroke and feed the horse there. How they loved that horse. They would take him carrots and apples and as 12 year old schoolgirls, they told the farmer that when they had saved up enough money they were going to buy his horse and share it. As they were serious about this, they started saving their cents and pooling the amount together. Then tragedy struck. Luce was killed in a motor accident. The 2 girls were bereft but decided to carry on saving up for the horse as it was something the three of them had planned to do together. The following year, Michelin committed suicide. As a thirteen year old girl she had hung herself  which left Diane all on her own. She found the next few years really difficult without her best friends. She still wanted to save up for the horse but the total money at that point came to 92 cents!! Diane still has the purse with the 92 cents in it…she says if she ever gets a horse she will call it Michelu…..after both names of her friends. I sat with her in a little chapel on the Camino when she lit a candle for them both.❤️

That afternoon I arrived at my garden pension. I couldn’t believe that in the morning I would reach Santiago….I didn’t sleep and heard every cock crow and every owl hoot and every car pass by………it would be time to get up soon.

J had tossed and turned so much trying to sleep and not get bitten by beasties that by 5am I just got up. I knew I had 21-22 Kilometers to walk and it’s always more tricky when you approach a city. Its easy to get lost and the city streets seem to go on forever. So I worked it backwards.

The aim was to get to the Pilgrim Mass at 12 and get your Compostela from the Office,which I was told there was always a queue. So I would have to be in Santiago and finish at the latest by 10,30am. That sounded like a real bit of pressure and the worst thing was, if I set off at some ungodly hour then I would be longer in total darkness ..the battery had to last and the charger had to be full and the lead had to work.  I left!

It wasn’t even 5.30 and my backpack was heavy with 2 litres of water and fruit. I was so charged up.

I think it was more and more deep dark woodland that made my heart pound. I had my poles in my pack so that my hand was free to hold the torch phone. One slip now before the end and it would be stupid. I kept my finger on the screen so that the app and GPS remained lit. The path was narrow and to my left it slipped down into a ravine where at the bottom I knew a river was flowing, but I could only see a little way. Its funny because I wouldn’t more walk in a wood at night in my own city…yet here I was…into the unknown.

If the truth were known, I walked faster than I knew I could. I thought to myself, well if I don’t step forward, I’ll never get there.

I was making good time but then there was a fork in the road. I took the left. The path got narrower and somehow my tummy started to turn. This cant be the way I thought. So I checked my app. It was the wrong path! Turning round and doubling back I was conscious that my heart was racing but  I could  see a head lamp ahead.

”Oh good, its a pilgrim” I thought,  but it was actually two. The second guy said that it was ‘ This Way.’ He was young and round and Irish. I asked if his friend was from Ireland too,to which his friend  turned round and said,

” Oh No, I’m Chinese”

I laughed. They were boys from Belfast University studying Pharmacy. They did rush on though after a little chat because they wanted to make the mass too and they had been told there would be a line up to get in!

OH, great, I thought and paced on. It was a good hour before I came to a bar. I needed a morning coffee and the loo and a stamp!! I did all three but couldn’t rest longer or wait…I could taste the end. I had to move. By 9.45 I had hit the outskirts of the city. It went on forever and just as I was crossing yet another roadway with traffic I heard someone in a south Africanaccent shout

‘Carol…Hey remember me its Janine’

She had been joined by her lovely daughter Emma and so together we trudged rapidly the last Kilometers. I knew we were nearer because we started to enter the old town.

One more corner……and there it was!