Camino Inglés Day 6 Sigüeiro to Santiago 13/10/2023

 16 km    4.5 hours most of which walked because you cannot make pauses in the pouring rain, except for one huge pilgrim stopping point, where you could have breakfast, coffee, drinks.

Made it! Arrived at 2 pm. My taxi was there at 8:30 am. In pouring rain! I knew it was going to rain, but it came down in buckets. And when I told the driver to take me back to Sigüeiro he could not believe he had heard right - go back rather than forward to Santiago?!  However he took me back to a bar which was open for breakfast and there were several pilgrims who left shortly afterwards shrouded in grey or black capes. This I cannot understand. In the rain (or the night) you need to make yourself visible. For that reason I wear hiviz ankle straps at home and here in addition I had cut up one of those hiviz vests to make a cover for my pack and a sort of bib for my front so I can be seen by oncoming traffic.

As I was coming out of town just before the bridge there was a woman opening her fruit and vegetable shop and I remembered that I did not have any food accessible in the rain. With my handsfree umbrella I could not enter the shop without undoing the whole setup. So I asked her to kindly fetch me a banana which I could fit into my bumbag. She laughed and got me one and then refused payment. Buen Camino!

Anyway after about one hour of walking along the Nacional I found that my tracker had only registered 10 minutes and had gone from red to grey - ie stopped working. So I do not have any detailed registration about this day’s walk.

A short while later - there were several of us, more or less grouped - we came across the Pilgrims’ Posada - a huge space where there were four large round tables with plenty of space all round and you could have breakfast, or just coffee and drinks ( no alcohol) and croissants etc. There I was joined by four young (-ish) women who were walking together, more or less. Were traveling with an organisation who had made their hotel bookings and carried their big luggage, but they had to walk the whole way and had to find their way to the hotel. They had not known each other before  - two were Austrian from Vienna, one was German from I have forgotten where and equally one Swiss from I don’t know where. They had noticed me before on several occasions - I had noticed two of them once. And this time when they asked to sit at my table I told them we had come across each other before, but where??? and of course again I forgot to take a photograph.

And the rain continued to pour down. I noticed that although my shoes were sopping wet - I had left my gaiters at home thinking one day of rain forecast, what does it matter against 200gr of additional weight on my back during several days. Well! Although my shoes and feet were sopping wet I made big steps over puddles of water or across streams pouring down the paths - the way you do to avoid getting your shoes wet. What did it matter now, but still - the habit of taking care….

So, I made it! Went straight to the pilgrims’ office and got my compostela and had on it a sort of “in memoriam” for Rosalind, my dear friend of many years who died recently without giving us any warning - no health problems, only 78, went to sleep over her book and did not wake up again....

Then as I was coming from the pilgrims’ office there was Simone who was going to get her compostela, but she wanted to take my photograph in front of the cathedral. So up we went and found ourselves next to an American who offered to take our photo and Simone took his and after quite a long palaver I went to deposit my pack in a left luggage next to the cathedral and Simone went with the American to the pilgrims’ office for their compostelas. 

Had a walk round the cathedral and did not find the statue of St James Matamoros anymore, with or wtithout large flower compositions! Tried to take a photograph of the new construction to support the botafumeiro. Years ago I remember thinking, when seeing the construction which holds up the botafumeiro, how flimsy it looked and imagining if ever it gives and the thing falls on the crowd in the cathedral! Took a photograph then - have to find it.

And then coming out of the left luggage place on Plaça de la Prateria next to one of the side entrances of the cathedral a young  man was staring at me - Philip - and I remembered his name!!! A young German I had met in the albergue of Ferrol. He had arrived yesterday and had had such a good time on his camino, met lots of pleasant people and he too is hooked now. I told him about the fact that you can add somebody to your compostela, somebody who cannot walk it themselves and he will try to have his grandmother added - she cannot walk any more, so she cannot be expected to walk a camino herself..

Am now installed in an apart-hotel which Andrea found for me when I was completely lost - no room anywhere, everything complete! Called Andrea, can you find anything - I am lost and tired and cannot get my photos on the blog, etc. etc. And she did and yesterday at last I managed to put my photos on the blog!!!  I managed again, but still do not know how to put my photos in the right order…. (Have just sorted this out more than a month after my return!)

      

 Coffee in the bar my taxi took me back to this morning - churro and mini croissant!

                    

                          Setting out from the bar

                                     Wet!

                Coming down in buckets!

            Coming into Santiago: San Caetano

                                                                     Made it!

                                                                 With Simone

                                     The new construction holding up the botafumeiro...

...and here is the photo taken six years ago