A rebel without a clue.

After the big exhale when I departed from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port on the 4th October, I am now, finally, about to breath in once more as I return home for the winter season. It's been quite a while in which I've been away. The longest since Lola was a puppy ... As she's crossed over into senior dog, and now no longer needs those long adventures we once shared (which is so sad), I know I can leave her content on mother's sofa. But they're the same beautiful eyes I see into when I am by her side. There is no malice in them. There are times when I get so lonely on el Camino, as I always get lonely in Blighty, when I wish she was by my side: but she's always been a bit of a provocative bitch so that it's not sensible for her the keep coming across local farm dogs and those chained up protecting 'property' if she were by my side. Those few dogs I saw on the Camino Frances were pretty easy going: especially Jacob the Mastiff... Queued up for the emptying o...

So back to bed? The gentleman(Korean, Japanese or an other) who is in the bed next to me is away walking for the day, but coming back here later, so I've a chance to unwind a couple of hours prior to the cleaning of the albergue? The weather is back to inclement. Yesterday was an illusion. It's winter on the Atlantic Ocean coast. The room I am in faces the garden at the back of the house, so it's sufficiently quiet for another night here - at the front the revellers pass by. And I got being a tourist out of my system. But the blinking cat is not going to let me chill, with its broken meow out in the corridor (poor mite wants something I can't give it) ... Time to resurrect and discover a Delta café? Stepped out into more rain. But I have a coffee. Once I return to the Albergue I doubt I will leave it again ... Freshly squeezed orange juice and a cheese toastie this morning. They're cleaning up the albergue. They let me stay again and I can go to the room once they h...

Needed to leave the warmth of Ideas Peregrinas Albergue for the warmth of the Cafe attached below and a large mug of Tilla tea, oat biscuit and chestnut cake. Three substances I know provoke sleepiness. I was a bit restless even in the comfortable bottom bunk in room 204. Hops also do that don't they. A hop pillow ... My only concern is whether my boots will have dried by the morning. The rain was running rivers everywhere. Newspaper... In the 21st century these are less common than the ubiquity they were prior to the digital age? Annoyed with the weather. Tui is a nice city, perched on the top of a hill, overlooking the Minho river...but I didn't make it all the way on foot! I feel a bit of 'guilt' because I caught a train. But I am not a fool. I recall the downpour which kept me in Óbidos in 2021 - around about the same time of year too. The gentleman behind the counter in the Eco-Café suggests tomorrow will same. Perhaps I stay put, chill out and then catch the bus o...

Full blown cold! Makes me even more weary. 7:30am for breakfast, but I am not coping well this morning. It's also tanking it down. Walking? Good question... Second coffee across the street and it's not working. I feel dry as a bone too. Hasty breakfast and catching the train to Valença... The weather abysmal. Torrential and wind. With a cold I'd be making things much worse? *** Soaked by the time I reached Ideas Albergue in Tui. Showered and went next door for a hasty lunch. Unlikely to leave the warm and dry. The Páramo Halcon coat is wet out! Nothing stays dry on a day like today unless it's a poncho, but I don't like how they make me sweat beneath! This albergue has a tumble dryer so I should chuck the coat in the bring it back to repellent? Later later: siesta? Well almost! In stumbles a Russian who lives in NYC. Just as I was getting a little warmer too. Hastily made a brew from a solitary Chamomile bag. I think I will go find a cash machine and read a book? Th...

On the way with waves crashing and Amazona making me tearful: oh Roxy Music - that was probably too loud for the tranquility of the Caminho coming out of Viana, below the Santuário de Santa Luzia, and find my way again?! For the second day running I'd found bliss in the morning, but I just wish I could have it in the afternoon when I am just too fatigued to care for the cobble stones I bounced along without any consideration prior to lunch. And after lunch I thought about catching a train rather than follow the litoral - along the decking and dunes. And I saw only two other pilgrims, apart from the other one who was up with me around 6am in the cold damp albergue. Tom from Melbourne, Australia, who I briefly exchanged pleasantries with before I went to being in the 'now' surrounded by the glory of nature and just now, prior to the turn to Âncora, coming south from Spain a fraulein heading to Porto from Santiago. She'd only spent a night in Santiago, as it wa...

At Saõ Roque, in Póvoa de Varzim, with his loyal companion, is my saint of 'choice': at least he probably existed, is the only church I've set foot in so far on the journey. And to see him showing the same wound on his leg as Jesus's ... He wears the attributes of a pilgrim, with the scallop shell adornments, but was he a pilgrim? Today the only pilgrim I saw until Viana del Castelo was going to Fatima. He had a dog. It was in Esposende - perhaps he was Saint Roch? Seems ages ago since I left the coast for inland, and, after an enjoyable meander alongside the river, it's up through the eucalyptus tree plantation until, in some desperation and a little fatigued, I've stopped opposite Saõ Sebastião(Pão Quente) for lunch around one. Now it's a little over 8 Kms to finish the day? Chafé. As I run out of energy I do get stupidly hungry! Wednesday already: day 5. Yesterday I was 'seeing' very clearly for the first time, but this morning I a...

Last night I went to the sack early (just as the hostess was preparing ribs for supper (the divine smells of garlic wafting upstairs)) because I was feeling something in my head, nose and throat (and a slight ache in my bones), but I can't imagine where I have caught another ague from?!? Recently, on the Camino Frances, I had a wee sniffle - but there I was in mainly Municipal Albergues where there wasn't much separate between bodies... Something was going around, but it was'nee the Plague. ... Back in late February of 2020 I was heading out to the Jakobsweg between Fulda and Metz, just as COVID19 was rearing it's head. After flying late to Köln and then heading to Frankfurt on a packed Flixbus, where I had to share with some very unhealthy sounding people who were returning from a ski trip in Italy, my film maker friend Michael (The Walk) took me to Bad Vibel for a couple of nights. After I had set out from Fulda (3 days after the coach trip) I was already ...