We started our day 13 of our Camino Primitivo only 25 km away from Santiago de Compostela. This is it! The last push. One of Mommy’s friend had to catch a bus home at 3PM, so Mommy wanted to reach Santiago by 1PM so that she could meet up with her. Can we make it?
Route overview and statistics
| Distance 25.9 km | Average speed 5.0 kph |
| Maximum altitude 413 m | Ascent 440 m |
| Minimum altitude 252 m | Descent 521 m |
It was actually quite tricky to work out what time we had to leave. We figured the walk would take us 5 hours-ish, with some breaks/photo ops, so we gave ourselves 6 hours and left our pensión at 7AM. According to Mommy’s watch, today was our fastest hike on the Camino!
We saw plenty of fire salamanders in the dark. Their skin secretes poison and very toxic to dogs, so while it was still dark, Mommy kept me on tight leash and we avoided all the salamanders. When it got lighter, we saw a lot of dead salamanders on the road, presumably roadkilled.
In this segment, the Camino criss-crossed the N-547 a few times, so be careful especially in the dark! After A Brea, the next village 2.5 km down the road is Santa Irene. There is Chapel of Santa Irene here but it wouldn’t be open at 7AM. Here the Camino splits again, with 2 Camino markers to explicitly state it: the one nearer to the pilgrims pointed to the left and would take you to pass underneath the N-547 to the Chapel. The marker behind carries on ahead, this is the shorter route if you don’t want to visit the Chapel, and both will rejoin by the bar in Santa Irene.
O Pedrouzo
We stopped at a bar in A Rúa, Restaurante O Acivro for extra dose of caffeine and a sello. Mommy debated if she should put on her waterproofs now or waited. It hadn’t started raining yet but was forecasted to rain, so she put them on, but opened all the air vents on both jacket and trousers.
O Pedrouzo is the standard starting point for the last stage to Santiago, so the crowd just grew bigger and bigger and no matter how quickly we walked or how many people we passed, we constantly had more pilgrims in sight.
As we were only walking here a few months before (in June), this was like a deja vu! Mommy took some photos to send to our friend back in the UK who walked this stretch of the Camino with Mommy and she could remember where they were taken and how we felt! So, compared to June, we were definitely feeling much stronger at these same spots.
At the foot of the A-54 we saw the first signs of Santiago, here was a standing stone carved with a pilgrim’s staff, a shell, and a gourd. Classic pilgrim accessories. By now it had started raining so it would be a wet arrival into Santiago. This sign only signified us entering the municipality of Santiago de Compostela, and it would still take us another 3 hours to reach the Cathedral!
Lavacolla
After walking around the northern half of the runway of Santiago de Compostela Airport (SCQ), we first arrived at San Paio, 12 km from Santiago. At the centre of the village square was Capela de Santa Lucía, which on Sunday morning, was open for sello! Mommy went inside and kneeled for a quick prayer. There were 2 bars opposite the chapel, both were full with very long queues. I guess everyone wanted a hot drink on this cold and wet day. We also saw at least 2 other peRRegrinos. So we just had a banana (meaning I shared one with Mommy) and we carried on walking.
The last time we did our Camino, we stopped at Lavacolla to have a short 10 km final day into Santiago. Apart from welcoming pilgrims, the village also serves as a convenient transit point for travellers heading to/from the airport and the bus to/from the airport also passes along the main road here.
Leaving Lavacolla, we crossed River Sionlla over a wooden bridge. Aymeric Picaud, French monk, traveller, and author of Codex Calixtinus, described in the 12th century, “Because in a leafy spot by which he passed, two miles from Santiago, they removed their clothing and, for the love of the Apostle, they would clean not only their parts, but also the dirt from their whole bodies.”
As we walked past familiar places, we couldn’t help to notice that a large part of our mood was determined by the weather! Previously, we walked here early in the morning on a warm sunny day, compared now with midday, cold, wet, and crowded.
Monte de Gozo
From the top of the hill at Monte de Gozo, meaning “Mount of Joy”, we can look over towards Santiago de Compostela. The famous pilgrim monument, however, is not on the Camino, but some 600 m detour! We made this detour in June, so this time we didn’t. There is, however, Chapel of San Marcos, and again maybe because this was Sunday, the Chapel was open and Mommy fired another short prayer and got another sello.
Santiago de Compostela
By now we were racing to Santiago. We were familiar with the roads, everything was very familiar. After we took our photos at this landmark, Mommy told her friend to be on stand by at the plaza, how exciting!
As we made our way past the Sunday crowd, we could start hearing the characteristic tunes of a bagpipe – both times we arrived in Santiago we had the bagpiper under the arch. What an emotional entrance! When we arrived in the middle of Praza do Obradoiro, we looked around and then we saw Mommy’s friend running towards us for a big hug, hooray!
Also, as if by magic, the rain stopped just minutes before we entered the square. Two of Mommy’s friends met her at the square and after sorting out our paperwork at the Pilgrim’s Office, we head over for lunch with the rest of the gang.
Santiago is always a special place to us and we always had different experiences every time we were here. We stayed for a couple of nights, we caught up with friends, went to pilgrim’s mass – Mommy saw the botafumeiro swinging, again, and the mass was also headed by the Archbishop, again. This time Mommy also went to the English mass at the Pilgrim’s Office and also visited the Church of San Francisco, where you can get another certificate to mark your pilgrimage, the Cotolaya.
Accommodation and cost
We stayed at the fantastic Hotel A Tafona do Peregrino. Mommy loves old buildings and this place was exactly like how she likes it. It has been modernised though because our room had AC and the lock was digital and set to the last 4 digits of Mommy’s phone number. The shower door was a bit dodgy and didn’t slide/close properly and there was a waft of damp smell in the room. But apart from that, it was perfect! Location wise, it was very close to the Abastos market where Mommy tried various yummy seafood. It’s also close to Parque de Belvis which is our favourite place to go for a run around in Santiago.
For more info regarding what dog friendly activities you can do in Santiago, please read our other post here.
Reflection on day 13
This Camino was our longest so far – 3 weeks in total as we started with Camino San Salvador. Prior to that we had been travelling for about a week through France and Northern Spain, and we still had about another week to slowly make our way back to the UK.
Mommy took really good care of me and made sure I didn’t suffer injuries to my paws like last time! So I only had minor mishaps: small lacerations on my paw from stepping over something sharp on day 2, one tickbite, one nasty labrador that ripped and stole my collar. Overall I was very happy!
Mommy also completed both Caminos blister-free. She had a few days where she had niggling pain on her right lower leg, but with a lot of stretching, massage, and her special balm from Indonesia “Counterpain”, it disappeared before it caused her too much trouble.
We spent many hours preparing for this and planning every stage in great detail. Because of this, I slept every night with Mommy on a warm bed. For that I have Mommy to thank for, thank you!!!
What we didn’t and couldn’t plan, however, was the people that we met, the connection that we shared. One of our friends, Alvaro, made this little sketch, isn’t that so cute?
