Day One: Monday, 4 April 2022 Outer Hebrides, Isle of Lewis

Started our adventure with Saint Moluag, the saint invoked against madness. We actually remained quite sane throughout our journey. 

At the Butt of Lewis, almost deafening waves awaited us and gave us our first hint of tropical blue. 


A lovely white house at the port of Ness.


Beautifully preserved black houses in the village…


… where this family lived until 1972. 


Allie the weaver who demonstrated his craft for us on his hundred year old loom.


Typical scene as we enjoyed our first day of “touching almost every inch of the isle,” as Annie explained. 


Callanish Stones which confounded us with their majesty and sturdiness.

The Callanish Stones

Millie the donkey

Hector will not let her out of his sight so there had to be the both of them in the palm Sunday procession. 

The two rams top left had just locked horns

At the Black House community

Cairn at the top, looking down…

Lighthouse at the Butt of Lewis

More crashing waves at the Butt

Lovely beach

St. Mulough’s Church

Starting the walk in St. Mulough’s Church

The Most North Westerly Point…

Why the Outer Hebrides?

Fantastic wildlife, standing stones older than Stonehenge, wild and crazy weather (or maybe I am the crazy one to be going) ….just can’t wait!

Progress

Some of you are interested in where I am and where I am going. 

Of course the Camino is a perfect life analogy, so if you have any inside information on the latter, I’d be grateful if you’d pass it along. 😊

This shows you the northern route of the Camino from Irun along the coast until the Camino turns away from the coast and southwest toward Santiago. You can see where I am in relationship to the beginning at Irun. 

I have walked a total of 310.8 km (talk about precision). In the interest of time and also because I’ve had a couple of unexpected days of sickness, I have skipped along by bus for part of the coastal distance from Irun while still walking the 310.8 km.

Now I am in Ribadeo. You can see where I am about to turn away from the coast. 

I will now be entering the province of lovely Galicia, though, which will make up for the lack of views of the sea. 

Galicia is beautiful, like a combination of being in the North Carolina mountains and of being in a fairy forest. It might be my favorite province of the four. 

Here is a photo taken in Galicia from my last walk to Santiago in 2016. 

I think I have about 220 km to walk to Santiago. I hope to walk that entire distance. 

Grrrr

7 October

Leaving Soto Del Barco

Walk To Soto de Luiña

Hotel Casa Vieja de Sastres

I chose the title for this post at a moment of frustration. This stage had any number of ups and downs, ups and downs, which really made no sense to me. 

But I admit to being spoiled and childish. 

My experiences today (not to mention the perfect weather) more than made up for my hard work. 

Muros de Nalón. 






These eucalyptus trees could be two hundred years old. 






A glimpse of the sea. 


I am not a big fan of graffiti. It is everywhere it seems, obviously under bridges but also defacing the sides of old buildings and churches, which really bothers me.

However this was nice, so I “embraced it.”


I don’t know much about bridge building (of the literal type), but I am a good observer. And I have seen very little of this type of construction. It is everywhere it seems in this part of the world.


This was a complete and delightful surprise. I had walked under bridges and through eucalyptus groves for hours, then turned the corner, and saw this. 


Then it was back to the woods. 


This was a tough day, and so I celebrated when I saw my hotel in Soto de Luiña. 

Rain... but just enough for cidre.

Friday 4 October

La Isla to Villaviciosa

The weather was looking as though it could go either way...

...but it decided to rain. 


This is cidre country, and it was a day for walking through orchards. 

I came upon this adorable carport and took a photo...


...and just then, Nicholas, the proud owner of the little red car, appeared. “Hay nada gente,” he said gesturing around. There are no more people in his village except for four families.


Beautiful little church for pilgrims...


...who may want to have a spiritual moment before continuing on the way. 


Another little Pilgrim respite.


I walked much of the day with Katerin of Russia. I’ll tell you more of her story later.




I ran into Martin, who is on the right, further on down the trail on another day. He is a hospitalier, or person who volunteers to stay at an albergue to receive and to help pilgrims, in Finesterre (the last place a pilgrim can walk before the sea). He said, “I am the cooker!“


Favorite bar in Villaviciosa...


...and favorite Spanish food.