Charlie. Today we finished our second walk on the Camino Frances. Tomorrow we take the bus from Ponferrada to Santiago and the day after that we start walking the Camino Finisterre.
We walked 235 miles from Pamplona to Ponferrada in 35 days, walking 33 of those days and staying in 34 different towns. We averaged 7.1 miles a day for the days we walked.
The weather was quite good generally. We had 3-4 days with some rain and only one really hard rain. It was pretty hot for the first couple of weeks and getting pretty cool the last two weeks but today it was 80 in Ponferrada and the 10 day forecast is for more warm weather.
The original plan was to walk all the parts we had skipped last time but we ended up skipping pretty much the same parts. We found it quite enjoyable to walk the parts over again and remember what it was like the last time. Memory can be amazingly specific. It was not unusual to say “I remember that around the next turn there is a cement bench and we stopped there for a snack and talked to that German couple from Munich who we had talked to in Hornillos the previous night”.
This may sound like we were trying to recreate the last Camino but it was not like that. We enjoyed the memories and expanded the experience with new events. We had to leave many towns before we wanted to last time. Going through them again allowed us to complete the experience and make it more satisfying. The balance between the old and the new was just right for us.
We are sad to be ending this part but are already getting excited about the new Camino. We already made a reservation for the first stop out of Santiago.