Off again, on the Camino del Norte from Mondoñedo to Santiago. Originally this was to be the family’s present for my 80 birthday two years ago. Then when we were ready to go Covid struck. So we all met via Zoom religiously every afternoon and did that day’s stage on Google street view. The children took turns to move the little Männlein along the way - not the path of course but the roads. We stopped at every bar for a drink or ice-cream and lunch and finally dinner after having installed ourselves in the hotel where we had a reservation. Nowadays all hotels and most restaurants have websites with photos of the rooms and menus – so we chose our favourite menus and lots of individual rooms to chose from where in reality of course we would have been “crammed” into a very small number of rooms.

Well, now two years later with no travel restrictions we have resuscitated our plans, our reservations in the same places, somewhat reduced in numbers. My daughter Alison is gravely ill and cannot come and her husband Richard is staying with her. My son Duncan and daughter-in-law Vera cannot come either. But otherwise we will be the same lot ie:

All of my grandchildren: Nico 10, Paulo 15 (almost), Leo 17, Franzisca 18 (almost), James 19, Nicola 19 and Clara who will be 22 on our first day of walking plus her boyfriend Max 23. Franzisca will join us only a few days into our walk. And then there are Andrea and Serge, the parents of Leo, Paulo and Nico. And I….

We each have to carry our own belongings, whereby things we share are carried by the strongest, so Nico has to carry only his clothes.

We will walk on the Camino del Norte from Mondoñedo to Baamonde. Then the Norte joins the very busy Camino Francés which we want to avoid. So we take to an alternative route until we join the Francés just before Santiago.

Our stages are around 20 km/day which should be manageable when you have all day because accommodation is certain. The total is just over 130 km. (Actually 153 km as calculated by the Pilgrims Office distance certificate).

Tomorrow I will leave by coach from Rennes to Santiago with Nicola who is holidaying here at the moment – 31 hours until Santiago via Paris! So we will arrive a day before the others. And from Santiago taxis for all of us to Mondoñedo, our starting point.

Voilà! Let us hope it will all go smoothly….. 

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