preparing for the camino again!

I've put my walking boots on again this weekend. After a summer of only wearing sandals it is quite strange, my boots are pretty warn out too but it isn't the right moment to buy new ones. I'm going to be hard put to get much practice in this time. Only walking a week is probably as hard as setting off for the whole camino as you just don't get time to be adjusted. The weather is still very hot during the day so I walked in the early morning mist today.

It's also difficult to know where to walk on Sundays. I wasn't sure if the hunting season had started yet so I decided to avoid the woods today and stick to the road, then I forgot why I had chosen that particular route and decided to extend the walk by coming back through the wood! There I was walking up a road, just coming out of the mist and there was a man with a gun! It's a good job I'm not really a nervous type. I thought that would mean it really was safe to walk back through the wood, but no! Coming back I met two men with guns, there's really no winning. I met a fox this morning as well, that's a first. I don't think they are hunting foxes but I suspect some of the dogs aren't too fussy!

A month today I should be walking from Ribadiso to Pedrouzo!

Saturday, 18th September

Another long walk today, I survived it well though I'm back to finding hills difficult. I'm tossing up whether to be firm with myself tomorrow and do a very hilly walk or take an easier option. I know that Santiago to Finisterra is hilly so maybe I should be firm!!

I saw an animal yesterday!! it was black and looked like it belonged to the stoat/weasel family, I'm wondering was it a polecat or a mink? Will I ever know?

Sunday, 19th September

I was lazy this morning and decided not to take the longer walk that would have entailed a 400metre descent, before returning by almost the same path. I much prefer to do a circular route to a there and back but the path I used to take back last autumn has become so wet and muddy that even over the summer it hasn't dried out.

The photo below shows my village from the hills I was walking on yesterday, walking on the flat isn't really an option here!

My main problem today was where to walk, the path I intended to take became instantly impossible when I heard, just as I was leaving the village, the sound of the hunt dogs, coming from the direction I had intended to walk in. A meeting with men with guns assured me that that was the direction they were intending to hunt in so I had to rapidly rethink my walk. This also reduced the length of my walk but at least I have walked.