It was another lovely sunny day when we left Boente at 7:30 this morning.  This is our penultimate day of walking – only one more day to go.  Our guide book said we might find hoards of overly keen youngsters very excited about almost reaching their goal.  We have, in fact, found the paths over the last couple of days to be very quiet.

I have been asking myself how I will feel when we finally get to Santiago.  I do not, as yet, have a feeling of excitement and it certainly doesn’t feel like I only have one more day to go.  If anything, I am still wondering if I can do it and if I will really make it.  It is quite strange how both of us have become incredibly body conscious and feel every little tweak and twinge.  We see so many people, young and old, wearing knee braces, some carrying their boots and wearing open toed sandals because their feet are badly blistered.  Shortly after leaving Boente this morning we passed a large elderly lady (probably my age!) limping very badly and using, what looked like, a pair of new crutches.  That is brave.  We wished her buen camino and hoped she’d make it but she has a very long way to go in such a state.  I am conscious of nearly every step I take and hope I don’t twist or turn the wrong way and injure myself in some way that will prevent me from getting to the end.  And it is now a matter of pride to be able to say, “I walked the Camino Frances all the way carrying a back pack.”

The small breas and countryside are still beautiful and I never cease to be amazed that a large town can pop up out of nowhere, without suburbs and noisy traffic, and then quickly disappear back to wonderful landscapes.  We passed through several breas and eventually came to Arzua, a reasonably sized town, pleasant enough but nothing special.  The moment we left the urban streets we were back in open countryside and walking through forest paths.  At one point we did have to cross a bridge over a motorway leading to Santiago.  I think there are more people walking to Santiago than going by car!

We came across an unusual bar and decided to stop there for lunch.  It had hundreds, if not thousands, of empty bottles everywhere with a message and date written on them presumably by the customers who had bought beer.  The bar was certainly different and eye catching.

We covered 16 miles today in reasonably good time and made it to our albergue by 2:30 pm.  This is the last time we will have the dormitory experience as we have a private room for the next two nights before we fly home.  The albergue is okay, not one of the best, and was in chaos when we arrived being extremely busy and understaffed.  After waiting for 20 minutes we complained and were taken to our beds, not having checked in as the owner didn’t have time.  We have since managed to check in and are sharing a room with a nice young Belgian girl.  This is not an albergue I would advise anyone to stop at, not even for a coffee break.  The service is appalling, one woman was screaming at the owner accusing him of being a racist because she had waited so long to be served.  There were a number of people who simply left.  The owner’s attitude left a lot to be desired and if we had not already booked, we would have moved on hoping to find another place.  To cap it all, not only is it the worst place we have stayed in over the past six weeks, it is the most expensive!  On the bright side, the room and beds seem okay and we have a nice roommate, and it is only for one night.

Tomorrow – our final day.  We have another long walk ahead of us and we must reach our Pension before 3 o’clock or, we have been told, there will be no-one to check us in and we will be locked out.  We thought we would check in, dump our bags and then head to the pilgrim office to collect our compostella.  Our roommate has told us that she was speaking to a friend who had just queued for three hours to get her compostella and they are now estimating a waiting time of between 3 – 4 hours!  Laurence has said he doesn’t want it.  But I do!

It is now nearly 8 o’clock and almost time for bed as we need an early night for an early start tomorrow.  We are hoping to get on the road by 7 o’clock.  Although we are good at getting up, we don’t seem to be able to get our stuff together and leave in good time.  Tomorrow there will be no excuses, we have a deadline to meet!