It’s Sunday, the 9th of July (2023) and we’re heading back to Spain on Tuesday night to complete the Camino we started last year but failed to finish. We fly at 05:35 on Wednesday morning arriving in Santiago in time to catch the pre-booked bus back to Villafranca del Bierzo, the scene of last year’s ignominious retreat, after having first made our way north to A Coruña before heading south east to Villafranca. It’s much longer than the ubiquitous crow would fly but clearly from a commercial viewpoint a direct link isn’t desirable.

C’est la vie.

We’ll grab some lunch in Villafranca before walking the 9.6km to Albergue Camino y Leylenda in Trabadelo. We stayed in the village though not in this particular albergue last time we hobbled through.

We’re going to pick up the bus tickets to Gatwick this afternoon and then fingers crossed, we’ll pack lightly and walk swiftly up to headington on Tuesday evening to pick up the bus. I’m sure we’ll manage to grab a couple of hours sleep before we get onto the plane and then no doubt another couple before landing.

It should be fun 🤞.