We have arrived, it’s sunny, the last 19 km was a relative doddle, we’ve checked in, showered, had lunch, got our compostelas …

… and are pleasantly ensconced outside the Camino office with glasses of wine, agua con gas, and complementary crisps and olives.

We started late again in an attempt to miss most of the wave of Sarria pilgrims and to a large measure we succeeded. I suspect that most who begin their Caminos in Sarria are Spanish and get up early in O Pedrouzo in order to get to Santiago in time for mass at 12 o’clock. As highly experienced non-Catholics we have the luxury of staying in bed.

Today’s route was through a mixture of woodland paths and small villages. The woodlands are mostly composed of a small number of oak and ash with some pine and small ‘plantations’ of eucalyptus trees.

Some eucalyptus have clearly ‘escaped’ from the plantations and grow to fantastic heights.

They’re lovely trees but are extremely flammable and given the accelerating trend to warmer temperatures this maybe isn’t such a good thing 😞.

These hardy plants have delightfully scented, volatile oil in all parts of the plant. The tree sheds bark and dead leaves, which make a perfect pile of tinder under the tree too. When the oils in the tree heat up, the plant releases flammable gas, which ignites into a fireball. This accelerates the eucalyptus fire hazards in a region and discourages firefighting efforts.

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/trees/eucalyptus/eucalyptus-fire-hazards.htm

So close to a major conurbation there is far less diversity in plant and animal species, no butterflies or animals apart from dogs, mostly Alsatian and invariably employed as guard dogs. There are the occasional displays of some wonderful flowers.

Two final Estrella images

On the final run in there were extensive adverts to camino tattoos 😊. Just in case anyone is interested …

That’s pretty much it from this, our sixth and probably final Camino. We’re catching the 10:54 bus to the coast at Muxia where we’ll dip our blistered feet into the Atlantic before returning for a final night in Santiago. We walked there after the Inglés in 2021 before finishing at Fisterra. It was a lovely walk through the rich, ever green Galician countryside where we met a lovely group of fellow travellers. Maybe one day I’ll manage to document it. In the meantime, goodbye from Santiago de Compostela.

Buen camino

Final addendum

We saw Alessandro wandering around O Pedrouzo yesterday evening. He was walking pretty well and intended getting to Santiago in time for the midday mass. Not seen since, but I’ve no doubt he got here. Saw Marco after he’s got his Compostela. Heavily bandaged he got here safely and is confident of making it all the way to Muxia and Fisterra, a four day trek out of Santiago. He did get a tattoo 😊