O Pino, Galicia

 O Pino, Galicia  

I left Arzua more than half an hour before dawn...along with a lot of other pilgrims perhaps all with the same idea to get ahead of the crowds. I remembered the route from an earlier Camino when I had walked the majority of El Camino Frances but had riden a horse for the last 270 kilometres. The main road runs parallel to the Camino route, but given the numbers of pilgrims, the back street is much more crowded. 

After leaving the urban area, it was dark, especially as the route is under the shelter of trees but there were plenty of pilgrims with head torches and mobiles lighting the route with a string of pinpricks of light bobbing up and down ahead of me. The pylons with the distance and the yellow arrow were hard to read in the dark but there was no need as there were so many people all going in the same direction.

When I was walking El Camino del Norte, there were only a few pilgrims with long stretches when I might see nobody, or just a pilgrim or a couple a long way ahead of me. Here on El Camino Frances, it was crowded. It was like comparing a quiet rural road with a major motorway. 

Now that the route was out of the mountains, the total ascent and descent of the route in metres for this section seemed modeest at 250? and 250? so I was surprised when the route climbed up a steep slope as I thought that I had left all those leg jarring, lung bursting ascents behind me in the mountains.  Luckily it wasn't a long ascent and it came out of the trees and there views aover fields in grey of dawn. Overhead, there were aircraft contrails lit up in red as the sun rose in an otherwise clear sky. 

Contrails in the sky. 

El Camino Frances is an old route to Santiago de Compostela, and the most popular route by far. This section is also part of the minimum 100 kilometres (for walkers) that need to be completed in order to obtain that important piece of paper to proce that you have completed a Camino. 

The rules vary from year to year, and there has been a recent alteration. Pilgrims no longer have to complete the last minimum 100 kilometres but can complete any authorised route of 100 kilometres on any Camino and be credited with a Compostela. 

That is a good idea to try to reduce congestion near Santiago de Compostela, and it helps to spread the largesse of pilgrims to other areas but a pilgrim must still take his pilgrims passport to the pilgrim's office in Santiago de Compostela in order to have his Credential checked and to be issued with his Compostela. It will take a few years to see whether this change in rules has any effect. 

Nearly half a million pilgrims gained a Compostela in 2024 but that figure excludes those who walked a Camino but didn't take up the offer of obtaining a Compostela. The most popular route is El Camino Frances as it is the least challenging with more than half a million pilgrims completing this route. 

The next most popular route is El Camino Portuguese. This route was completed by more than a quarter of pilgrims claiming a Compostela. Ignoring the dip in numbers due to COVID, the numbers of pilgrims completing a Camino has increased every year for more than the last ten years. The percentage of pilgrims completing either the Frances or Portuguese routes is declining as more pilgrims are choosing and completing some of the alternative routes. 

It seems that once a pilgrim has completed one route, they have been bitten by the bug and the numbers of pilgrims completing a second Camino is also increasing, thus increasing the numbers of pilgrims completing some of the hitherto less popular routes. Many pilgrims also walk one of the shorter routes after finishing their main route, such as the Caminos Finsiterre, Irlandais or Anglais but having gained a Compostela, they don't claim their earned next Compostela. 

On El Camino Frances, in contrast to El Camino del Norte and other options, there are so many pilgrims that many entrepreneurs have found it profitable to open cafes, alberques or set up stalls en route. Everyone has a different take such as this cafe whose perimetre walls are lined with beer bottles with peoples names on the base. 

There are plenty of rustic scenes such as small fords with an elevated side pavement for pilgrims so they don't get their feet wet.

And plenty of fine countryside views...

...and entrepreneurs with stalls at the side of the route.

A tribute to Guillermo Watt , who died en route...

...a fountain fro pilgrims, but of no use now after the road was redeveloped to provide a safe underpass for pilgrims that cut off the spring so now it is dry. 

One of many underpasses even on rural roads to give a safe passage for pilgrims. 

Another tribute to a pilgrim who died in her sleep after completing her second Camino.