Walking the Camino de Santiago
Today I thought it might be fun to have Dobbles take the lead on exploring and running some errands in Cahors this afternoon. Wait? Dobbles? Yes, Dobbles is my mascot for this Camino. He’s a little stuffed emperor penguin chick that normally lives clipped to my backpack. I joke that he’s guarding the pack while it’s not attached to me. […]
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In many of the larger towns and villages – and even some of the smaller ones – you will find tourist offices, like this one in Saint-Chély-d’Aubrac. They are absolutely invaluable. If you’ve been following along, you know that I reserved eight of my first ten nights in advance at various gîtes and hostels and monasteries. But Saint-Chély was the […]
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I’m not sure who left this little fellow or why, but his days of pilgrimage seem to be over. For one thing, he’s missing a foot! I’m not even entirely sure what sort of animal this is meant to be. Sheep? Dog? Llama? Alpaca? I often encountered this sort of odd whimsy on the GR-65 route. I myself am not […]
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Steve took this photo of me as we entered Aumont-Aubrac. This was my stopping point for the day, though Steve was pushing on a bit farther. Our plan was to have lunch in town and then say our goodbyes. In this photo you can see my mascot, Dobbles the penguin, as well as my forward-facing water bottle holsters. A word […]
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About an hour into my pilgrimage walk, I found this little lady. She was face down in the gravel road. There were no human habitations nearby, and I had no idea who might have dropped her or when. I picked her up, and she stayed in my fanny pack (that’s bum bag to the rest of the world) for the […]
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Last night I stayed in the albergue parroquial in the little hill village of La Faba. This particular albergue is staffed by volunteers from the German pilgrim confraternity, and it’s a great place. Next door is the clean, well-kept village church of San Andrés. What a lovely little church! It came complete with a cat sleeping in the presider’s chair. […]
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Apparently my body, knowing that today was going to be a short day, slightly overslept. I mean, I was up at 5 AM with a jolt, but I immediately fell back to sleep. Even so, I was packed and ready to go at just before 7:30 AM. Despite the lateness, I hadn’t actually slept very well. The most uncomfortable bed! […]
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A wistful sort of melancholy filled me as I passed out of the gates of Saint-Jean last night after dinner. I touched the stones of the Spanish Gate wondering when I would see the town again. As I climbed the Camino route up the hill to my rooms, my head was suddenly filled with the medieval pilgrim song that we […]
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Kit for the Via Podiensis We’ve come to that part of the pre-Camino countdown where for every two or three items I’m checking off my list, I seem to be adding one more. Today my very last piece of kit arrived – a new windbreaker/rain shell to replace my old one. The new one is about a third the weight […]
» Read moreBeing a chronicle of Thom’s progress upon his pilgrimage, the Camino de Santiago, or Way of Saint James, in the autumn of 2023 along the routes known as the Via Podiensis and the Camino Francés. The number of kilometers traveled per day is as accurate as GPS tracking is likely to be. For reasons explained in the individual posts, those […]
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