A week and a half to go

If you look closely, you can see my route, or most of it. From Madrid up to where it ends, then turn left past Leon and Astorga. Unfortunately, my next route, the Camino de Invierno isn't on this map, but I'll see if I can find one. It heads over to Santiago after Astorga, staying north of Ourense, through a beautiful river gorge area of Spain, the Sil River gorge. Then to Santiago and on to Finisterre.
I copied this map from another pilgrim's blog, which I hope is legal.

Last year, my Via de la Plata blog had no pictures. THIS YEAR, I am trying to correct that problem. I've been spending time asking my Camino friends to help me learn to take pictures from the camera card onto the blog. And I may actually be able to do it. Stay tuned.

So, the prologue. This year, I am walking on four different, but connecting, Caminos. I will start in Madrid, and take the aptly named Camino de Madrid. It ends about 300 kms north of Madrid, in Sahagun.Sahagun is on the Camino Frances, the most popular and most crowded route. I will "turn left" at Sahagun and walk for another 170 kms to a small city with a Templar castle, Ponferrada. At that point, I will detour off and away from the crowds to take the almost unknown Camino de Invierno (the Winter Camino, so called because it goes south of one of the mountain passes on the Camino Frances and was an easier route to follow in winter). That's another 250 kms or so.

Finally, in Santiago, I will once again walk out to the "end of the world", Fisterre and on to Muxia, another coastal town, for my last four days of walking, the Camino de Fisterre.

I am not very good at placing photos in the midst of text, sorry for the bad design.

So, though this may be a somewhat shorter camino for me than usual, it has the real attraction of putting me on two very untraveled segments. According to friends who have walked on these routes, they are just beautiful. I can't wait!