Day 49 - Leiras to Deseiro de Abajo (10 miles)

On the Camino Frances when you get to within one hundred kilometres of Santiago it becomes a circus: there are big groups of walkers (freshly laundered pilgrims as I referred to them), coaches and taxis to support them and no end of trinket shops, all of which were non existent for the previous seven hundred kilometres. The reason: if you walk a hundred kilometres to get to Santiago you get a certificate for having completed a Camino and so that is where a lot of people start. I did wonder how busy this route would get as I approached the city but as I walked out into a bracing morning with only seventeen miles to go I need not have worried: I was again alone in the world with only my thoughts for company. 

My plan today was to spend the night in an albergue six miles from Santiago and walk in tomorrow for breakfast with Patrick who arrived there yesterday. This close to my destination I did expect to begin to see evidence of urban sprawl but I have been pleasantly surprised. Again a large part of the day has been in or around woodland - oak and pine and eucalyptus - sometimes on tracks, sometimes on roads and it has, as ever, been hilly; there was a steep drop into the valley of the River Ulla followed by a climb of over a thousand feet on the other side. Some of the higher parts of the route offered good views across the Galician landscape in return for your efforts. 

By early afternoon I was at Deseiro de Abajo, a few houses on a main road to Santiago, where I had lunch in the cafe adjacent to the albergue before chilling for the rest of the day as there is nothing else to distract you here. Tomorrow I arrive in Santiago de Compostela to complete this section of my walk. After so many weeks it is hard to believe that it is only two hours walking away.