Every Which Way

Jane: I am sure some of you have been wondering how Charlotte and I have managed to find our way almost 500 miles across norther Spain without Henry to point the way with his satmap.  Well it has been pretty difficult I can tell you. We have had to draw on all our collective map reading, trail finding and orienteering skills.  Thank goodness we both got our tracking badges in the Girl Guides.

We recognise the value that Girl Guide training has had, but we need also to thank Ray Meers for all his survival tips and in particular we are so glad we spent hours as children watching the Lone Ranger. Tonto´s tracking tips have proved invaluable -- many a time we have had our ear to the track listening for the distance tramp of pilgrims´feet.

Particularly useful have been such aids to direction as the sun, obviously, but when cloudy we frequently looked for the mossy side of the trees, put a wet finger to the wind, looked for the angle of bushes in the prevailing wind and occasionally came across the spoor of pilgrims who had gone ahead: the bent grass the broken twig, the tell tale toilet paper --- all helped keep us on the true path.

Just now and again, alert for signs, we might glimpse a small yellow direction arrow such as this one:

We have needed to keep our wits about us as when deep in contemplation it is easy to miss the descrete and simple way marks as you can see below:

If we were very lucky we occasional found little primitive indicators on the ground that suggested we were on the right path:

Once in a while we might find a larger sign:

Of course we also kept our eyes peeled in case we spotted any other pilgrims who might indicate the way:

In a very few places the local authorities have invested in the odd sign or two:

As you can see it has been very difficult to keep to The Way and our early training in trail finding continues to prove invaluable.  Every day we put into practice our fine our fine-honed inner compasses:

You may have guessed, you have to be a complete idiot to get lost (which we have managed to do just twice.)

 We have to thank this gentleman (above) for inventing the Camino Way yellow arrow system. These arrows are pretty much everywhere.

So, five days to go-  blog when we can.  Thanks for all your lovely comments -many a chuckle at this end.  By the way, Charlotte´s new favourite dish is pulpo (look it up) but only when she can sucker it off the plate!

Love J & C xx