I’ve read quite a bit about the Camino and watched some of the documentaries on YouTube, so I thought I was quite familiar with what happens. One of the things that I was curious about is how early do you have to start each day, in order to get your daily walk done? The answer is that everyone reacts differently to this. There are some people who get up at 4am, to get out of the hostel by 5am, and it’s generally accepted that the hostels want you out by 8am at the latest. Since I had only thought about starting this substitute Camino yesterday, I started well after 9am, and was doing it most of the day. Last night I set my alarm for 6am to see how I felt about an early start. Unlike people doing the whole Camino, I had five distinct stages which had to be completed in five days.

This morning I crawled out of bed around 6:20am and made myself breakfast. I felt ok, and so I was “walking” by 7am. The second of my stages, Portomarin to Palas de Rei is 25km and is the second longest of the trip. The early start definitely worked better for me. I managed to do 26km today in less time than it took me to do 22km yesterday. I felt better prepared and was able to spend longer pedalling without stops. All in all, a good day, and an extra kilometre as well, which I am quite happy about as there is some disagreement about the entire distance – 114km or 117km.

Join me again tomorrow, when I do Stage 3, Palas de Rei to Arzúa.