I´ve just returned from the Ferrol-Santiago hike. It was lovely, very solitary, and frustrating, too. I started walking from Ferrol May 10, and arrived in Santiago late in the day on May 14.
The notes posted here and elsewhere on Internet sites were a great help to me. I could not have done it without them, seeing as I mislaid my CSJ guide. Walking the Ingles without a proper guide and maps was a mistake, but happily not a fatal one. This camino was NOT as tough as the Camino Aragonese, but it was plenty challenging, especially the last five or so km. every day.
I must disagree with anyone who says the Way is well waymarked. I found many marks were contradictory, faded down to nothing, hidden behind greenery, or possibly paved-over by new construction. The waymarks all the way through this camino were the worst I´ve seen, and I am lucky I didn´t run into real trouble.
Still, the countryside was all abloom, the animals all had little ones at their sides, the people were much friendlier than I´d remembered Galicians being -- probably because now I can understand what they say to me! I walked the first three days alone, and only meting another pilgrim at Hospital de Bruma...a Valencian coming down from Coruña.
I saw some great things, following the route advised here on Pilgrimage. Met a lovely man in Pontedeume who made me up a real Pakistani meal, off menu, in his Doner Kebab restaurant around the corner from the Convent Square; found a decent-enough little room in town for 12 Euro! (ask at Bar Luis.) I attended the 8 p.m. Mass and was made very welcome.
Betanzos was great too, even though a convention of Harley riders took up all the cheap rooms and I had to take a hotel. While there I discovered a weird and wonderful Victorian theme park, called the Pasatiempos. It was a gift of two local boys who went to Argentina in the 1860s and made their fortune, and came back home to become Andrew Carnegies. Among the schools and libraries etc. they endowed the place with was this fantastical park, built into a hillside, meant to show their benighted neighbors the 1880´s view of the Wide World and the wonders of capitalism... all done up in seashell mosaic, water grottos, caves, cacti, and concrete neoclassical nymphs, lions, dinosaurs, and eagles. It´s still there, free, and still very much in use! Surreality out in the wilds of Galicia.
The following day was the toughest, but Bar Julia is a midday lifesaver, located at the bottom/beginning of the big steep mountain climb. They have Johnny Walker shots, the Pilgrim Jet Fuel for conquering mountains! The climb really wasn´t THAT bad. I did it in an hour, with several stops to catch my breath and admire the views. Tougher still, to me, was the next several kilometers across relatively level ground, but peppered with fragrant piggeries!
Bruma was the only time I stayed at a pilgrim albergue. The food and hotels are a good 5 km. away, and the friendly hospitalero drove me and the only other pilg there over to the supermarket to get food. When a noisy gang of Portuguese arrived late they phoned up a feast from a restaurant, which delivered to the door. I managed to get enough to eat and drink throughout the trip, but it was slim pickings a couple of times. (I checked out the eel fiesta in Ordes. Eeugh; and had the Menu del Dia of a lifetime at Asador Santa Cruz, along the highway between Ordes and Siguero. Lamb cutlets, done to a turn over a wood fire, tortilla, green beans, rice pudding, Orense red, mint tea. 10€.)
I very much enjoyed the Camino Ingles, perhaps because it was so untraveled and unspoilt, or maybe because it really was a challenge is several ways. It is beautiful, mostly, and terribly fiddly and frustrating in parts, with long days and frequent changes of scenery and mood. I recommend it highly to people with useable Spanish, a good fitness level, a guidebook with maps, a good sense of direction, and an appetite for solitude.
