I was pleased when my blogname initially proved to be false, my feet held up very well. But latterly the name has become true, and my feet and legs have been complaining a bit. The last few days have been sore and slow, but I have paced myself ... I am still ahead of schedule, and have forced myself to do relatively few k´s per day, and it seems to be paying off.

Day before yesterday I did just 17k to Eirexa, yesterday I did 23k to Melide, and today a mere 14k to Arzua.

Today I am using a washing machine for the first time! No, not ever, just on the camino. Previously I´ve washed my clothes by hand, but today, seeing as how its raining and most of my "change into when finished walking" clothes haven´t been washed in a while, I´m washing them and my walking clothes (wet after a day of prolonged drizzle) and will risk putting them in the dryer afterwards. But I´d hate for my new Haglofs walking shirt to get damaged by too much heat.

Tomorrow´s walk should take me the 15.5k to Santa Irene, then its 19k to Monte del Gozo (¿wasn´t he one of the Muppets?) which boasts a massive 2800 places for pilgrims, 800 of them being free. Its the last stop before Santiago de Compostela. I aim to spend two nights, perhaps three in Santiago before pushing on to Finisterre.

Its interesting seeing some of the "pilgrims" on the last 100k. Many of them are so cynical! In order to get your compostela, your certificate from the cathedral authorities that you have done the pilgrimage and thus can have your time in pergatory cut by half (¿who the f**k invented this sh*t?), you have to show that you have walked, as a minimum, the last 100k to Santiago. Thus you get your pilgrims passport stamped along the way. Most of us long distance walkers get ours stamped wherever we spend the night, but the 100k pilgrims have to show a stamp from two places every day, in order to crack down on people who simply drive from one albergue to another. But these canny cheats aren´t put off, they simply get cars or taxis to pick them up and ferry them to the next stop, having walked (say) 5k after breakfast, to a cafe or church which has a stello (stamp) they get their passport stamped, and then you see the taxi come and pick them up top take them on to the next albergue. You can usually tell who they are, they carry very small packs, or maybe nothing much other than a bottle of water.

The thing that gets me about these people, is that presumably they are Catholics who feel a need to get their compostela, in which case one might also presume that they believe that stuff about "god" being aware of their sins, and thus seeing them as they cheat. My presumption is that they don´t believe in god and sins as much as they like to pretend they do ... two-faced or what?

Today, sitting in a cafe alongside some young Spaniards, who were looking damp and down, I taught them to sing "Always look on the bright side of life" and another couple of people joined in as well. It was fun, especially considering the origin of the song (The Life of Brian).

Its tough, but I´m still enjoying it. The camino is life in microcosm.