Randy’s Camino Frances 2026

 Day22, May 11, 07:20am, 40 degrees & raining, and away we go!!!! I stepped outside my Albergue to check if it was raining and at that point it was not. So I ordered my cafe con Leche & a piece of Tarts de Santiago cake, basically almond cake. After I finished my morning snack, off I go, only to step outside and be greeted by the rain😡!!, so I don on my poncho and now away I go.   Leaving Foncebadon, I am still climbing up the Mtn that I started to climb yesterday. Foncebadon is only about half way up to the summit, according to my guide book. I get about 1 mile up and have to stop and shed my rain jacket. I am way too hot with both rain jacket and poncho on. The views of the valley below are stunning. You have the green surrounding hills with the clouds and fog creeping up the valleys📸 moment. It’s stopped raining for the moment, so I can at least open up my poncho to allow some cool air in. Every time I think I am getting close to the top, I turn a corner only to b...

 Day 21, May 10th, 6:55am out the door on a chilly morning, but at least it’s not rain YET!!! On my 2nd small cup of coffee, this Albergue has a coffee vending machine, went w/ the cappuccino👍🏻. And away we go!!. Astorga is a very cute little town. It is also some kind of a famous chocolate town. There are literally a chocolate store on every corner. I’ll have to do a little research on that and see what it’s that’s all about. This town has many different sleeping options for pilgrims, from Albergues to fancy hotels, just depends on what you are looking for. to stay at there was just three in the. For dinner last night, I went to this little Mom and Pop pizza place. It was so small, it had only 1 small bar height table, where I sat. The only other sitting was at the bar, and that only sat about 4 people. They had 2 tables that were stacked on top of each other, but there  was no room for those to be set up anywhere. I went with the margarita pizza, my go to pizza. The pizza’...

 Day 20, May 9, 7:52am, 43° with rain showers today I am heading to Astorga, which officially will be the last day of walking through the Meseta. It was raining when I woke up, so I decided to just hang out the albergue for a little while longer. I had purchased the breakfast package when I arrived yesterday. It was basically a sack lunch. The bag contained a piece of bread for toast with jam and butter, and apple,  a carton of orange juice, a little pastry and a little cup with a packet of instant coffee. I actually gave my apple to Lawrence so he can feed it to his donkey later today and he thanked my. Today’s forecast, looks a lot like yesterday‘s periods of rain with intermittent heavy showers so I already have my poncho on and of course my pack cover over my backpack. It’s not currently raining right now. I have a fairly short day today compared to the last few days that I’ve been walking, I think I’m around 14 miles to Astorga today. Just leaving the city and now have en...

 Day 19, May 8th, 7am. I am out the door. It’s currently 46°. We are supposed to have some rain today so I already have my rain pack over my backpack and wearing my rain jacket. My poncho is strapped to the top of my pack currently, if needed. Walking out of the city of Leon with what looks to be mostly cloudy conditions. I have about a 18+mile walk in front of me today so let’s do this, & here we go!!!! 7:58am, quick stop at a local coffee shop to grab my morning cafe con leche. 9:00am, 49°, 5.2 miles, 1hr 57 min. I have now reached the urban outskirts of Leon and have reached my turn off to the alternative route that I am taking today. This route is supposed to be more scenic versus the normal Camino route where you just follow the road. This alternative route will eventually connect back to the regular Camino at some point tomorrow. It sure seems to be a more popular route because I’m seeing more pilgrims walking this way than continuing straight on the regular route, I shed...

 Hello everyone from Leon Spain. Today has been a very restful and relaxing day to say the least. I had a few chores to take care of today, the first getting my laundry washed. I found a coin laundromat about 10 minutes from where I am currently staying gathered all my dirty clothes and headed over there. After 18 minute wash and 18 minute drying my laundry was all done. I did speak to a pilgrim from Australia. His name was Raymond. He is currently doing the Camino Francis like I am. He started on April 16 whereas I started on April 18.  Second order of business for the day, coffee and something to eat. I first returned to my hostel to hang up all my clothes and put away the other clothes that did not need hanging. Then I searched on my phone for something close by to go have something to eat. I found a place by the name of Pangea. It was also only a 10 minute walk from where I’m currently staying. This was a cute coffee shop with a cool vibe feeling about it. I was going to s...

 Day 18 it’s May 6 6:53am, it is a brisk 36° today. I’m wearing two jackets and my buff for the first time and a way we go!! Not quite sure where today takes me.  8:00am, 3.6 miles 1hr 10min since I left the town. I’ve been walking on this little double lane asphalt road and it is straight as an arrow. The Camino Trail is 5 feet off my left shoulder, but I’m just walking on the asphalt road, because it feels easier. Witnessed my first actual sunrise this morning. I got to see the sun actually break the horizon today, no clouds were blocking the view of the sunrise so that was very nice. Actually I have the moon about 9 o’clock off my left shoulder and the sun is about 4 o’clock off my right shoulder. I am wearing three layers of clothing this chilly morning. Wearing my long sleeve shirt w/ hoodie,  my fleece and my rain/wind jacket that’s really been keeping warm. Plus I’m wearing my buff, first time, I have it on my face tucked under my nose and over my ears. I can’t go ...

 Day 17, May 5, 6:50am, out the door on a very chilly 38° this morning. I have 3 miles to get to Sahagun, which will be the halfway point of the Camino. It rained, w/ thunder & lighting in the night, but the sky’s are clear right now, w/ the moon shining brightly. Yes, I went w/ wearing my shorts, pants only come on when it rains plus it’s not going to be this cold all day. The trail is moderately soggy but nothing that’s too bad. I have a good walk ahead of me today to get to my next destination. Only very mild elevation changes in store for today.  Just a quick recap on the events of last night. The guy who took my poles, by mistake, he actually came back later that day and apologized. I accepted his apology, but I still had to say how could you not tell the difference between our poles, yours are like a good 2 feet higher than mine, come on dude!!! As you can tell I am over it!! Okay, onto the pilgrim dinner last night. It was very nice. There were,  oh I would say...

 Day 16, May4th, it’s 6:20 out the door. Day starts off on a sour note. Got all packed, went to bin where all the hiking polls are kept, they  not allowed to be in the rooms. Somebody took my polls by mistake, I presume, because I found another pair just like them but they were not mine. These polls were as high as my arm pits. So who ever took them had to be very tall.😡😡. So I will on the lookout for a very tall pilgrim w/ polls. Well, at least, I still have a pair of polls to use. It’s a cool 45° this morning and it did rain in the nighttime because everything is wet. I just bumped into Lawrence a.k.a. the donkey man and I got my picture with him. I’ve been trying to do that, but he’s always been so busy with people around him. I said, in yesterday’s blog I have a little over 18+ miles and from what I can tell not much change in elevation, so it should be pretty straight forward day. Recap of last evening‘s events I had to wait around till 8 o’clock for any of the restaura...

 Day 15, May 3rd, 6:13am out the door. It’s a brisk 47°. Looks to be partly cloudy, but it hard to tell due to the darkness still. Woke up around 5am due to people in my barracks starting to shuffle around getting ready to leave. Got my stuff all packed up w/ the use of my little flashlight. My headlamp, battery’s are dead. Yes, I now can confirm it is partly cloudy. I can see the moon peeking through the clouds. I have about a 16 mile walk to my next Albergue. I don’t actually have reservations but the message I got back from ‎WhatsApp said that they have lots and lots of beds and no reservations are needed. But they wanted me to be there before 2pm, which I don’t see any problem. This is definitely the earliest that I have got out on the trail. There are a couple of pilgrims right behind me. I can hear them talking, but I think they’re Italian. Before I left the albergue they had some muffins and a couple of bananas sitting on the counter, so I took one of each and left a two eur...

 Day 14 it’s 6:38 AM in the morning. 53 degrees, mild windy & cloudy w/ a good chance of rain possibly around noon today. My place of stay was very nice, but it was way overpriced. I don’t think there were even more than four or five people staying there. I just passed a sign mileage marker that said I have 248 miles to go, but I don’t think that’s really accurate. This little village of Hontanas actually sits in the bottom of the valley, so you know what that means,? that’s right we’re gonna have to climb to get out of this valley. Since I left early in the morning, there is nothing open to grab a bite to eat, so I’ll have a 4 mile walk to the village. Hopefully they’ll have something open by time I get there. Looking at the road from a distance, it looked like it went straight up the hill, but just as I reached the point where it was starting to go up, it turned to the left, YESSSSS. Not far from town I come across what looks to be an old castle ruins. Not much is still stand...

 6:45am, I am out the door. It is day 13 on the Camino 6:54am, made my way back onto the official Camino Trail. It’s 50° looks to be partly cloudy. I went with my fleece jacket & shorts this morning. I was awoken at six in the morning by what I’d determine were three very drunk Spanish individuals singing at the top of their lungs. Who needs an alarm clock right!  8am, I have left the confines of the big city and now I’m currently walking back into the county side. I looked at my compass and I am walking straight due West. It’s still partly cloudy temperature actually it’s 49°. I was hoping to see a nice sunrise, but the clouds were to low and that prevented a colorful sunrise. I once again bumped into the two Koreans ladies that I met at Los Arcos. Also met another lady name is Claire. She is danish, from Copenhagen. So far this morning the pilgrims are just kind of all spread outs/  gaps of 100-200 yrds separate everyone. I did stop at that bakery in Burgos yesterda...