Reflections on our Camino Blocktober journey
A. Introduction
From 1 October to 22 October, we walked the Camino Primitivo from Oviedo to Santiago de Compostela as our Blocktober Camino — carrying the Blocktober message of movement, connection, conversation and solidarity with survivors of gender-based violence. Our Camino carried the spirit of Blocktober from the historic Blockhouse on Cape Town’s Table Mountain to northern Spain, linking both landscapes through solidarity with survivors of gender-based violence.
The scallop shell is a familiar symbol of the pilgrimage, while yellow arrows mark the way towards Santiago.
Our Camino Blocktober journey took us from Oviedo to Santiago de Compostela. We walked approximately 398 km, with a cumulative elevation gain of 8 820 metres. Our walking included not only the Camino route itself, but also alternative paths, diversions and exploring towns, finding food and reaching accommodation.
Getting to Spain and back involved approximately 22 267 km by air and 1 020 km by train.
This blog is our running Camino diary. We updated it along the way, and added a few photographs and impressions from the road — including the people we meet and any connections we make with organisations working against gender-based violence in Asturias and Galicia.
Our latest update always appeared at the top (in reverse order), so readers could follow us as we walked and added to the blog.
B. Reflections on the Camino Blocktober
Diversity
The people we met along the Camino came from most continents: from Europe, including Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Croatia, Ireland, England and Wales; from Australia; from Asia, including Singapore and the Philippines; from North and Central America, including Mexico, the United States, Canada and Nicaragua; and from South America, including Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. We met only two pilgrims from Africa, both from South Africa.
Some had completed several Caminos and returned again and again; others were taking their first tentative steps. Some walked long distances and carried everything themselves; others came for a weekend, travelling with luggage transfers. We saw a good number of pilgrims cycling, but none on horseback (another way to do the Camino). Pilgrims shared with us their reasons for doing the Camino: faith, peace, solitude, healing, adventure, companionship, a break from work, or simply the freedom of moving through the world on foot. And then there were the two of us, doing Camino Blocktober.
Conversations and connections
The Camino creates so many opportunities for connection.
We began in Oviedo with an unexpected conversation at a UGT trade-union office after spotting a banner opposing violence against women. In Lugo we met Paula Castro Meilán of Aliad-Ultreia, joined remotely by Bernadine from Cape Town's Saartjie Baartman Centre. We found overlapping concerns about violence, exploitation, trafficking, migration, economic dependence and recovery through body and mind. In Santiago we connected with Vagalume, whose work with women in situations of prostitution and vulnerability resonated with these conversations. The distance between Galicia and South Africa is large, but solidarity knows no boundaries.
Our Blocktober T-shirts opened many informal doors. Pilgrims asked what it meant, and a conversation about a walk became a conversation about gender-based violence or survivors’ ability to rebuild their lives. People accepted our Blocktober cards, followed our posts, or simply wished us well. Replies from friends and the Blocktober groups back home kept us encouraged through the rain, aching muscles and long, tiring days.
Hospitality
Hospitality on the Camino is exceptional. It is part of the history of the route. We will write a separate blog, but give two examples below.
At A Pociña de Muñiz in Vilar de Cas, José explained in Spanish how his family had turned a derelict village forge into an attractive, intimate albergue, drawing on the help of an architect cousin and his wife's eye for design. The communal dinner and small rooms made it a place to remember.
At Fogar de Lecer in Arzúa, Paula Tapia García spoke about founding and running a hospitality business as a woman and the determination required. Her message to survivors of gender-based violence — that they are capable of this and much more — connected the local pilgrim economy directly to the purpose of Blocktober. These ventures are businesses, but they can also be places of genuine welcome and opportunities for women's economic independence.
The collection of pilgrims’ shoes in a dormitory captured another side of this hospitality. Each pair belonged to someone with a different story and a reason for walking, but at the end of the day we shared much the same needs: somewhere to wash, rest and sleep. A welcoming albergue offered more than a bed—it offered a sense of belonging and of connection. Around shared tables and in small dormitories, strangers became companions, and hospitality became something we could offer one another as well as receive from our hosts.
A third travelling companion
We came to joke that there were three of us walking and talking: Lala, Dawie and Camai (our homegrown Camino AI), our tech companion capably managed by Dawie. Lala was sceptical about using AI along our way as she wanted to immerse herself in the experience. But she was pleasantly surprised that, if used to deepen one’s experience, it was a great Camino companion.
Most historic panels and inscriptions on old stones provided along the route are in Spanish and the regional languages Asturian and Galician, with older inscriptions even in Latin. Being able to ask for a translation or an explanation at a chapel, a symbol, a monument or a sign transformed what we could understand along the way.
More importantly, most people we encountered only spoke Spanish, while our Spanish was very limited. Live translation enabled conversations with local people (and others that did not speak English) that might otherwise have stopped after hello, a question about food or a few polite sentences. It was not always perfect, but it often opened a door. We could find out more about ancient history and very recent events.
For example, we would not have known about the ruined settlement of Soutomerille and its church, documented as early as the year 897, where Lala placed her hands on the stones and thought of people facing violence, quietly asking for their protection. In Castroverde we found the monument to Manuel Cordero Pérez and the campaign for women's voting rights in Spain in 1931. In Salas we found out about memory stones for people who fled from Franco and were killed in Nazi concentration camps in 1936, that were placed only three days before we visited. This allowed us to compare some of these events with experiences in South Africa.
Camai also helped us discover small places to stay, especially in the more remote parts of the Primitivo, and drafted Spanish messages or emails that we could use to reach out to owners who were not listed on large booking websites. Some of these places became our favourite accommodations. As we walked, we could dictate notes, check a historical reference and plan the next day. We were able to make short translated videos and social posts. This mattered because walking demanded energy, and our time was spent with people and nature. Technology did not substitute for the experience; it deepened it.
Fruits of nature
What a wonderful experience to walk through natural landscapes, although they have been used for agriculture by humans for centuries, and to enjoy some of their fruits - walnuts, chestnuts, apples and springs gave us strength and much enjoyment.
Reaching Santiago: an ending, and another beginning
On 18 October we reached Santiago de Compostela, the end of our walk from Oviedo. On the square before the Cathedral of St James, we watched newly arriving pilgrims embrace, sit in silence or burst into tears. At the Pilgrims' Mass in the Church of San Agustín, the church was full of people for whom this journey had profound religious meaning.
We came with our purpose, the Camino Blocktober. We left enriched by a broad Camino experience, the special conversations with organisations working on GBV across borders and many connections. We look forward to completing our Blocktober at the Blockhouse with all of you in solidarity with the survivors of GBV.
Completing our Camino and continuing Blocktober at home
The Camino did not end when we stopped walking. It gave us time to listen to strangers, experience the generosity of hosts and connect our Blocktober purpose with people and organisations facing similar challenges thousands of kilometres from home. We heard different life stories, but the concerns about violence, dignity, recovery and economic independence repeatedly revealed common ground.
The simple daily rhythm — pack, find the yellow arrows, walk, eat, rest and begin again — also reminded us how much progress depends on practical support and human connection. Our journey was enriched by directions, shared meals, conversations and encouragement from people who often (at least initially) knew very little about us. We hope the relationships begun with colleagues and organisations in Galicia will continue to foster exchanges of ideas and solidarity for survivors of gender-based violence. We look forward to continuing our journey with all participating in Blocktober throughout the rest of October in Cape Town.
C. Our daily blogs
21–22 October – departure and reflections (about 13 km walked)
We left Santiago on 21 October by train for Madrid and then we flew home via Istanbul in Turkey, arriving on 22 October - to a wonderful welcome by Betty, our dog. Across the two days we walked about 13 km, including Santiago, airports and train stations.
20 October – Vagalume, Santiago and Vespers (walking in Santiago: 11.4 km)
We met Vagalume, an organisation supporting vulnerable women in Santiago, as recommended by Aliad-Ultreia in Lugo.
The conversation continued our exploration of how women affected by gender-based violence and exploitation are supported, and of the similarities and differences between this work in Spain and South Africa. It gave us another opportunity to reflect on what we had learnt through the people and organisations we had encountered along the way. Read our blog on these discussions.
We also explored Santiago further, including a walking tour and a visit to the Pilgrimage Museum. There was time back at our accommodation to work on the blog and organise material gathered during the Camino.
At the Pilgrim Reception Office we had a quite different experience from our hurried visit on the evening of the 18th, when we collected our certificates. This time we joined an English-language opportunity for pilgrims to talk and reflect, facilitated by volunteers from different countries. It was a lovely gathering: a chance to listen to others’ experiences, explain our own Camino Blocktober, and recognise that reaching Santiago does not mean the inner journey has finished. We would warmly recommend it to English-speaking pilgrims arriving in Santiago.
Our final church experience in Santiago was Vespers, an evening service in which the psalms are sung or chanted. Young men in religious formation were singing within an old liturgical tradition, using Latin and Spanish. The voices were not especially strong, but it was moving to watch a centuries-old form of worship being carried forward by a younger generation.
It led us to reflect on how church ceremony has framed our pilgrimage, despite us not being religious Christians. We began in Oviedo with a Mass and a blessing for pilgrims; in Santiago we attended the Pilgrims’ Mass at San Agustín, and on our last full day we listened to Vespers. There appears to us to be much pageantry in Catholic worship: voices, processions, ceremony, paintings and elaborate decoration. Some of the great church buildings look plain or austere from the outside, yet inside they are filled with colour and artwork.
19 October – Pilgrims’ Mass, Santiago and the Two Marías (walking in Santiago: 10.6 km)
We attended the Pilgrims’ Mass at the Church of San Agustín in Santiago, the destination we had reached the previous afternoon. Because the cathedral's main altar was undergoing restoration ahead of the 2027 Holy Year, the Pilgrims’ Mass had temporarily moved to San Agustín. The church was overflowing, and seeing newly arrived pilgrims moved to tears brought home the powerful spiritual appeal of this centuries-old journey. Many worshippers around us seemed to know the order of the Catholic Mass by heart, while we sometimes needed to watch for cues to stand or sit. With a translation in our ears, we could follow the sermon’s simple message about love — for yourself and for others — and the beautiful singing by the principal priest, every now and then encouraging the congregation to sing the chorus.
Later, we went to see the main cathedral itself. In contrast to the deeply moving Pilgrims’ Mass, we felt more ambivalent about this visitor experience. We were unsettled by how commercialised it seemed, with various paid options for exploring the building and its special spaces.
We also interviewed one of the housing protesters on the square in front of Santiago’s main cathedral about Spain’s growing housing crisis. The conversation highlighted how difficult it has become for ordinary people to find affordable, secure housing, particularly young people trying to establish independent lives and older people living on limited incomes. The protester raised concerns about property speculation and the conversion of residential properties into tourist accommodation, which reduce the availability of homes for local residents and put upward pressure on rents. Some of these pressures are familiar in certain South African cities, although housing deprivation and poverty are far greater challenges in South Africa. It was a striking contrast: while pilgrims celebrated reaching Santiago, many local residents were struggling to secure something much more fundamental — a place they could afford to call home.
We headed to the market, hoping to find a lively place where we could sample something local — perhaps roasted chestnuts, in contrast with all the raw chestnuts we had eaten. Instead, the market was surprisingly subdued, especially compared with the wonderful fruit and vegetable markets we know in Cape Town. On our walking tour the following day, Sandra explained that many Compostelanos — Santiago’s residents — now live in newer neighbourhoods beyond the historic centre, although they still return to its streets, bars and restaurants. With rising rents and the pressures of tourism also affecting life in the old town, we wondered whether some of its everyday local bustle had gradually shifted elsewhere.
After passing a large “Free Palestine” flag in Alameda Park, we came upon the colourful statue of the Two Marías - see the story below.
We also considered going on to Finisterre, by the sea at the “end of the earth”, where some pilgrims continue their journey. In the end we decided not to go as Santiago was where we wanted to conclude our Camino. Coming from Africa, we felt a certain irony in the idea of a European “end of the world”.
The day after arriving in Santiago, we felt slightly adrift. For weeks, our days had revolved around simple questions: where to walk, where to eat and where to sleep. Suddenly there was no next stage. We wandered the streets of Santiago, attended the Pilgrims’ Mass and watched other pilgrims completing the journey we had just finished. Perhaps the challenge now was not simply to return to ordinary life, but to take something of the Camino with us — its simplicity, friendships, discoveries and the solidarity that had given our Blocktober journey its particular purpose.
18 October – Santa Irene towards Santiago (walking 24.5 km)
We set out while it was still dark. The forecast was for a sunny day, although the morning was chilly and windy.
With Santiago drawing closer, we felt the anticipation of completing the pilgrimage. But the final approach still had plenty to make us stop and think. The Camino is not only beautiful woodland, mountains and pastoral scenery: it also passes through ordinary places, roads and areas under the pressures of modern development. We stopped at a church before entering Santiago to give thanks for our journey.
Near Lavacolla, a series of protest posters caught our attention. They opposed a proposed industrial park close to the Camino Francés. The controversy has drawn objections from residents, while ICOMOS — the advisory organisation to UNESCO on World Heritage — has raised concerns about the project's compatibility with protection of the Camino. Seeing the posters on the path itself brought home the tension between economic development and preserving the setting of a pilgrimage route with centuries of history. We signed the virtual petition. Click here if you also want to sign the petition.
We also passed a field ploughed directly downhill (rather than along the contour), where soil erosion was clearly visible. Having spent so much time walking through Galicia's farming landscapes, we were surprised by this disappointing sight.
We arrived in Santiago de Compostela at about 3 p.m. and entered Praza do Obradoiro, in front of the Cathedral of St James. It was wonderful to have reached the destination where the various Camino pilgrimage routes converge. A steady stream of other pilgrims was arriving, many visibly emotional after their own journeys.
We also saw the tents of a housing protest in the cathedral square. It was a striking juxtaposition: pilgrims celebrating the end of a deeply personal journey, while local residents were calling attention to the difficulty of securing affordable housing.
We went to our accommodation at Hospedería San Martín Pinario, a monastery very close to the cathedral, and had a short rest. Excellent place to stay, by the way!
We then rushed to the Pilgrim Reception Office to obtain our certificates for walking from Oviedo, arriving only about a minute before closing. Staff ushered us to a large screen to complete the process. Despite our last-minute arrival, the office was exceptionally efficient and well organised.
That evening we celebrated over supper with our Welsh Camino friends. Sharing this milestone with people we had met on the journey made the arrival all the more special.
17 October – Arzúa towards Santa Irene (walking 19 km)
We began the morning at Fogar de Lecer, where we interviewed Paula Tapia García, one of the owners and a woman entrepreneur. She spoke about her experience of building a hospitality business, the challenges women face, and offered a message of encouragement to survivors of gender-based violence: “You are capable of this — and much more.”
The short Blocktober video below introduces her story, with a fuller blog to follow:
Today's walk to Santa Irene was shorter than some of our earlier stages, and a welcome opportunity to enjoy the countryside at a gentler pace. Despite the greater numbers of pilgrims on the Camino Francés, we found the walking pleasant, much of it on shaded paths away from tarmac roads, through rural Galician scenery. It was a welcome contrast with some of the hard-surfaced and more tiring stages behind us.
At lunch we enjoyed local Arzúa-Ulloa cheese and met Lee, a Filipino now living in Barcelona. The conversation ranged widely. He has lived and worked in Spain for three years and spoke about the pain of encountering barriers and prejudice as a migrant, whether deliberate or unconscious.
We discussed the prosecution of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. This brought to mind the unrest in South Africa following Jacob Zuma’s imprisonment. Lee suggested that holding the proceedings outside the Philippines probably helped reduce the risk of similar unrest there. We also spoke about housing and political tensions in Spain.
We learned about Santa Irene’s small historic chapel and a spring traditionally associated with soothing pilgrims’ feet — an appealing thought after more than two weeks on the Camino.
That evening at Albergue Santa Irene, we shared a table with pilgrims from different parts of the world, each with their own reasons for walking. Anne-Marie, an older French pilgrim on her twenty-ninth day, valued the chance to meet people, enjoy nature and have an adventure. Peter, from Denmark, had walked for 34 days and still looked remarkably strong. One of the young women from California, on her fourth Camino but walking only a weekend section this time, introduced us to her Spanish friend Jaime, who was on his first. She spoke of the freedom the Camino gives her, took a keen interest in Blocktober and asked for a card.
16 October – Melide to Arzúa (walking 15 km)
We set off from Melide on a cool, sunny morning after a breakfast of coffee, yoghurt, gluten-free muesli and fresh orange juice. The Camino Francés was now noticeably busier than the Primitivo, with more walkers and cyclists and people from many countries.
One of today's highlights was a long conversation with the people we called the “three Ms” — Marco and Manuel from Spain, and Martina from Croatia. We spoke about Europe, migration, machismo and women’s safety, bringing us back once again to the reasons for our Blocktober walk.
After we started our walk, we met cyclists from Ecuador and Venezuela, who teased us that they expected to reach Santiago today while we would take three days.
We stopped to admire and film an especially large Galician hórreo, one of the long, narrow raised granaries traditionally used to dry and store crops while keeping rodents out. We compared it with the broader, more square-shaped hórreos we had seen in Asturias. We recorded a short explainer; see video below:
We passed Castañeda, historically associated with lime kilns where blocks of limestone carried by medieval pilgrims for more than 100 km from Triacastela were burnt to produce lime for the construction of Santiago Cathedral, and then reached Ribadiso. There we saw the twelfth-century stone bridge and the former pilgrim hospital — a reminder that the infrastructure of the Camino has been serving travellers for centuries.
We walked on to Arzúa and our accommodation at Fogar de Lecer. We tried scallops for the first time — the shell that has become the symbol of the Camino — and found them delicious and beautifully prepared.
15 October – Palas de Rei to Melide (walking 16 km)
Early in the morning we received disappointing news from Ralf Jürgens, a human rights activist, that he had developed a high fever and had to cancel our visit. We had arranged to meet at Do Picho near Palas de Rei. Do Picho’s work connects art with wider human rights concerns, including addressing LGBTQI issues. We wished him a speedy recovery and hoped to speak virtually once he was well.
We had made the diversion from Melide back to Palas de Rei for this meeting. Illness and changed plans are part of life — and the Camino. We set out on foot towards Melide, turning the disappointment into an opportunity to cover some of the distance we had missed after the Los Hospitales mountain crossing.
It was striking to retrace on foot a journey that the bus had covered in about half an hour the evening before. Walking the roughly 16 km took several hours. That contrast between modern speed and the slower experience of travelling on foot brought us back to the history and meaning of pilgrimage.
The growth of the Camino is astonishing. Around 650 pilgrims received Compostelas — the official certificates awarded in Santiago to pilgrims who complete the pilgrimage requirements — in 1985, compared with more than half a million in 2025. The Primitivo represents only a small fraction of today's pilgrim traffic. We will post a blog of our reflection, on this ancient path, still a modern journey, with more about Camino history.
At Melide the Camino Primitivo joins the much busier Camino Francés. The difference was immediately apparent: where our Primitivo stages could be quiet, we could now look around and would often see a dozen other pilgrims at once.
As the Camino del Norte joins further ahead, the flow towards Santiago will grow.
Along the way we kept crossing paths with four women pilgrims from the Philippines. When we stopped to chat, they asked where we were from, and our Blocktober T-shirts soon became the subject of conversation. We explained why we were walking and what Blocktober is about. They were enthusiastic and encouraging, and we exchanged information so they could find out more.
Along the way, we passed a beautiful, simple house that served as the office of a women’s co-operative producing herbal preparations and natural oils. We hoped to pop in, but there was nobody around. A large, friendly dog was keeping watch. A postwoman arrived, equipped with a clever little trick: she carried dog biscuits on her rounds. Between our limited Spanish and her explanation, we gathered that the treats helped her befriend the dogs she met along the way. Rather than barking or threatening to bite, they greeted her with enthusiasm. A small, delightful example of a practical approach.
As we approached Melide, we came across a magnificent mural of the Galician beekeeper Isidro Pardo Varela. It carried a message that spoke directly to the spirit of our Blocktober walk: “I'd like to make a human hive; if people stuck together like bees do, the world would be a better place.” After the disappointment of our cancelled meeting, his words were a moving reminder of the strength we can find in solidarity and looking after one another.
14 October – O Burgo de Negral to Melide (walking 26 km)
This was a long, hot walking day — not especially difficult terrain, but a real slog. We began in beautiful mist; later the sun came out and it became very hot. Much of the route was on hard surfaces, including small roads, and our aching knees increasingly reminded us of every kilometre. The day's theme was resilience: on some days life feels wonderful; on others you simply have to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
One quiet, meaningful moment came at a beautiful river, where we left stones for family members who are unwell, with wishes for their recovery.
We kept enjoying the apples and walnuts on the way, while Lala longed for a tortilla. We eventually found one at the town of As Seixas after roughly 22 km.
We were heading to Melide so that we could take a bus back, against the direction of the Camino Francés, to Palas de Rei. We had arranged to meet Ralf Jürgens at Do Picho on the 15th and planned to walk the section back towards Melide the following day. This diversion would also help make up some of the distance we had missed after heavy rain and knee pain earlier in the Camino.
At Melide the bus stop was poorly marked, although Google Maps led us to the right place. A friendly local man, waiting across the street in the shade, confirmed the stop and chatted to us. He advised us to watch an older man sitting across the road: when that man stood up, the bus would be arriving. It worked exactly as he said. The man's local knowledge and generosity were a welcome reward after a tiring day. We arrived in Palas de Rei exhausted, found a small restaurant serving a delicious gluten-free pasta meal with homemade ice cream, and collapsed into bed, ready for the planned interview the next morning.
13 October – Lugo to O Burgo de Negral (walking 25 km)
We stayed two full days in Lugo since the 13th was the first day we could meet Aliad-Ultreia, a local NGO working with women affected by gender-based violence, trafficking and sexual exploitation. We met Paula Castro Meilán, a young psychologist whose warmth immediately set the tone, and Bernadine from the Saartjie Baartman Centre joined us from Cape Town by video.
What struck us most were the similarities across very different contexts. We spoke about machismo and toxic masculinity; the links between gender-based violence, drugs and alcohol; and the way substances can also become a means of coping with the consequences of abuse. She explained their experiences of prostitution, sexual exploitation and trafficking, including the vulnerability of migrant women from Latin America.
Aliad-Ultreia is much smaller than the Saartjie Baartman Centre and has a more limited accommodation component, but the underlying challenges and much of the support work felt remarkably familiar.
Bernadine described how the relationship between Blocktober and the Saartjie Baartman Centre developed organically, and how much survivors and staff value walking on Table Mountain, being in nature and SISSA’s community-based OptiFit exercise programme. Paula was particularly interested in that physical dimension of recovery.
Aliad-Ultreia already takes a holistic body-and-mind approach, including therapeutic yoga, but for her the conversation opened up ideas about possibly adding walking, nature and exercise to that work.
We left with a strong sense of solidarity: different countries and different scales of organisation, but many of the same problems, values and possibilities for learning from one another.
Click here for our blog about this engagement.
After the meeting we left Lugo for the roughly 25 km walk to O Burgo de Negral. Much of the first 15 km was on hard surfaces — not steep, but tiring on knees, ankles and joints. Reaching a forest track later in the day felt like a relief and a return to the kind of Camino walking we enjoy most.
At O Lar do Alecrín that evening we met three Colombians — Daniel and Adriana, the parents, and Gabriel. Daniel and Adriana are both recently retired pilots, and we had a wide-ranging conversation about walking the Camino and many other things. They spoke very critically about recent changes in Colombian politics and about their experience of the previous president, which prompted us to reflect on some of our own experiences during the Zuma years in South Africa. It was another example of how the Camino opens space for conversations that move quickly from the personal to the political.
11–12 October – two days in Lugo (walking 21 km in the city)
Arriving in Lugo over the weekend meant waiting until Tuesday for our meeting with the local women's organisation. The delay gave us time to rest and explore the city. It was already a time to rest, and we could experience the San Froilán festivities and explore a city in which layers of history sit unusually close together.
The great physical presence is the Roman wall. We walked the circuit of about 2.1 km around the old city. What makes Lugo so remarkable is that the wall still forms a complete enclosure, unlike so many old walled cities where sections were breached, demolished or reused once the fortifications were no longer needed. Yet it did not survive untouched. Our reading about the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century conflicts around Lugo took us into struggles against the bishop and the church-linked feudal order. For us it was striking to think that these challenges to feudal power came centuries before the broader dismantling of the feudal system that had kept many people in conditions of servitude.
Inside the walls, Lugo Cathedral left a very different impression. We were overwhelmed by the sheer richness and ornamentation: carved walnut, marble, paintings and religious objects in gold and silver, with rubies, diamonds and other precious materials. This made us reflect on the immense wealth and power accumulated by the Catholic Church over centuries. The audio guide assumed quite a lot of knowledge of Catholic traditions and architectural terminology. At the same time, we noticed many visitors praying and lighting candles, a reminder that this is not simply a historical monument but remains a living place of faith.
San Froilán brought another side of Lugo to life. We watched a medieval-style parade and traditional dancing, with the old city becoming a stage for music, costume and public celebration.
We also met the Welsh couple again for supper. They asked about our Blocktober T-shirts, which led to a long conversation about Blocktober and the Saartjie Baartman Centre. We found a great deal of common ground in our values and outlook. As another unexpected South African connection, all three of their children will be travelling to South Africa in March for a cousin’s wedding.
Our accommodation produced a different kind of reflection. We had booked via Airbnb a room in someone’s apartment partly because we hoped it might give us a more personal connection with a local resident. In practice, our host kept very much to herself and we hardly got to know her at all. It was the one place on this Camino where we stayed in somebody’s home but did not feel the warmth we had encountered so often in pilgrim accommodation — an interesting reminder that staying in a private home does not necessarily create connection.
10 October – Vilar de Cas to Lugo (walking 19.3 km)
We walked 19.3 km from Vilar de Cas to Lugo. Before leaving A Pociña de Muñiz, we recorded a short video interview with José, the owner, who told us how the family opened the albergue in 2018 by converting a long-abandoned ruin beside the family home, with the help of an architect cousin and the artistic eye of José’s wife. His father remembered the building as a ruin from his own childhood, and José’s research established that it had stood derelict for about a century. He also discovered that it had once been the village blacksmith’s forge. The result is a beautiful albergue that has helped make Vilar de Cas a stopping point in its own right, rather than somewhere pilgrims simply pass through on the way to Lugo.
On José’s advice we took the alternative route through the largely ruined settlement of Soutomerille to San Salvador de Soutomerille. The church is documented as early as 897 and preserves a striking pre-Romanesque window. For Lala it became one of the most emotional moments of the Camino so far. With her hands on the ancient stones, she thought of Elizabeth, a woman recently killed, and of women, children, boys and men living with violence, and quietly asked for protection for them. At that moment the purpose of our Camino Blocktober felt very real.
Later we stopped at El Descanso del Peregrino, where a local artist had turned fallen trees into carved sculptures and seats. We were offered coffee and freshly cut melon and watermelon, left a donation and were given Camino shells. The artist also asked for a photograph for Facebook, which meant Blocktober unexpectedly appeared on a local Galician Facebook page before we continued into Lugo.
9 October – O Cádavo to Vilar de Cas (walking 16.2 km)
We deliberately split the long O Cádavo–Lugo stage, walking 16.2 km to Vilar de Cas. We chose the longer Vilabade branch, passing the historic church of Santa María de Vilabade before continuing through Castroverde.
In Castroverde we came across a monument to Manuel Cordero Pérez, a socialist politician and trade unionist who worked alongside Clara Campoamor in support of women’s voting rights in 1931. We might otherwise have passed it by as just another statue, but Camai helped us uncover the story behind it and recognise its relevance to our Blocktober journey and South African experience. We learnt that the 1931 campaign faced opposition from various quarters, including some progressives who feared how women might vote. Women first exercised this right in a general election in 1933.
But this achievement was followed by a long reversal. After the military uprising of 1936 and Franco’s victory in the Civil War in 1939, his dictatorship ended democratic elections for women and men alike. Free general elections returned only in 1977. From a South African perspective, the comparison was striking: Spain recognised women’s suffrage 63 years before all adult South Africans could vote together in 1994—but its history reminded us that rights won can also be lost.
At A Pociña de Muñiz we met two Mexican pilgrims, and the conversation ranged from the freedom of walking the Camino without advance bookings, to Mexico’s relationship with Spain, Indigenous peoples and who benefited from mining in the country. It was another reminder of how quickly Camino conversations can move from practicalities to history and identity.
That evening fourteen of us sat around one table for a wonderful communal meal. A Welsh couple spoke about the slow food movement and regenerative farming, avoiding supermarkets in favour of local produce, weekly food boxes, and producer co-operatives that can give small farmers a fairer share of the final price. They pointed out symbols they recognised from Wales and possible cultural or language connections with Galicia; looking at the map, we found ourselves wondering whether this was because of the old Atlantic links from a time when travel by sea was often easier than travel over land.
8 October – A Fonsagrada to O Cádavo 26 km
We left A Fonsagrada — literally “the sacred fountain”, a name that comes from the spring around which the town developed — and headed towards O Cádavo. On the way we stopped at La Taberna in Paradavella. Its name is deliberately spelt with a B rather than a V (from “taverna”, meaning a tavern), a playful reference to local bear sightings and the word “barna”, meaning bears. There we met the Ecuadorian owner before continuing via A Degolada, A Lastra and A Fontaneira. The route still made us work, including the steep Costa do Sapo and the high ground around Alto da Fontaneira.
Along the way were more layers of Camino history and landscape: Santiago da Fontaneira, the hill at A Pasada and Campo da Matanza — literally the “Field of Slaughter”. Our research turned up two very different explanations for the name. Local history tells of African soldiers being slaughtered there during an Islamic incursion, while historians trace the name instead to a slaughter in Roman times.
7 October – Grandas de Salime to A Fonsagrada 27 km
We left Grandas de Salime for A Fonsagrada on a long stage that carried us out of Asturias and into Galicia. Along the way we stopped at the small Ermita de San Lázaro de Padraira, a seventeenth-century chapel on the site of an old pilgrim leper hospital — another reminder of the systems of care that grew up around the Camino.
Crossing the Asturias–Galicia border was a milestone, although Galicia welcomed us with heavy rain. Almost immediately we began noticing a striking difference in how the Camino itself was maintained. On the Galician side there appeared to be much more deliberate attention to drainage and protecting the path against water erosion, whereas in Asturias we had seen very little of this. After days of rain and steep, exposed paths, the effect on both the condition of the route and the walking experience was hard to miss. We stopped at O Acebo for something to eat before continuing through the wet and cold towards A Fonsagrada. As we walked, we also reflected on how Blocktober 2026 is doing so well through collective leadership from many including Jean, Clare, Janeen, David, Janet, Peta, Trish, Stephen and Nancy. And how special to see Bernadine and Siba all smiles at the blockhouse again.
At Casa Cuartel that evening we cooked supper in the communal kitchen and spent time with Florian, a 25-year-old German pilgrim who had lived with a family in Lebowagkomo, Polokwane, Limpopo, as an exchange student. He had progressed well in learning Sepedi to communicate with his host mother, and was sad that COVID cut the exchange short before he could learn as much as he had hoped. We talked about South Africa, apartheid, GBV, the hopes of his university years and the unfinished work that remains to build democracy in South Africa.
6 October – across the Los Hospitales route 26 km
Our initial plan for Day 6 was ambitious: to walk about 40 km all the way to Grandas de Salime, if possible, because we had not been able to find accommodation before that town. The route took us onto the high, exposed Los Hospitales section. We passed the remains of the medieval pilgrim hospitals at Fonfaraón and Valparaíso, and near Laguna de la Marta encountered an even older layer of history: a small reservoir associated with Roman gold-mining works. Wild horses greeted us.
Somewhere on that long mountain stretch, Lala saw a fallow deer leap across the path. It appeared and vanished so quickly that she felt a spirit had crossed her path. She does not yet know whose spirit it was.
From the ridge we continued via Puerto del Palo, Montefurado and Berducedo towards the Grandas de Salime area. It rained heavily and, after 26 km, Lala decided that with her knee starting to hurt, pressing on would risk injury, so she called it and we took transport to Grandas de Salime. We plan to make up the lost 14 km with a future diversion to an artist retreat.
It was one of the most exposed and memorable stretches of the Camino so far, and sending our heavier luggage ahead proved a very sensible decision.
5 October — Campiello towards the Hospitales route 9 km
Five days of continuous walking and close to 100 km on the Camino Primitivo — the oldest of the ancient pilgrimage routes across Spain to Santiago de Compostela, followed by pilgrims since the 9th century. Today we left Campiello and passed through Borres, Samblismo and La Mortera, where the Camino divides. The legs are beginning to know that we are on pilgrimage: Lala’s knee has become painful and we have decided to send our heavier bags ahead tomorrow. Tonight we stay at Albergue Los Hospitales at Coliñas de Arriba, before continuing west towards Grandas de Salime. We had meaningful chats with pilgrims from Spain, Brazil, Finland, Sweden, Holland and UK about Blocktober and GBV.
4 October — Tineo to Campiello, in the rain 14 km
Our first properly wet Camino day. We left Tineo in heavy rain, testing rain jackets, ponchos and our determination. Dawie went into full MacGyver mode, fashioning flexible little “poles” from twigs to hold the front of our ponchos away from our bodies — helping keep our clothes and shoes drier underneath.
The rain eased later and, fortunately, the strong winds that could have made the exposed sections much more difficult did not materialise. We ended the day at Campiello, wet but still moving west.
3 October — Salas to Tineo (walking 26.2 km)
We had considered delaying our departure to experience more of the festival in Salas, but rain was forecast and we decided to walk. Ironically, by the time we reached Tineo at about 17:00, the rain had still not arrived. Near La Espina we stopped at a memorial connected with six young men who were detained and later killed in 1936. It prompted a conversation between us about Spain’s history of repression and South Africa’s own history of people killed, disappeared or never properly accounted for.
The day also acquired a more personal drama when Dawie realised, several kilometres later, that he had lost his new prescription spectacles near El Pedregal. He backtracked and enlisted other pilgrims in the search. Rafael, who was heading back that way, promised to keep an eye out for them.
2 October — Grado to Salas 24 km
Another day of green countryside, old villages, churches and conversations along the way. At the Santuario de la Virgen del Fresno we left a Blocktober card and wrote a message against gender-based violence in the pilgrim book — one small way of carrying the purpose of this walk with us.
We met Ruben, a young British pilgrim in financial services who is using a sabbatical for some remarkable journeys: he had already run from Norway to England for charity and was finishing his break by walking the Camino. We also spent time talking to Jim, an American pilgrim, about politics, society and the world we are walking through. We reached Salas for the night.
1 October — Oviedo to Grado: we start walking 27 km
We finally set out from Oviedo, following the bronze shells and yellow arrows that show the way westwards towards Santiago. At the little 15th-century chapel of Santa Ana de Premoño, historically associated with a pilgrims’ hospital, we left one of our Blocktober cards.
At Paladín, beside a small river, we met a wonderfully helpful Spaniard who gave us practical advice about the Camino, accommodation and finding gluten-free food for Lala — his own daughter has coeliac disease. It was one of those unplanned conversations that is already becoming a feature of the Camino.
30 September — Oviedo: an unexpected Blocktober connection
Before even taking our first Camino step, Blocktober produced an unexpected connection. Walking through Oviedo, we noticed a banner at the offices of the UGT trade union speaking out against violence against women. We went inside and met Antonio.
With some help from live translation by our phone, what began as an unplanned visit became a substantial conversation about gender-based violence, workplace discrimination, unequal pay, women’s unpaid burden of work, migrant women and the importance of economic independence.
Antonio told us about UGT’s work and its regular public actions against gender violence, gave us information to take with us, and offered to connect us with colleagues working specifically on equality and women’s issues. It was an encouraging reminder, even before starting the Camino, of what can happen simply by noticing a sign and walking through a door.
29 September — we arrive in Oviedo
After travelling from South Africa, we arrived in Oviedo, the historic starting point of the Camino Primitivo. We had a day to recover, prepare our packs, explore the city and make the transition from months of planning the Blocktober Camino to actually being here. Two days later, the walking would begin.
D. Links
Click here for Blocktober activities, blogs and more info
Donate using this link.
No comments:
Post a Comment