Leaving the Camino....

I slept soundly for my last night on the Camino, then L&D joined me for a last breakfast. It was strange to say goodbye to two people I had shared so much with, knowing we were going back to live in very separate parts of the world.
I enjoyed the day long train journey. It did not follow the exact route of the Camino, but we travelled back through similar landscapes. First there was the beautiful forested areas of Galicia. After Ourense we passed by a large river gorge, which had not been part of the walk. At 1.30pm we reached Ponferrada. I was pleased to find that it had taken at least a few hours to cover what had taken us days to walk... It later took 30 minutes to travel from Astorga back to Leon, a distance that had taken two days to walk.....
As we travelled back over the Meseta I could see how much the seasons had advanced. Much harvesting of crops had occurred, and there was the brown look of a barren summer left behind. I saw horses eating from the piles of hay we had earlier seen piled up. So hay here is not just a winter food.... it is needed in the summertime.

As we came closer to Irun the terrain became more mountainous, only this time we missed a lot of the views as we tunnelled through rather than climbing over!
At 8.45pm, nearly 12 hours after I had left Santiago, we crossed the border into France. I had a while to wait for the night train to Paris, but I was on my way home.....