Meet Lynn and follow her journey

Lynn and Hugh Lloyd-Jones

I lost my beloved Hugh to Alzheimer's on 26 May 2024.  I have always wanted to walk the Camino Pilgrimage, as has my friend and neighbour Rosemary, so we decided to undertake the walk together, beginning on 8 May 2025.  This will be my first venture into the hiking world proper and walking 199km (see later) over ten days at the ripe old age of 70 will be something of a challenge!  However, I am determined to stay the course in memory of Hugh and in aid of the Charity which helps other people suffering from the awful disease Alzheimer's and related forms of dementia, the disease which ended Hugh's life in our home on the Island of Cyprus.

I have raised money from sponsorship from kind and generous family and friends and have done pretty well so far, raising more than 1,000 euros (see later) for the cause.  My walk is totally self-funded so 100% of the funds raised will go to Alzheimer's Cyprus.  I am not seeking sponsorship via this website but donations may be made direct to The Cyprus Alzheimer Association.  See contact details.

Watch this space for daily blogs along the route.

Well, still more than a month to go before my walk and I have received the travel bundle.  Its huge!  It is also different from the original sent to me by Orbis Ways some weeks ago.  OK, not vastly different but they have managed to add a few extra kilometers to the first day, meaning that I will now be walking 206.1km (see later) rather than the 199km previously advised.  Ah well, what's a few extra between pilgrims!  Assuming I manage to stumble over the line, I offer apologies to those who have sponsored me by the km!

Two weeks to go and aside from Plantar Fasciitis in my foot, I have a little problem with my knee, largely from walking dogs up and down the hills around my home!  So now its rest for the next few days.  I know I will be hobbling towards the glorious Catedral de Santiago de Compostela on the 17th May but I do not want to be hobbling at the starting point on 8th May!

It's three days before the start of the pilgrimage and Rosemary and I are at Gatwick.  Off to Spain tomorrow ready to begin on Thursday the 8th May.  Now I really want to get started!  Buen Camino!

Thursday 8th May - Day One.  A nice morning cup of tea is always a pleasure, except on this occasion when we were served with a glass full of milky water topped with a ton of froth and a tea bag floating inside.  Undrinkable!!  Looking forward to our mid morning coffee we set off following the Camino shell signs and a bunch of other peregrinos, all of whom looked a great deal younger than us.  However, the route was flat and the going was easy. "This is a doddle" we thought, not knowing what fate awaited us later.   We stopped for a very pleasant coffee at Camponaraya, the 10KM mark.  We passed a pretty little church at Fuentesnuevas where a lady kindly called out that she could stamp our Camino passports (they have to be stamped twice a day to prove you are actually doing the walk and not just hanging around enjoying the scenery) and where I lit some candles for Hugh.  Heading on, we reached the 16KM mark at Cacabelos, where we partook of a huge "snack" of tortilla and mixed salad.  Still fairly comfortable, if a little footsore, we admired the view of the mountains in the distance, until we realized that we would soon be climbing them!  Indeed, the last part of our day was spent struggling up and down steep roads and pathways until we miraculously managed to reach our destination of Villafranca del Bierzo having hiked 24.87KM, in an awful state of exhaustion, red faced and decidedly sweaty.  Having been informed that Day Two would be infinitely worse than today I comforted myself in the knowledge that the journey would be shorter, until I double checked our itinerary and found that it was to be even longer than today, at 28.4KM.  Buen Camino! 

Day two.  Well if i had not known otherwise i would have thought that our course today had been set by a sadist or at least a military endurance expert.  In fact, having completed the course  we will be applying to join the marines.

It was ok in the beginning and we even had a decent cup of tea for breakfast.  Also we were not even bombarded with fluffy white things from trees which on day one had made us sneeze and given us watery eyes.  However, we were forced to hike 30.9km, latterly in constant rain along rocky muddy tracks going steeply uphill and covered with horse dung.  Arriving at our destination at last we were greatly relieved, only to be informed that we still had 2 km to trek.  It was just too much for our poor old bodies to endure but we had no choice.

Anyway it ended well with beautiful Galacian broth, trout, a tasty pork dish and flan dessert, accompanied by a very pleasant red Galacian wine.

Buen camino!

Day three.  After yesterday we looked forward to a less troublesome day.  What fools!  Ok, the walk was shorter at 21+km but boy was it a challenge!  We had had little sleep as our rooms were next to a couple of male cyclists who were having a ball reliving their day's antics and laughing very loudly until late into the night.  Also we were both too full of aches and pains to enjoy a comfortable sleep.  Breakfast was good and filling though and we had another decent cuppa to kick start our day.  From then on things went downhill - well literally in my case.  It was pouring with rain at the start of the day but then it dried up and we were optimistic until my hips and "good" knee simply refused to carry me downhill.  The pain was awful and of course I had forgotten to pack my brufen in my backpack.  So I had to walk backwards in order to make any progress, which can be quite dangerous on slippery rocky paths.  Thankfully we were saved by a nice man in a cafe who dispensed a brufen pill which enabled me to negotiate the downhill paths without too much trouble.  Just as well, as the last 6km to our next destination Triacastela was made up of a series of steep downhill rocky muddy tracks.  A man at our lunch venue, a fellow pilgrim being faced with a deluge of hailstones ordered a taxi and even offered us a lift.  We were outraged!  How could he?  Of course we refused as we consider ourselves to be true pilgrims of the no cheating variety.  The going was very unpleasant however and we were constantly battered with hailstones for ages until we reached lower ground. Anyway we made it and we are alive to face another day. Buen Camino!

Day four.  The rain in Spain falls mainly on us!  Another crazy challenging day tramping up and down tough undulating rocky paths with rivulets and plenty of mud.  The rain was constant and fierce and we only managed one stop as when we arrived at the scheduled lunch venue it was closed, presumably because they close on Sundays.  Ah well, at least we managed coffee and cake at 10.5km.  I am on my second brufen of the trail, which enables me to climb downhill without going backwards.  I certainly couldn't have climbed backwards down the steep downward paths which again were strewn with rocks, mud and rivulets!  At our coffee stop we were again shocked to hear the word taxi mentioned by a group of young people.  What would the original peregrinis have thought?  The young crowd told us that lots of people are ordering taxis because of the weather.  Outrageous!  If a couple of oldies can do it, why can't they?!!  In Sarria now.  Rest day tomorrow.

Tip for the day - consider goloshes or slip proof wellies when tackling the Ponferrada-Sarria section in May and definitely invest in waterproof gloves for your poor frozen hands.  

Buen Camino.

Day five - day off!  Well, it's my 71st Birthday and amazingly we are still alive having hiked one of the hardest parts of the Camino Frances and scaled its highest point.  If we had known that before we began we might have reconsidered!  The town of Sarria is not particularly exciting but there are lots of shops and facilities for us Peregrinis.  The pharmacy came in particularly handy for us.  We had a little wander around this morning and stopped off for a coffee at a small bar run by a lovely chap who was playing beautiful music on his cd player.  Since it is my birthday we will be indulging in a meal at a place recommended by the nice lady who sold me a poncho as my Temu raincoat is looking a little sorry for itself after the deluges over the last few days.  Meeting some familiar faces whom we have seen along the route which is good fun 🤩 

Buen Camino!

Day six.  We were looking forward to a slightly shorter walk today, scheduled to be 22km from Sarria to Portomarin.  The weather forecast was light rain showers which turned out to be pretty accurate until after lunch when the wet stuff came down quite heavily.  We were very happy that the paths were generally well maintained and there were even stone paths laid where there would otherwise have been running water, unlike the endurance courses we had suffered over the previous days!  There was also beautiful scenery and no mountain fog since we had descended a far bit.  However, there were some pretty vicious downhill climbs towards Portomarin which were hard on our poor overworked knees.  Also, the tour company once again understated the distance and we ended up doing 23.9km rather than the 22 promised!

Time for wine and food (in that order!).  Buen Camino!