introduction and How many people have completed the camino in 2003

[Kay Young]

Hi Maura
My husband Graham and I walked from SJPP on August 17 arriving in Santiago
on September 19. My previous camino had been in September/October 2001. I
had expected the refugios to be very crowded at such a peak time and we
carried thermarests. The first weeks were fairly crowded but we only
 had to use them once in Najera when we slept on the sports hall floor.
We hit the meseta in the first days of September and were very surprised at
how uncrowded this stretch seemed. The last week through Galicia certainly
were more crowded with the smaller refugios filling up within an hour of
opening. We were very pleased that we had left enough time in the last week
so as to be able to shorten our daily walks and in this way always managed
to get a bed.

Kay Young
NZ