No pilgrims around Mazarife

[Richard Ferguson]

I had the same experience, not taking the road route out of Leon.  I had started in Leon, gotten way off route, only getting back on the "other route" at Chozas de Abajo.  I spent the night in Mazarife, but stayed at a kind of Bed and Breakfast because the refugio was kind of trashed and no one else was there.  It was a rough start.   I did not meet  my first pilgrim until I was at the bridge at Hopital de Orbigo, after two days of walking!   I remember talking to the pilgrims at the bridge, and I must have seemed upset, since one pilgrim told me "Animo!  Estas aqui!".  (Take heart, you are here!).  Everything started to look up from Orbigo on.

Relative to the crowds, the vast majority of the people stay on the usual route, and any variation offers the oportunity for a little solitude.  I went to Samos before I went to Sarria, and saw relatively few pilgrims on that route variation, although I did walk with one couple for a few km.  There were quite a few pilgrims in the refugio at Samos, but that is one cold refugio.

Richard