Planning for the Last Stages of the Camino

How to break up the walk into manageable portions.  This isn't very interesting reading but is my scratch pad.

I'm looking at the first (and still most appealing) book I bought about the Camino when we went to Barcelona in 1999: El Camino de Santiago a Pie.  The stages they recommend for starting in Ponferrada (our first stage), with the mileage and hours, follow, with the original numbering from Roncesvalles.  They may have chosen the various villages to stop in because they have refugios/albergues  and because they wanted to complete the entire Camino from the French Border in a month.  There are more accommodations available now and we are also in no hurry to get to Santiago so we can split up the days or choose to stay in other locations.  We just have to make sure that there are accommodations available.

22. Ponferrada (205.4 km to Santiago) to Villafranca del Bierzo: 22.5 km; 5 1/2 hours.  Evidently an easy day as it is marked with one boot.  (183 km left)
23. Villafranca del Bierzo to O Cebreiro: 30 km; 8 1/2 hours; 3 boots. (153 km left)
24.  O Cebreiro to Triacastela: 20.5 km; 5 hours; 1 boot. (132.4 km left)
25.  Triacastela to Barbadelo: 22.9 km; 5 1/2 hours; 1 boot. (109.5 km left)
26.  Barbadelo to Gonzar: 25.3 km; 7 hours; 2 boots. (84.2 km left)
27.  Gonzar to Melide: 31.7 km; 8 hours; 3 boots.  (52.5 km left)
28.  Melide to Pedrouzo/Arca: 32.4 km; 8 hours; 2 boots.  (20.1 km left)
29.  Pedrouzo/Arca to Santiago: 20.1 km; 5 hours; 1 boot.

John Brierly in A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino de Santiago (2006) breaks it up differently, staying in a town before Ponferrada, Molinaseca, which would increase our first day's kilometrage to 30.7 km (19.1 miles), not something I would do.  Brierly also says there is much to see in Ponferrada (including the Templar castle), a town of 60,000 which gets its name from the iron bridge that was built here in the 11th century.  Its tourist office has lists of hostals and guest houses in addition to the new albergue that has 185 beds.  So, changing his starting point to Ponferrada, the stages would be:

1.  Ponferrada to Villafranca del Bierzo: 23.7 km.  Villafranca only has a population of 5,000 but it is a popular tourist venue so it has a "wide range of alternative accommodations".
2.  Villafranca del Bierzo to O Cebreiro: 30.9 km (19.2 miles).  This stage is the steepest of the whole Camino but offers stunning views of the Valcarce Valley (Vallis Carceras in Latin means narrow valley).  There are intermediate accommodations so we could break the walk in two.  O Cebreiro has also become a popular tourist venue.
3.  O Cebreiro to Triacastela: 20.7 km (12.9 miles) downhill (after a short steep climb) with tremendous views.
4.  Triacastela to Sarria via Samos: 25 km (15.5 miles).  Sarria is a bustling modern town of 12,000 with railway and bus lines.
5. Sarria to PortoMarin: 22.9 km (14.2 miles).  Portomarin is a modern town of 2,000 on the edge of a reservoir created in 1962, which flooded the original town so that the residents opted to have it relocated here.
6.  Portomarin to Palas de Rei: 26.1 km (16.2 miles).  The regular Lugo to Santiago bus stops here in case we need to quit :-).
7.  Palas de Rei to Ribadiso (Arzua): 26.4 km (16.4 miles).  Midway through this walk (15.3 km) is the town of Melide with a town of 8,000 that is known for its octopus (even though it is not on the coast!), so that would be a good additional stopping night for us.
8.  Ribadiso to Arca do Pino (Pedrouzo): 22.2 km (13.8 miles).  There are duplicate names for many of these towns, one in Spanish and the other in Galician (Gallego).  Brierly says this is the last main albergue before Santiago.
9.  Arca (Pedrouzo) to Santiago: 20.6 km (12.8 miles).

Fernando will be in no hurry and he wants to break the stages down further and start closer to Santiago and stay a few nights in Leon...  He also doesn't like the looks of O Cebreiro, but then I showed him this video and now he says "very interesting"...  Stay tuned.

Oh!  and if you want to see short video clips of the whole route from O Cebreiro to Santiago, check out https://www.youtube.com/user/XacobeoVideo.