Almost to Santiago - Last Night Was A Blast !

I guess it´s appropriate that tunes from Bob Dylans album, ¨Slow Train Coming¨, rolled around my head as I walked this morning. The Camino is a little different now. My thoughts have been taken on a more comtemplative tone. I´ve been walking alone..... I may be walking alone but I´m not alone. There are alot of new faces and people walking with little day packs talking on their cell phones. At least that´s the way it was yesterday morning. You see, in order to be a bonified certified recognized official Pilgrim all you need to do is walk the last 100k of the Camino. Upon arrival in Santiago you then go to a special office and show an official your credential. A credential is a booklet that allows you to collect rubber stamps from albergues, churches, and misc. places along the way to prove you were really on the Camino. Upon official approval you then recieve a compostela (certificate) that declares you a certified pilgrim....Portomarin is close to 100k from Santiago. Yesterday I got my usual late start and quickly found myself within a herd walkers I´ve never seen. The core group of fellow walkers who have been on the Camino awhile has been diluted by a fresh set of newbies. I arrived at the first cafe/bar and it was packed. After a quick cup of coffee I decided I needed to move ahead of the heard. It took me all morning to do so but by afternoon I found the Camino to be more tranquil. Knowing that the herd would be staying in Palas de Rei I chose to push a little further and found myself in the quiet enclave of Casanova for the night. There´s a nice little albergue there so I asked the hospitalero if I could camp. She then ran across the street to ask someone if I could camp in the farmers field next to the albergue. No problema, so thats what I did. While setting up camp I noticed what sounded like nearby shot gun blasts but did´nt think much of it. When I crawled into my tent for the night the blasts were still going off. Being a Texan I did´nt think much of it. I then noticed the blasts were going off at 10 to 15 min intervals. I expected it to stop but it did´nt. This lasted all night and in all honesty I still slept ok. It really did´nt bother me. This morning when I left I hardly noticed it anymore because I´d gotten so use to it. Amazing. Not sure what it was but now I don´t think it was a shot gun. I think it´s some kind of automatic blast to run rodents and birds away from a farmers garden. Again, I´m amazed at how things that would bother the heck out of me at home don´t bother me much, if at all, on the Camino.... Today was a fairly average walking day and although I´m seeing more people on the Camino I did´nt experience the actual herd today. Tonight I´m camped in a very nice field behind the albergue in Ribadiso... Tomarrow will be my last full day of walking beofore Santiago. I plan to stop just shy of arriving in the city. I´m approx. 4o km away...