Thar' she blows!

Well, today's challenge was wind and rain. The weather had been forecasted to change and today was it. Started out with a cloudy morning and managed to walk from Rabanal del Camino to Cruz de Ferro in weak sunshine. Following tradition, I left a stone I had brought from Australia at the foot of the cross. This cross and spot has become a very important symbol of the Camino. During the climb, I was constantly buffeted by very strong wind which kept blowing me sideways. It was difficult to stay upright in places. After Cruz de Ferro, it was basically downhill for a very steep descent. The rain started about 5 mins later. After 3 hours of downhill struggle in the rain, I decided to stop in El Acebo. I still have a further 8 kms or so of downhill descent to do tomorrow and it will still be raining. Hopefully it won't be quite as exhausting as today! However, I have now traversed the highest point of this route. Feels like an achievement. Will likely have another short day tomorrow and only walk to Ponferrada.

Gourmet eating - Pilgrim Style!

I´ve made several comments about the food on the Camino and you may have gotten the impression that it is universally bad. This is not really the case. However, variety in pilgrim menus doesn´t really exist and whilst filling, it isn´t very healthy as it doesn´t contain enough vegetables to keep me happy. Lots of chips, meat (usually pork) and legumes together with the ubiquitous bread make the general menu for pilgrims - cheap and filling is about it. However, as I´ve been basically travelling with a couple of other Aussies from Western Australia for the past 10 days or so, and they are completely over the standard pilgrim menu offerings, we have been seeking out more interesting food. Not good on the bank balance but excellent for the taste buds and variety. Yesterday, in Astorga, we ended up at a wonderful restaurant that served us prawns and mushrooms in a wonderful sauce (sounded funny but was a great combination). Over the past couple of days I´ve managed to have trout stuffed with vegetables, a large plate of grilled vegetables, leeks filled with seafood, leeks with smoked salmon (leeks are a speciality of this area), wonderful vegetable soup and today, one of the best seafood and fish soups I´ve ever had. Truly, the life of a pilgrim is hard work and suffering!

The benefits of a good massage

Day 26 is now over and I´m two thirds of the way to Santiago (measured from St Jean Pied de Port). Lots of towns claim the half way point but it really depends on where you start. Tonight, I´m in a lovely little town called Rabanal del Camino which has mostly stone houses and walls everywhere. The two churches are built of stone as well. As far as I can tell, there are about 80 inhabitants and 5 dogs - two German Shepherds, one French Mastiff, a ginger/red dog of indiscriminate parentage and a small dog of a terrier sort. However, there are 4 albergues, a guest house and the Posada (pub with beds basically) so room for around around 120 pilgrims as well. There are 4 restaurants / bars and two small grocery type shops. Not bad for a town that probably only still exists because of the Camino de Santiago. The other claim to fame here is that there is an order of monks that come to one of the churches and sing Gregorian Chant for vespers. Hopefully I will get to hear them tonight as I actually like this form of music and have a friend in Australia who leads a similar group of singers (but he´s not a monk!). Today was basically a standard day´s walk - around 22 kms. There were a couple of small climbs to negotiate but nothing too strenuous. However, my foot pain recurred again today and just before I got to Rabanal, I had to stop for a while to rest my foot and try to get the pain under control. When I arrived in town I saw a sign advertising massages. My albergue hostelero was happy to arrange this so at 4 pm, I presented myself at the appointed place and had a full massage. I knew I had a few tight and sore muscles but wasn´t expecting some of the ones the therapist found! I´m happy to say that currently I feel very relaxed, comfortable and have no pain of any sort. Hope the benefits last for tomorrow as well. Anyway, it is good to be pain-free, even if for only a few hours. I think the time to just chill and relax (whilst somebody performs torture) was worthwhile and if I get another opportunity to indulge, I may just do that! Tomorrow, I´m off to Molinaseca which is about 26-27 kms so a bigger day with lots of steep sections to test those newly relaxed muscles!

Where am I now?

24 September - Tonight, I´m in a little town by the name of Hospital de Orbigo. When sending my nightly text to my parents to let them know all is well, I thought I´d better ensure they knew it was the name of the place, not that I was in hospital! Spain has some interesting place names that come from distant history and make sense when you know the stories. This place used to have a large ¨hospital¨ (hostal) for pilgrims back in the medieval period, hence the name. Orbigo is approximately 30 kms west of Leon. So a very long days walk, but not so hot today. Tomorrow the weather is likely to change and become unstable with rain forecast for several days. I am still about 12 days from Santiago and have the Galician mountains to traverse (likely in the rain). Tomorrow, I head for Astorga which will be approx two thirds of the way done - yippee!!!!!

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to Santiago.......

You might get the impression from some of my blogs that this walk is all about pain and suffering (and bad food). However, it is also puntuated with sudden and unexpected acts of kindness, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and various amusing incidents either happening directly to me or people I am with or related as stories by other pilgrims we meet. ¨M¨- (name changed to protect the guilty). Wonderful lady with great sense of humour. However, at every albergue, she seemed to manage to leave things behind. First albergue it was her shorts, next albergue was her toiletries. A little later, a pair of walking trousers were inadvertantly ¨stolen¨ by a young Spaniard (she´d left them hanging up as they were wet and he took them in the dark thinking they were his!) Luckily, she was finishing her walk at Logrono. We were a bit worried that if she kept going, she would be walking in her pyjamas or worse! In many albergues, the beds are bunk beds. One even had 3 tiers. Great for the snorer´s symphony as you can fit more people in each room! In one small town (lucky us, we arrived on fiesta night), I shared a bunk with a very friendly Spanish cyclist. I had the bottom bunk and he the top one. However, the weight range for the beds was listed on the side and he suddenly looked very guilty and said he might weight more than that! Being of a generous nature (think self-preserving), I offered to swap with him. His response gave me a good laugh - he declined to swap and asked me if my life insurance was paid up! We left the discussion agreeing that if the slats started to bend, we would swap. I safely spent the entire night on the bottom bunk. However, nobody got any sleep due to the fiesta which went on all night. I did try to warn the others at my end of the room that this would happen but they just didn´t believe me. Now they know!!

Hump Day

Well, if anyone is wondering what happened to me, wonder no more. The reason for limited blogs has been intermittent internet availability and the difficulties of blogging via wi-fi from a smart phone with a very small keyboard. Add in sheer exhaustion at the end of a long, hot day of walking, then you probably get the picture. So what have I been up to since then? Well, I´ve managed to catch up with some fellow Australians from WA that I met on day one (the mad Aussies) and lose my friends from the UK. I´ve also managed to make it past the half way mark and I´m still upright and walking (slowly, but I´m walking). Since the last blog, written from San Juan de Ortega, I´ve visited Burgos, taking two days rest there and walked the meseta (central plateau). I´ve been to Leon and and now fast approaching the Galician mountains which will rival the Pyrenees for steepness and effort. Each day brings interesting people, conversations, vistas and challenges. However, despite pain, fatigue, bad food and lack of sleep I would say overall it is an enjoyable and definitely worthwhile experience so far. What I will learn and take home from this experience is yet to be confirmed. Not smothering snorers is an ongoing skill I am developing! One of my fellow pilgrims wants to stick sharp things in snorers´ (and other rude peoples´) eyes! So I´m in good company. Really, we aren´t homicidal at all.

Camino Fever

Below are some words about the Camino written by a fellow pilgrim. I have his permission to share this tongue in cheek description (thanks Bob). Rest assured it us very accurate! I have decided not to play. ¨A brief essay on Camino Fever. This is a rare phenomenon only observed amoung peregrinos. It appears to become worse as the Camino progresses. It is open to debate whether CF is a brief psychotic episode or a form of mass hysteria. Camino Fever usually occurs in large dormitories in albergues. It involves grown adults going to bed before 9 pm and hissing anyone with the temerity to come to bed later. The ensuring night is puntuated by snoring in multiple keys and toilet breaks (tricky if you are on an upper bunk without a ladder). The affected then wake around 5am ensuring that everyone within earshot wakes too. The sole purpose of this exercise is to ensure the CF individual hits the road in the complete dark, and often cold, before 6 am. This means the affected can see nothing except the semicircle of light from their headlamps. They do manage to avoid walking in the heat of the day. The desired result is that they reach the next town by 1pm at the latest, grab the available beds so that they can repeat the exercise again the next day as in many towns there is little to do other than eat, drink and sleep. I hasten to add that CF, while infectious, is not irresistible.¨

Thirds

Hi all, Just a very quick blog whilst I have internet connection. Tonight, I´m in San Juan de Ortega (St John of the Nettles)a very small town which is basically a ruined monastery and albergue (place where pilgrims sleep) with a resident population of 20 people. I toured the monastery today with a group of Spanish people after impressing the hospitalero (head honcho at the albergue) with my Spanish when I laughed at something he said in Spanish to his colleague. He was being a bit irreverent at the time so was very apologetic. I gather there has been too many pilgrims today and they have run out of room to put them. I expected the albergue to be full so was just asking for other options when they decided they could fit in one or two more mattresses, but sorry, no pillows. Basically any flat surface to sleep will do me. it was quite a steep climb today so I´m happy with a mattress and I can fashion a pillow without any problems. I´m really just writing to let you all know I´m now officially at the 1/3 mark of the trip. Tomorrow I should reach Burgos (a city of about 170,000 people). I think that will be a shock after quiet roads and sleepy little towns for the most part. Anyway, I´m feeling as if I have achieved something getting this far. One third of the way is pretty good going - that over 258 kms in 13 days (average is a bit low but the terrain has been really steep!) Just think of all the steps I have completed up to now.

The Call of the Camino

Each day of walking has it´s challenges and sometimes, I feel a bit overwhelmed and uncertain that I can continue. The unrelenting miles, the constantly changing terrain, the often filling but not particularly health food available in small towns, lack of sleep, all take a toll. Often at the end of the day, you feel you just can´t go on, but as it´s night time, you have to wait till the morning to make arrangements and by morning, the world seems different. Night time may bring doubts, but each morning, I get up, pack, have breakfast, shoulder my backpack and start walking. By the time I´ve gone 5 kms, I´ve forgetten the doubts of yesterday and look forward to the new experiences of today. It´s quite amazing how the Camino just seems to keep pulling me forward and not letting me give up. Maybe I´ll make it to Santiago after all. The smallest things make a big difference, like the kind taxi driver who drove me and two companions from Zubiri to Cizor Mayor who just wouldn´t leave us until he was sure we had a bed; the kind hotel manager who gave us a triple room at the end of a corridor so nobody would disturb us (and then gave us a 5% discount because we were pilgrims); the random bunch of Irishmen who have provided welcome laughs and encouragement just when we needed them, to strangers who stop and ask if you are okay, elderly gentlemen who show you the way just in case you could get lost and wish you a good trip etc. I n the Pyrenees, I was struggling along and a French lady appeared, seeminly out of nowhere and walked alongside me for a couple of kilometres, chatting away and telling me that it would be less steep soon. She didn´t speak English and I don´t speak French, but we managed to communicate in a mixture of French and Spanish to good effect. Once I reached my accommodation, she appeared again and said - you made it- and then left. I didn´t see her go, she wasn´t a pilgrim and didn´t seem to be with anybody, but she was an angel to me that day. And today, whilst walking from Santo Domingo de la Calzada to Grañon (about 8 kms), I met a man coming the opposite way who stopped and wished me ¨buen camino¨ and called me by name. At first being very surprised, I then realised he was the same man who had taken my registration at the albergue yesterday when I arrived in Santo Domingo very tired after walking 33 kms (I thought I had only walked 28 - 29kms so was shocked when he told me it was 33!). Roberto remembered me and was just coming back from a walk when he saw me. He took the time to check I had rested well, shook my hand and wished me a safe journey. And of course, all the wonderful fellow pilgrims who are friendly, helpful and willing to chat, despite language differences. It´s quite wonderful how you often met up with people you may have only had a few words of greeting with and they will want to know how you have been going and give you a hug. Truely, the Camino is a walk of a different kind and seems to embody a spirit of comradarie, friendship and kindness despite annoyances, disappointments and downright grumpiness at times. It´s been a hell of a ride, absolutely gruelling at times, but always surprising, interesting and overall, enjoyable (well now that I can manage my foot pain lol). Now, if I can just get a decent cup of tea tonight, all will be right with the world.

Passing the 200km barrier

Walking the Camino is certainly a challenge. However, it does provide some wonderful surprises and opportunities for laughter along the way. I have been very grateful for new friends and acquantainces that I have made so far as they often provide the boost needed to keep going. I´ve met some crazy Irishmen who have provided wonderful opportunities for laughter which should be mandatory for doing long walks. I only ever met them whilst stopping for breaks, but the laughs and fun broke the fatigue and weariness and provide a welcome mental boost for the next section of the walk. The last two nights, I have spent with a couple of new acquantainces, Maurice from South Africa and Christopher, an elderly Irishman. I´ve lost contact with my two other Australian mates for the time being, as strangely, I am ahead of them at the moment. We are staying in touch via email to update each other on our whereabouts. I´m sure they will catch me up sometime soon. Well, tonight I am in a lovely little town called Belorado. It has links to the Camino back many centuaries and has an ancient castle on top of the hill. The Church also seems to have part of it´s complex built directly into the cliffs behind. Either that or it is a fabulous house! I could easily come back here to explore this area but I think I´d rather stay in a hotel next time. The communal sleeping arrangements are an integral and necessary part of the Camino but not conducive to regular and restful sleep. Yesterday, I made to to the 200 km stage of the walk. Yeah!! I feel like I´m achieving something now. I hope to be in Burgos by Saturday, but that will require a couple of fairly solid days with some significant climging tomorrow. Hopefully, the feet will hold out. I´ve definitely had some feet trouble, with major pain in my right big toe joint causing the majority of the problems. I managed to speak to a pharmacist in Santo Domingo de la Calzada yesterday and now have some anti-inflammatory tablets to take which seem to be helping. I have now spent two days walking normally(borrowed some tablets from a fellow pilgrim the night before). It´s amazing how much difference this makes to my comfort and energy levels. I started off yesterday morning barely able to walk and feeling that I would be lucky to make it 8 kms to the next town. I ended the day having walked 33 kms (which wasn´t the original plan) and feeling pretty good, albeit with tired feet. Today, I walked 23 kms but as it was alongside the highway, my feet are quite sore from the hardness of the ground. At least my big toe joint behaved itself today! So, all´s well at the end of day 12 and I get to walk in oak and pine forest for half the day tomorrow (whilst climbing a mountain). Catch you all again soon.

The Route

For those of you unfamiliar with the Camino de Santiago, let me begin by explaining that there are several routes that you can follow. Some start together then diverge and others start at different places but join closer to Santiago de Compostela. I am following the traditional route, The Camino Frances (or French route). We start in St Jean Pied de Port in southern France, can either that the Valcarlos route or Napoleonic route over the Pyrennes and the head west through Spain to Santiago. I took the higher route, the Napoleonic route through the Pyrennees to Roncesvalles in northern Spain. From Roncesvalles, I travelled to Zubiri, Pamplona, Cizor Mayor, Puenta La Reina, through Los Arcos towards Logroño and then follow the route to Burgos, then Leon etc. In some places there are alternate routes as well but whether I take them will depend on time, energy, places to stay, food etc. You can probably just google Camino Frances to get a list of websites that will show you the route and have pictures of the way as well.

How far I´ve come and how far yet to go!

Day 8 of the walk is finally over. Actually, I shouldn´t complain today as I ended up only doing about 10 kms and decided to stay in Viana rather than push on to Logroño. I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs that I had met some mad Australians who had adopted me. Well, whilst having a break in Viana and a well earned cup of tea, they walked past. I had thought they would be far ahead of me, but Jo had some blister trouble and wanted to have a short day. As Logroño is the final destination for Moira and Pam, my travelling companions up to now, we all decided to stay in Viana to have a final celebration of camino friendship. My feet are very happy to have stopped for the day! Overall, I´ve done over 100 kms in the past 8 days and have felt every rock, ascent and descent on the way. Whilst I have found the experience gruelling at times and have wondered about my sanity, I believe I can still continue. All in all, it´s been fun, despite lack of sleep (snorers beware!), physically challenging days and lack of variety in the food offered to pilgrims. If you like potato chips every day, you would probably have a lot of fun. But for me, lack of vegetables and available fruit are taking a toll and as most small towns don´t have a supermarket or shop, relying of travelling vans etc, it can be a tricky business finding what you want. Tea is also a doubtful commodity but I have generally managed to find a bar or cafe selling tea at least once per day (even if only peppermint tea). Last night we staying in a lovely little village called Torres del Rio. However, we arrived in the middle of their local fiesta. I told Pam and Moira that we wouldn´t get any sleep as the Spanish party all night (they didn´t believe me then). This morning they know first hand about the Spanish ability to party. The final revellers were heading home when we were heading off at 8 am this morning. Fireworks, loud music, dancing and singing are not conducive to a good night´s sleep, no matter how tired you are. Most of us went back downstairs to join in for a while. Lots of fun was had even if no sleep occurred afterwards. Anyway, I´m still walking, still upright and meeting very interesting people. Yesterday afternoon and last night over dinner I got to speak Spanish for over 3 hours. I´m getting better and feeling more comfortable having general conversations all the time. Not sure what tomorrow will bring, but I´m sure it will be interesting and probably challenging. 36 days to go and 675 kms yet to walk!!

Suffering Pilgrims

Why did I decide it would be a good idea to do the Camino de Santiago? After 5 days of walking, over the Pyrenees, across varying terrain almost every kilometre, steep descents into towns and just about every hill and mountain between the Pyrenees and Ayegui (near Estella, Navarre), I can confirm that the reputation of the Camino to test the pilgrims in the first week is very true. I´ve meet people with incredible blisters and foot injuries who have done heaps of walking and long distance walking before and never had trouble, only to find the Camino showing them the meaning of pain and fatigue. I haven´t had any blisters thankfully, but I do have very sore feet, especially my right foot. Every day after we finish, it´s a struggle to take off my boots and put on other shoes. Walking to the bathroom for a shower is all I can manage. In fact, yesterday by the time we got to Puenta La Reina, I couldn´t even do that. I wasn´t sure I would get even that far at lunch time as at that stage, I couldn´t put weight on my right foot at all. However, after a break, some Panadol and some food (and a wonderful cup of tea), I found I could go on just a little bit more. By the time we got to Puenta La Reina and found the main albergue was full and most of the albergues in town likewise, I think we could have just cried. However, there is a newish albergue just outside town on the far side - they had beds. Yeh!!! However, need to walk all the way through town, across the bridge and then climb a very steep dirt track for about 350m to get there. That was a definite challenge let me tell you! My Spanish skills got put to the test again yesterday and this morning, translating for one of my companions. We had a room companion who had very bad blisters. Pam, being a nurse, took one look at them and was very concerned about his feet and the very real possibility of infection. The gentleman was Spanish so I got to translate as he didn´t speak English. He was very appreciative and this morning asked Pam to look at another injury on his toe which luckily turned out to be a blood blister (albeit a very large one) which wouldn´t cause any significant problems. He was a lovely man that I would have enjoyed talking more to if we had the opportunity. He had apparently been walking 45kms per day from Barcelona until his feet got really sore and then he slowed down to only 20 - 28 kms per day!! (I can barely manage to keep up 22 kms per day). First time in his life he had ever had blisters from walking as well. Anyway, meeting lots of interesting people, have proved my usefulness with Spanish and coping so far with the challenges. I might just make it to Santiago de Compostella after all - only 38 days to go!

No Room At The Inn

The weather has been fantastic for walking, so much so, that everybody seems to have decided to do the Camino at the same time as me. Given that it was a very wet Spring and Summer in Spain, it is possible that the unexpected and unusual number of pilgrims at this time of year is due to the wonderful weather. However, the downside is that there is often a scarcity of beds in the normal albergues for late arrivals. As I´m a bit of a snail, this could be a problem. I tend to walk at a steady pace all day, but definitely not fast. I´m not the slowest either. So, after a very tiring and fairly gruelling day from Roncesvalles to Zubiri, we (my companions from the UK)and I just wanted a bed and some sleep. Our feet were sore, the descent into town was steep and full of rocks and pebbles so needed to watch our feet and, the town seemed to never get closer. We discovered there was no room at the inn or the other 5 albergues in town, nor any vacancies in the next few towns. The only option seemed to be to catch a taxi to Pamplona. So, off to Pamplona we went only to find that the two albergues in Pamplona and the one in the next small town were full as well! So, no bed in a pilgrim hostel to be had for miles. Everyone we spoke to said this was very unusual for this time of year. Having to go by taxi from Zubiri to Pamplona meant we had missed one day of the walk, but there really wasn´t much choice. The high number of pilgrims and the wonderful weather made it unfeasible to return to do the walk the next day or suffer the same fate with regards to beds (or pay for a 4 or 5 star hotel in Pamplona and the budget doesn´t stretch that far). The taxi driver was really lovely and definitely wanted to help us find a bed so kept driving us to different albergues, waited while I ran in to check if any vacancies, then drove us to the next one. Eventually, we ended up in a triple room at Cizur Mayor in a lovely little hotel. Split 3 ways, the 70 euro bill wasn´t too bad. The people in the hotel were very friendly, helpful and we got gold star service for dinner and a 5% discount for being pilgrims. We love them! We also then got a very good nights sleep. My Spanish skills got pressed into service with the taxi driver and the albergues and hotel. My new friends are very impressed! So, now ready for the big day ahead - 19 kms to Puenta La Reina (over more hills and mountains including the famous Alto de Perdon - a very steep and long climb).

Over the mountains

I have now cross the Pyrenees and survived. Very challenging walk but amazing and beautiful scenery. So, Day 2 is over and all good. No blisters but very tired feet. I´m glad to be at the albergue and able to rest. The local restaurant/bar has internet so I´m typing this as quick as I can so I don´t run out of time to post something. Sorry for any mistakes! I have met some wonderful people already, including a group of mad Australian women who have kind of adopted me at the moment. Also in this group are two ladies from the UK (Scotland and northern England). Together, we have having a ball despite the challenges of the mountains. I´m the slow one of the group but as we all walk at our own pace, often we only catch up at night to great amusement of our fellow pilgrims. I don´t think they would believe we only met yesterday. So much laughter and so little wine (fabulous). All great fun so far. The comradrie of the Camino is wonderful and very special. 2 days down and only 40 to go! The weather has been amazing and I´m glad to say it has been ideal walking weather, cool, especially high up in the mountain with the wind but sunny and clear after morning fog and cloud. I´m now back in Spain after starting in Southern France and enjoying hearing Spanish again all the time. I have some wonderful photos but no way to post them. If I get a chance to do so at another time, I´ll update the blogs so you may have to check back from time to time to see what I´ve been experiencing. Anyway, till next post (internet availability), I trust everyone is well. I´ll be thinking of you all as I walk. Chau y hasta luego.