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!