Category: 2017 El Camino de Santiago

We managed to get up and out by 7:30ish. Juliaja started out hiking with us today. She is on a time crunch and flies back to St Petersburg in less than a week. She started the trail in Leon, but took an extra day there to explore and then had some knee issues and ended up taking another day in Astorga so all of her cushion is now gone since she has to be back to work on Monday.

No one wanted to walk the extra block back into the town square since it was further from the trail. We headed toward the reservoir in the hopes of finding an open cafe where we could grab some food. We did find two overwhelmed cafes–you’d think they would anticipate pilgrim crowds but there was only one worker in each cafe with hundreds of fresh pilgrims on the trail. While we were waiting in a line, we ran into Kat who told us she had dinner with Richard (aka Bus-man) last night. We knew he was flying in but didn’t know exactly how we were all going to catch up with each other. He had reservations at an Albergue in the town before us. He’s a fast walker, so he’ll catch up with us today.

Even after our wait for “breakfast”, we still managed to be just slightly ahead of the pilgrim crunch. When we got to the bridge crossing the reservoir, we turned around and saw hundreds of hikers behind us. Somewhere in the middle of the pack we saw Brenda. By the time we made it to Gonzar in 4 miles of all uphill walking, Brenda had caught up with us. It was starting to look like the cloud cover which has given us some relief from the sun this morning might actually turn into rain.

Even though the cafe in Gonzar was packed when we got there, we decided we needed the break and could deal with the wait. Just as we got some cafe con leches, Pam noticed a bright yellow glow appear on the horizon moving our way–Richard had caught up with us and there was no way we were going to miss him in that shirt.

The six of us (Brenda, Juliaja, Richard, Shaun, Pam, and me) commandeered a table so we could all sit and get caught up with each other. Richard, Brenda, and Julija were all new to each other so we made introductions. While we were chatting away, an amazing thing happened. The fog turned to mist, the mist turned to a drizzle, and the new pilgrims melted away. Busses appeared and pilgrims disappeared. Taxis would troll up and down the roads the rest of the day while it was raining and the crowd continued to thin out.

We’ve only had a couple days of rain on this whole trip so it felt great to have a steady rain to cool things off. Richard was the only one without rain gear because BBC weather said no chance of rain. He walked all day in shorts and a fluorescent tee shirt and didn’t seem to mind the rain at all.

The rain wasn’t bad at all. It was great to be a little on the cool side for a change. The six of us walked together for a mile and then Brenda wanted to stop at another quieter cafe. She’s not enjoying the crowds and she tends to walk by herself during the day. She seems to enjoy solitude to think and contemplate life’s bigger questions. She had such a bad night’s sleep last night in the Albergue she was in that she contemplated taking a bus to Santiago and skipping the crowds then walking to Fisterra. After her second cup of coffee, she was calmer again–but it turned out that we didn’t see her again on the whole trip so we’re not sure what she ended up doing.

The five of us stopped at another cafe in Ligonde for some lunch. With all the rain, the snails were becoming active. One actually slimed its way onto my pack while we were eating. Not being one who likes to break up families, I forced her off back onto the wall (females of non-human species like me; it’s the intelligent humans that hold me in disdain).

After lunch, we ran into the film crews again, but they didn’t seem to be interested in making us the stars of the documentary. Apparently we stole the show yesterday and they wanted to maintain focus on their story rather than our characters–film producers can be so fickle. The rain also picked up more at times. By now, we were almost completely alone on the trail–fair weather pilgrims!

We made one more stop at an ant cafe–seriously, giant ants were the theme of the cafe. 6′ tall ants outside and 1′ ants on the walls inside. It was really kind of cool in a creepy sort of way. While we were having our coffees and Aquarius’ the rain decided to let up quite a bit. I took my rain jacket off and Richard started to dry off a bit.

The five of us made it into Palas de Rei around 4. We stopped at the first good looking Albergue we saw but they were completely full. They tried to tell us that the town was full and that they could get us into another Albergue just up the hill. We felt they were trying to scam us and just went on. Not even 100 meters on in the downtown area, we came to an Albergue/restaurant on the Main Street that looked pretty nice. I went in and checked. They had a couple of 6 bed rooms on the upper floor that we could choose from. If the five of us were willing to spend 12 Euros each, we were guaranteed no one else would be put in with us. Julija wanted to walk on to the next town, so it was just the 4 of us. We took our chances at 10 Euros and won the lottery.

In fact, we had the whole upper floor to ourselves. 4 toilets, 4 showers, 4 sinks, 20 beds for the four of us. The Albergue had laundry machines, 2 bars, and a restaurant in the basement that serves pilgrim meals. We went down to the restaurant after getting cleaned up and organized to have a beer. While we were having our beer, Anton and Maria walked by looking for a place to have supper. They decided to join us so we all stayed in and ate. While we were eating, Chris, Bob, Adrain, and Edele walked by as well as Fanny who we hadn’t seen since before Leon.

It was well past 8 by the time we got done eating, so Pam was ready for bed. Anton and Maria were going to come by the room around 9:30 to pick up their phone that Pam was charging for them. Richard, Shaun, and I went out for another beer down the street with Bob, Chris, and the Irish. I was later getting there so only Shaun and Richard were still around when I showed up. When we got back to the room at 9:45, Pam was still awake–she’s turning into a night owl. Of course, it’s worth noting that it doesn’t get dark until almost 11.

Sleep was good and I didn’t want to get up. When Pam jumped down from her bunk, she managed to smack my bunk on the way down. I looked below to see Shaun was already up, so I had no choice but get up as well.

We had laundry done by the albergue last night, so first order of business was sort out the laundry and pack everything up. Just one problem, I was missing one of my favorite socks. You pay 7 Euros and you expect them not to lose your clothes. We went through everything 3 times to make sure my “darn tough” sock wasn’t inside of another article but no sock. I was “irritated”. I took the basket up with my single sock. I told them they lost my sock and to please check the machines. The guy came back and said it wasn’t in the machine and there was nothing he could do. I wanted a refund for my laundry and for them to buy me a new pair of socks. I got no where. I didn’t make a scene or yell, but I asked him to please call the manager. His response was that the manager would just say the same, the sock is not in the machine and there is nothing they can do.

I resisted my urge to destroy $30 worth of merchandise to equal the cost of my socks. Perhaps I am gaining patience on the Camino after all. Or maybe I knew someone standing in the shop and didn’t want to make an ass of myself in front of them. Which ever case it was, I’m glad I kept my cool. When I went back to the room to pack up and grab my other pair of socks, I found my missing DIRTY sock which Pam didn’t pick up with all the other dirty clothes. I’m not blaming Pam (even though it’s clearly her fault since her job was to take the dirty clothes up)–I’m clearly growing on this trip.

It’s entertaining to see all the first day pilgrims that are starting out of Serria today. We had breakfast on the patio and watched the throngs straggle by. Bob and Chris came in as we were getting ready to leave. They seem to be traveling slower this week. I’m really glad to see them so often because I was afraid we wouldn’t ever see them again once Paul left and they took off a day before us out of Leon.

The plan is 17.5 miles to Gonzar today. The trail doesn’t look bad today–just a moderate climb of 700′ and then a drop down into Portomarin where we’ll have some food before hiking the final 5 miles into Gonzar. We get to start off re-hiking the 1/2 mile Shaun and I had to hike TWICE yesterday because Pam didn’t do her job of trail watching–we didn’t let her forget it at any point along the way.

The trail was crowded like we have never seen it before. There are hundreds of pilgrims around us. It’s easy to tell those that are fresh from those of us hiking from France–the freshies are clean and carrying stuff in their hands (grocery bags, bottles of water, untainted hope) while the old timers walk slower and let everyone pass to try to find quiet spots (or holes) in which to walk.

If it hadn’t been for a Dane, we would have walked right past the 100K marker (62.5 miles) which is the minimum required distance to walk into Santiago to receive your credentials verifying that “you made it”. We walked on and off with people we have known for the last month–Adrian and Edele from Ireland, Bob and Chris from the USA, Kat from Canada, and of course, Shaun from Australia.

When we came through Ferrerios, we met up with a couple of film crews making a documentary for BBC television. We didn’t find out until later that John Brierly (the author of our guide book) was a part of this filming. It’s probably a good thing for him and us that we didn’t know, because we have a few complaints about his book. It’s widely in use but the maps are less than accurate–I’m sure I’ve had a few rants about this before. We talked to someone that walked with him and they said he was a quiet and nice person. Zen Curtis might not have kept his mouth shut, but we’ll never know if he would have survived the test.

Coming out of Vilcha, we started walking with Bob and Chris. We had come to a split in the road where we had to choose a longer road walk, or a portion that was labeled “difficult walk” even though it was the official route. I wanted the difficult walk, Pam and Shaun were both opting for the road, it was Bob who sided with me and convinced everyone to be adventurous.

The difficult section wasn’t bad at all. It was a narrow path between two old field walls that has washed out over the centuries so there are a few larger steps and pretty much just a lot of exposed stone on the trail. It definitely would be treacherous in a downpour, but it was only north of Madagascar hot today.

Coming back out onto the road for a short walk to the bridge leading across the reservoir into Portomarin. When the reservoir was built, the town was relocated to higher ground–it’s current location. The historical buildings were taken apart and rebuilt stone by stone. You can still see the numbers on the stones today.

This is our best chance of being in the documentary. The crews were set up on top of the stairs and along the road filming us all the way in. I tried to look pious and solemn while still making sure to not look directly at the cameras–I think it was some of my finest film work to date. I offered to sign releases, but no one seemed too interested–it must be considered public domain in Europe.

It was a little later than we had hoped to get into Portomarin but we still had plenty of time. We headed to the downtown area for some lunch. It was really getting hot now. Even Shaun decided to not sit in the sun while we ate. By the time we got done, two of the three of us decided they had had enough for the day. I’m pretty sure Pam was one of the two, but she tried to fake us out by putting on her boots and acting like she was good to go. Shaun and I didn’t buy her act so we all agreed to stay in town and stay “on book” for the remainder of the trip (meaning we would stay in the towns recommended by John Brierly in his guidebook). While we were making our decision, Julija wandered into town and joined us. She decided to stick around as well.

Now we just had to decide where we were going to stay. Shaun said there was an Albergue with a micro-brewery, so that was our first choice. Unfortunately, it was full. Right next to it was a real bonanza–an air conditioned bar with an adjacent pension/albergue. We ended up with a 4 person room right next to a bathroom for only 10 Euros each.

We broke the usual routine of shower, laundry, and settle in to enjoy the AC in the bar. The afternoon passed surprisingly quickly. By the time we did get settled in and cleaned up, it was time for supper again. We headed back to the square to find the whole crowd from earlier plus Brenda and later, Anton. This actually works out for the best as we will get to finish with the people we have hiked with the most. It looks like we will all be finishing on Friday.

It may have been a short day of hiking, but we had a big day of interactions with people. As soon as we got up, we ran into Muz having breakfast in our Albergue. He may have been recovering from a case of dysentery like I had a while back, but he was also having some sort of allergic reaction to the bottle of wine he drank at dinner last night. Even I laid off alcohol while I was spewing at both ends–give youth credit for perseverance.

Heading out of town, we ran into Julija. She was trying to decide which option to take. We decided to take the shorter distance route over a small mountain rather than the longer road route. We left her more or less spinning in circles in the middle of the road trying to decide which route to go.

The first 4 miles of the day were a constant climb up to Alto do Riocabo (possible translation of Ricks’ Cab Mountain, but don’t quote me on that, my Spanish needs a little more work). I got to the top first (what can I say, first out of bed, first up the hill). While I was waiting for Pam to make an appearance, Muz caught up with me again. We ended up walking together quite a bit today. He just finished his degree in EE and I’m afraid I was not the most encouraging person for him to talk to.

Pam eventually showed up, but so did Edele and Adrian. While we were chatting, Shaun also came on up. His knee is giving him a bit of trouble the last couple of days. It’s making a clicking sound with every step. Luckily, he’s an Aussie, so a bad knee is much less of a problem than he normally faces in a day of dodging snakes, crocodiles, and kangaroos just getting to his car to start his day.

We all walked together for the next couple of miles. The highlight of the walk was when Edele “fell”. I admit, I was not paying close attention to her as I was looking out in the forest and Adrain was blocking my view. I just heard a thump and then saw Edele laying on her back with her little arms and legs flaying in the air. If she had been wearing green, the similarity to a turtle on it’s back would have been too great to not comment on. Instead, Adrain compared her to a baby giraffe moments after birth. I wanted to get a picture so Adrian agreed to “help her up” with a foot on her shoulder while I got my camera in position. Now I know why Adrian carries a little bitty fanny pack while Edele man handles a rucksack big enough to hold 4 peoples gear–she’s small but strong. She was up and dusting herself off before Adrain could pretend to help her up.

They are a fun couple that have decided to take a year to travel around Europe and Asia. They are good looking, intelligent, and funny–everything you envy in friends. They are the Tom Brady of the travel world; you want to hate them for their success, but you can’t because they are just such nice people to be around.

We split up with them when Pam saw a meditation donativo. We went in to get a passport stamp, a glass of orange juice, some cookies, and some suspiciously long healing hugs. Pam was in an embrace much longer than necessary. Simon is Australian and has had the meditation area for almost 3 years. He’s following his dream of trying to bring healing and help to pilgrims on the Camino.

As usual, we took lots of breaks along the way, but we still managed to make decent time today. It could have been the overcast skies, the downhill trail, or maybe we’re just getting stronger. It was the downhill trail.

We stopped on the edge of Sarria for a drink and foot breathing break. We decided to head into town for a bite before heading on up to Barbadelo. Notice the planned destination was Barbadelo.

There’s an easy set of stairs in the middle of town that all pilgrims have to ascend. It’s not more than 80 stairs, but you don’t want to do it twice. We ran into Edele and Adrain as they were getting ready to head back down to their room for the night. They didn’t realize they booked a room before the stairs and get the fun of doing the stairway 3 times instead of 1.

They recommended a place where they had eaten lunch while trying to avoid the climb back down. On the way, we ran into Kat who joined us (invited unlike some). We had a nice long lunch and reminisced about our trip so far. With only 5 days left, we’re starting to realize the end is near. I can feel that we are going to be pretty ruthless to the people just starting the Camino in Sarria–the shortest distance required to be considered a pilgrim (only 62 miles).

It was almost 4 when we decided to head on to Barbadelo. The plan was to get a little jump on tomorrows walk and keep adding a couple Km each day until we only have about a 5K walk on Friday into Santiago. George warned us that the trail was a little steep out of Sarria.

Pam and I were excited to see Casa Barbadelo which had a swimming pool. The only problem with Casa Barbadelo is that it is 1/2 mile before Barbadelo in the town of Vilei. While we were checking it out, Shaun walked on by to the town we were supposed to be going to. Pam had one job–make sure Shaun didn’t pass us. While we were registering, Katalina came up to Pam and started talking. She had walked alone all day and was trying to catch up to us (when we were actually behind her).

I ran, that’s right, ran up the trail to try to catch Shaun before he could check into another Albergue. I really wanted a pool since I never got to stay in hotels with pools when I was a kid. I caught up to Shaun just as he was heading into another albergue to register. If it hadn’t been for Linda and Pete already being there and talking to him, he’d have been in.

He came back down the trail to Casa Barbadelo when I promised him a lower bunk. He bought us a couple a beers for the long walk back. Pam met us about 25′ from the albergue saying that she was worried that I was taking so long. So worried that she had unpacked, plugged in all the electronics to charge, taken a shower, done laundry, and had a beer before coming to find us.

I headed straight to the pool to cool off after the extra mile I had put in. I was embarrassed to be seen in public with my farmers tan so I stayed in a corner of the pool. I was forced out to have my picture taken by Katalina. I’m a shy person by nature.

Things were back to normal today–I was the first one up and ready; Pam was last. Since the day was starting out with a climb for the first mile and a half, we decided to fuel up before heading out. We usually walk anywhere from 1-3 miles before we eat.

The albergue actually had eggs for breakfast. The meal came with chorizo and fried potatoes. Pam and I split it (she like fried abortions) while I ate the sausage. We also got pastries. This was the biggest breakfast we had eaten in over a month (and I’m sure it was the cause for us moving so slow today).

The hike out of town started out in the shade but quickly moved into full sun. Uphill even in early morning sun (if 9 is considered early morning) quickly drains Pam and me. Shaun thinks anything less than 40 C (104 F) is a cool spring day. He regularly sits in the sun when Pam and I crawl into shady spots–Australia has f’d his body (and mind–or maybe that’s from birth) up.

When we climbed the final 600′ up to O’Cebreiro, we climbed on up even further to a scenic overlook where we had a 360 panoramic of the mountains we had just traversed. Coming back down, we ran into Andre from Switzerland just finishing his climb up from Laguna. We asked him to join us for a cool down drink, but he had a good sweat going and wanted to keep moving.

O’Cebreiro is another charming alpine town with stone streets, stone walls, stone buildings, and stone women. This town has taken stone to the limits and it works. This is a town easy to fall in love with. We ran into several other peregrinos we know (Edele, Adrian, and Kat) and chatted for a bit.

We’ve convinced ourselves that this is an easy day, so we decided to turn it into more of a bar crawl (minus the alcohol). Next stop is Hospital (not “the hospital” but a town by that name). Meandering out of town, we ran into the Russian/Lithuanian woman we met a few nights ago. Julija (sounds like yulia) is a 29 year old engineer from St Petersburg, Russia. We would end up leapfrogging each other most of the day.

This was another day where we had only gone 5 miles by 11. As we were leaving Hospital de la Condesa, Katalin (from Hungary) came into town and asked if she could walk with us for a while. We waited for her to “freshen up” and get some water before heading out. Shaun had already left, so he didn’t know why we were so far behind. He stopped in the next town for an Aquarius and then decided to slowly meander on. We caught up with him just as the trail was leaving the road. He was worried about us–afraid that Pam might have buckled under from her cargo of wipes which she refuses to leave behind.

The trail to Alto do Poio is a deceptively steep climb. We made the next bar to find Edele, Adrian, and Kat already there. This is when we realized we weren’t the only bar crawlers today. Katalina ordered a pilgrim lunch and we had our usual chips and diet soda snack.

Since it was already after 1 and we weren’t even half way yet, we decided to get a move on. We walked at a 3.5 mph pace to the next town. Fortunately, it was only 2 miles away because none of us could keep that pace up all the way to Triacastela. I admit to being the one who caved in Fonfria. I had to have an Aquarius to cool off. We ran into Julija having lunch there. Katalin headed on by herself to try to make Triacastela at a decent hour. She usually makes reservations ahead and didn’t feel comfortable with our usual pattern of get to town and take what’s available.

The next town was Biduedo and we did something unusual here–we skipped it. That was a first for us today. The trail was a pretty steep decline now so we could maintain a good pace. After an hour and a half of walking, I needed another break. I stopped in a hotel that had a courtyard out back. I kept an eye out to make sure Pam and Shaun came in to rest as well.

We took off shoes, had cold drinks, and wondered why we were going so slow today. We’ve been hiking for almost 7 hours and only had 3 hours of breaks so far. We were now only 2.5 miles from Triacastela. My book differed from Shaun’s by saying we were done descending. The author of my book is a “knob head” (nice English term that I’m not going to explain).

Pam was complaining about sore toes so I showed her how to bounce down the trail to save her feet. She was tired enough to try it without argument and found that it actually worked. We, more or less, ran the final distance into town. We got there about 10 minutes ahead of Shaun so we just waited in a shady spot for him.

Shaun had picked out an Albergue he wanted to stay at. We went to check it out and ran in Adrian and Pete. Unfortunately, they only had 3 top bunks still available and I get up too many times a night (50 year old man…). We went back up the street and found a really cool place called Altrio. It kind of a modern interior in an old warehouse stone building. The Camino provides.

Coming into town, we noticed a 5 Euro special for a hamburger, fries, and drink. As soon as Shaun got showered, he headed back up to check it out and I said we’d join him as soon as Pam got ready. By the time we got there, Shaun had ordered and was getting ready to send us a picture of what he had found–ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise. For some reason, Europeans don’t like any flavorful sauces on their burgers (which are usually undercooked veal). This was a bonanza for us.

Pam and I left Shaun in search of ice cream. We ran into Julija again at the supermarket while we were stocking up on necessities–ice cream and M&Ms. When we got back to the albergue, Shaun came in and told us Chris and Bob were just down the street having a drink. They left a day ahead of us out of Leon and we were afraid we weren’t going to get to see them again. When we got there, we found an entire group of people we knew including Adrian, Edele, Katalina, Chris, and Bob. It was like a reunion in Triacastela.

We all plan on getting to Santiago de Compestella on June 16. It’s hard to believe that we are almost done with this pilgrimage. Today, we crossed the 100 mile to go mark when we crossed into Galicia. I can’t speak for everyone, but I can for Shaun, Pam, and me–we have walked every step from St Jean Pied de Port in France. I’m pretty sure Megan and English Rob have as well. Other than the 5 of us, I don’t know for certain of any others. We have not used a cab, bus, taxi, bike, or horse on this entire trail. It feels good to be so near to accomplishing what we have set out to do.

We heard from Richard again, this evening. He will be arriving in Santiago on the 12th and will walk with us starting on the 13th to be with us when we finish. I’m looking forward to seeing “bus man” again.

I’m throwing a bone to Pam–she was the first one up and ready today. She actually cornered Shaun and me before we left the Albergue and said “we’ve got a long day today. I don’t want you two dicking around and holding me up. Keep your act together and don’t slow me down. We’ve got a mountain to climb” At which point she tried to head out of the albergue but couldn’t figure out how to open the gate (it opened in and she kept pushing). It kind of destroyed the intimidation factor.

Villafranca turned out to be a very charming town. It’s built around a river with the old town sitting above and to the south. There are about 5,000 residents. The town has a rich religious past and still continues to cater to pilgrims. As I was walking through town, I wondered what could have been so bad about this place that men were willing to leave to go colonize and conquer the rest of the world.

We had a choice of three routes to choose from today and we chose to take the road. No seriously, as much as we bitch about road walking, we chose the road. AND, we made the right choice. No one chose the mountain option (3 mountains, an extra 2 miles, and little chance for rest breaks). Muz went the recommended route which included an extra mountain with an extra mile of walking. He’s young and energetic and liked it. Everyone else chose the same route we did.

It really wasn’t bad. For most of the way, we had our own separate lane with concrete barriers to protect us from traffic. From the beginning, everyone told us this would be the hardest day of hiking on the entire Camino, and they weren’t lying. We had to walk 11 miles before we started a 2,000′ climb into O’Cebreiro. A steep ascent after a long day of chewing up your feet with road walking. Notice that we didn’t make it to O’Cebreiro.

We stopped in every town along the way to break the day up as much as possible. Pereje after 3 miles for coffee and a pastry for breakfast. A yogurt and coffee in Trabadelo in another 3 miles. We walked in with Carlos who had walked all the way from Barcelona and a girl from Argentina who turned 23 yesterday but we couldn’t catch her name. They were going a little slow down the trail and seemed to have a very sweet smoked smell emanating from them as they walked along. They might even have had a bout or two of munchies. Things are legal here like in CO and WA. Can you get my drift?

The trail followed a little used country road, but there was a massive highway in the sky above the valley we were ascending. It was an engineering marvel to se the A-6 highway running 150′ above us. If it weren’t for the Camino, these little villages would all be dead.

After 12 miles, we left the A-6 behind to begin our climb up the mountain. It started out innocent enough. We actually believed we were climbing steadily along another country road. Then the Camino diverted into the woods on to a trail. I loved it. I didn’t care that it was steep. It was an actual trail through a forest. We climbed for a solid 2 miles until we got to the mountain village of La Fara. We stopped for a rest in the woods just a little before the village not knowing how close we were. This is where we picked up a slightly hobbled Brazilian woman.

Coming into La Fara, Linda waved us down. Her and Pete made it to here today. They thought we were further behind considering how pathetic we were walking when they left us the day before yesterday. Pam is worried that I paint too rosy of a picture of our travels and that people don’t understand that carrying a 30+ pound pack is actually difficult. Of all the people I think that are reading this blog, only Marcia and Kelly could come close to keeping up with Pam. She has become an even stronger hiker over these first 600 miles of our trip so no one should doubt the effort she’s putting in or how strong she is becoming (whining and complaining aside).

We caught up on trail happenings and gossip. Our pilgrim circles overlap quite a bit. It seems like we might get to see Helen and Lise again in the next few days. Maybe even Maria and Anton. It’s great to catch up, but we’ve got to be moving on. It’s gettting close to 4 and we’ve still got another 3 miles to go (and it’s all uphill).

We thought we had hiked the steepest part through the trees, but we were slightly mistaken. The next 1.75 miles were even steeper and very few trees to give us shade. Pam and I made it into Laguna de Castilla and had an ice cream and Diet Coke while we waited for Shaun. We talked about stopping here but said we would do whatever Shaun wanted to do.

When he walked into town, he threw his poles down, dropped his pack, and said this is shit. I took that as we were done for the day so I went in and got us a room and 3 pilgrim dinners. We investigated the next town and the albergue was getting crappy reviews while the place we happened to stay at was relatively new. It wasn’t crowded so we got a room for 5 for ourselves. I’m not going to wear ear plugs tonight so if Pam or Shaun snore, they might not make it out alive.

After supper, Shaun and I were sitting outside having a beer when guess who walks in–Carlos and the Argentinian woman whose name we couldn’t make out. They had large irises and were in need of food. They ended up staying here for the night. It was after 9:30 when they showed up. Pam had already gone to bed–her latest night this week.

I guess the mileage might be catching up with us. Thanks to the usual a@@hole jerks, we were awake at 5:15 even though we were hoping to sleep until 6:30. We tried to feign sleep until 7 but we didn’t get any real rest. We were on the road by 7:30 as planned. Leaving the municipal, one of the hospitallieros told us that the only restaurant open was the one across the street. We didn’t believe him and headed on. How can a city of 62,000 people only have one restaurant open before 10?

The Camino passes several religious building of significance including a Basilica and a 12th century Knights Templar castle. We got pictures of the buildings but didn’t go inside because 1) we have a long hiking day planned, 2) the buildings weren’t open yet, and 3) (and I can’t stress this enough) we are burnt out on ornate religious buildings built on the backs of exploited people by people who considered themselves more important than Jesus and who brought us the inquisition.

We did enter one building of importance–a 24 hour pharmacy. I bought a tube of topical anti-inflammatory cream to see if it will help my feet. Usually, by the time we get 12 miles in, my Achilles’ tendon is pretty irritated and I want it to stop hurting. I try stretching, but it’s not enough. Also, all the road walking is just turning our feet to mush after a couple of miles.

There was a pleasant walk out of town along the Rio Sil. Right on the edge of town, the trail climbs up to give an amazing view of town. From a distance, Ponferrada is a beautiful town. The people were very friendly (even little kids in the street yell “Buen Camino” to us as we pass), but they have a terrible graffiti problem here. From ground level to 6′ high, almost every building has been tagged. Pam took the inquisitors approach to the graffiti and suggested putting cameras out, find who’s doing the damage, and then destroy what they love most in life as retribution. She might have made a good torturer during the inquisition. Have I mentioned she hasn’t been feeling well the last few days? (At least it’s not directed at me this morning).

On the edge of town, we saw an open bar so I motioned to Shaun to stop so we can get some food and caffeine in Pam. We found the only open bar in town that doesn’t serve any food. We pumped a cafe con leche and a bag of chips into her hoping to give her enough energy to make it to the next town.

The next town was almost 3 miles of not too bad of walking, but still a lot of road. The day was slightly overcast so it was boiling yet. I always hope for cloudy days or rain over clear days. Entering into Columbrianos, the first cafe we passed actually served American breakfasts of bacon and eggs but Pam wavered so Shaun said we’re moving on. The next cafe was part of an Albergue but it was a very nice with a great courtyard seating area. As soon as we got the food to our table, we heard “Curtis, Pam” and looked around to see Barry, Kay, and Ross entering the cafe. They have decided to cut back on distances and are now doing 15-20K a day so this will be one of the last chances we get to see them before Compestella.

We left the cafe and went right back to road walking. We thought we saw Susan in front of us but weren’t sure. We caught up with her in about a mile around Fuentes Nuevas. She was looking at a winery tour as a stopping point. We said we’d join her if it was on the trail. We ended up walking with her for the next 3.5 miles into her stopping point of Cacabelos.

Just shy of half way to her destination town was Camponaraya. We decided to stop for a cool down rest in a bar. As soon as we walked in, we ran into Barry, Kay, and Ross–we happened upon their stop for the day. I tried out my new anti-inflammatory cream on my feet and was amazed at the affect in just a matter of minutes–thank you Brian Cranston, aka Pete.

We weren’t feeling bad, but we had only managed to cover a 10.7K in just slightly over 5 hours (that’s only about 1.5 mph). We all agreed the 20 mile day was a lost cause so we stopped in at the next winery we saw for a glass.

Cacabelos was where we were going to take our stand and start hiking for real–after we had a really nice long lunch break. Susan already had a reservation, so she could take the time for a late lunch. Shaun checked the Albergue situation in Villafranca and we didn’t think we’d have any problems finding anything whatever time we got in. We took our time and finished up lunch around 2:30.

Having only hiked 10 miles in 7 hours, we now decided to hike the final 7 miles in 2 hours. What made this an even more appealing goal was that it was almost all road. Honestly, my feet were feeling great so I was game.

We made it in just before 5. We ended up hiking with a couple of girls once we got into town. One of them turned out to be Polish and the other Russian but with a Latvian passport. They had just started in Leon and met today. They tried communicating in Russian and Polish but when they couldn’t understand each other, they would switch to English. We had met the Polish girl at the winery when we stopped earlier.

We had a communal supper with over 17 people present. Russian, Poland, Germany, Italy, France, Canada, Spain, Australia, and the US were all represented at dinner with Germany leading the way tonight.

We did get a fourth roommate last night, but he was a good kid. Only 27 and named Muz from Canada and Pakistan. He’s lived in Canada since he was 10. He agreed to get up early this morning when we did so we could freely turn on the lights and pack at 5:15.

The breakfast was pretty pitiful, so we just skipped it–toast and coffee. We were on the way to the cross promptly at 6. It was very brisk out. Pam and I were dressed for cold weather with fleece jackets, gloves, and stocking caps. It took less than 20 steps for me to start peeling a bit.

It was only 1.25 miles to the cross with about a 300′ elevation gain. We made it to the cross by 6:20. If we could keep that pace all day, we’d be done by noon (we can’t and didn’t maintain that pace). We had the cross to ourselves for sunrise. Pam dropped a rock for her niece, Maddie, who died from Batten’s Disease 7 years ago. I dropped a stone for my sister, Beth, who died from cancer 25 years ago. Beth was the cornerstone of our family. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t think about her. Shaun dropped stones as well and was pretty quiet while we were up there.

While we were traversing the mountain tops, Linda and Pete caught up with us. We walked as a group for about 5 miles to Acebo. It was a beautiful morning walk along a forested trail with great vistas of mountains all around. As we neared Punta Alto, the high point of the entire Camino, we saw a refreshment van and decided to stop for some coffee and snacks. Pam hasn’t been feeling well since last night and continues to drag today. We got a protein bar, banana, and a cup of coffee in her and she started to revive some.

Sitting at the refreshment van allowed the morning crush to overtake us. This was one of the few miles that we were first out of the Albergue. Other than a few pics and a cranky wife, there wasn’t much to show for our effort. I don’t understand why everyone is in such a hurry to get out before 6 every morning only to rush to the next Albergue and take a nap until supper. Maybe if they slept in, instead, they could actually stay awake all day and then go to bed at a reasonable hour.

We were all a little scared anticipating the trail down to Acebo. The maps show it is extremely steep and we were all flashing back to the descent into Roncesvalles the first day. It was steep, but not as steep as we had made it out to be. Linda had sent her pack ahead so she wouldn’t have the extra weight on her back while descending. Shaun was a little worried about his knee. It didn’t matter, we all handled it. The worst was for Pam’s hip flexors which only made her feel worse and go slower (this might be why we weren’t done hiking by noon).

Even though it was all downhill, we didn’t make great time. We stopped in Acebo for another break–this time some real food. Pete found a stuffed bread with sausage, cheese, and onions. We all downed a huge slice. It was so refreshing to have a non-croissant breakfast. Pete and Linda took off after breakfast. We knew we were slow hikers compared to them so we didn’t mind.

The next town was only 2.5 miles further. We had already decided this was going to be a “shoes off” break. We went all the way through Riego de Ambros and didn’t find a cafe or bar. In the end, we spied out the town square and decided to have a rest. After all three of us got off the shoes and socks, it was just a race to see who would fall asleep first. It’s hard to pick a winner–we’ll call it a tie.

All of the towns the last two days have been very alpine in feel with stone streets and buildings. Molinaseca was no exception. It was another 3 miles down the mountain to this quaint village, but I was so sick of people by the time we got there I just wanted out. We are seeing so many new people on the trail the last few days. Apparently, Astorga is a big starting point for the Spanish doing the Camino. Molinaseca had a river running through it that you can actually get down to soak your feet–something I’ve been asking for, but with so many people and bikes, I was unwilling to stop.

The final 4.5 miles to Ponferrada was all road walking. Have I mentioned how much I love the feel of road under my tired feet? I don’t. The walk into town sucked. The only thing that could have made the ending worse was to run into a bunch of people that road taxis into town and made fun of us for being so late. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.

We checked into a “Donativo” where there are about 190 beds. We got a room with over 40 beds in it so it’s going to be loud tonight. Pam and I took 2 hour naps to try to speed recovery from today. When we got up, we met Shaun for a couple of beers then headed to dinner. For 11 Euros each, we had an appetizer, salad, pasta, pork, beer, and bread. It was way more than we could eat. While we were waiting to pay, Pam had a conniption fit and stormed back to the Albergue because the girls was taking too long to pick up the bill. Spain moves at a much slower pace than the USA.

When Shaun and I got back, she was already in bed having decided to skip a shower since the urinals are right next to the showers. Shared bathrooms are the norm in Spain, so the whole bathroom issue that we are having back home just mystifies everyone here.

We got up and going well before 7 today. We thought we might like to head up the road 2 or 3 miles before we eat breakfast, but that idea changed pretty quickly when we all realized how hungry we were. As usual, there are several beautiful churches and an amazing cathedral in Astorga. We wandered through town looking at all the architecture getting more hungry by the minute. On the edge of town, we saw Adrian and Edele come out of a corner cafe so we headed in.

Since we were up so early, we decided to reward ourselves with an extra long morning break including 2 coffees. We made sure we’ll never waste our time getting up early again after pissing away an hour at first breakfast.

It was a windy day and slightly chilly, but Shaun and I quickly stopped Pam from complaining because “hotter than hell” is the other alternative. We made great time out to Valdeviejas where we saw Rachael throwing trash in the street (or maybe a napkin blew off her plate). We hadn’t seen Pam, Mike, and Rachael since before Leon so it was nice to see they were still alive and kicking. Rachael was sick, but recovering, the last time we saw them. We decided to push on to Santa Catalina de Somoza before we stopped for second breakfast.

The path was level and pleasant, but we could see more hills ahead. We were looking forward to having terrain back into our daily hiking plan. While we were having a drink in Santa Catalina, the trio walked by us. We just had a short foot rest and then headed on.

It wasn’t too far out of town that we caught up with them again. Now we walked with them for about 3 miles catching up on trail gossip. We had heard that Maria went home which really surprised us considering how inseparable her and Anton were. Rachael set the story straight–Maria’s Camino is done, but she is staying in Spain and going to periodically bus to Anton until he finishes the trail. Her foot was just in too much pain to continue hiking.

We all stopped In El Gonso for lunch. Pam (mine, not Mike’s) wasn’t feeling good today so she didn’t want anything to eat. To show my sympathy, I forewent lunch and just had a Coke de Zero and an Ice Cream Bar (the sacrifices one makes for marriage).

The trail was fantastic after lunch. It was actually a trail in trees with dirt and loose rocks in the trees. It was great to smell the pine forest again. We had some upsy downsies but had a fairly steady climb of 350′ into Rabanal over the next 4.5 miles. I was so happy to be on a trail and not a road that I lost all track of time and everyone around me.

Continue reading “Day 27–Tuesday, June 6. Astorga to Foncebadon (17 miles)”

I couldn’t understand why Shaun was snoring so bad last night. He didn’t make a sound the night before in Leon. Every time he would start snoring loud, I’d try shaking the bed to try to wake him up enough that he’d change positions. After Anna got up this morning and left, he told me he considered reaching up between the wall and bed and smacking me every time I shook the bed. He couldn’t get any sleep with Anna’s snoring and my shaking the bed. Pam complained about how bad her bed was shaking from the snoring below her. I guess I’ll give Shaun the benefit of the doubt next time.

The first town we were going to be passing through was over 6 miles away so we grabbed a pilgrim breakfast in the Albergue we were staying in. It was a cup of coffee, a glass of orange juice, and a croissant for 3 Euros. There doesn’t seem to be anything like bacon and eggs in Spain.

Naturally, the first 4 miles were all road walking which just absolutely destroys our feet first thing. Barry and a couple from Australia that were walking with him caught up with us before we left the road. I spent about 3 miles talking with Barry and discovered we are very like minded politically. He’s also embarrassed by our President and thinks he should have his twitter account closed. His handlers need to be doing a better job with him.

After a coffee in Villavante, Barry and Kay and Ross (the Australian couple) moved on. They were hiking at about a 3 mph pace which we couldn’t maintain if we wanted to cover almost 20 today. Their plan was to walk another 5 miles and then call a taxi to take them the rest of the way to Astorga. We found out Barry is almost 72 years old.

Our next break was in just 3 miles where we decided to cool our feet of and stretch them out. This was just shy of half way for us today in the town of Hospital de Orbigo. The radio was playing “Love Story” and Helen saw Pam and I sitting together in the courtyard so she danced in to say hello.

Leaving the cafe, the Camino passes over a medieval bridge from the 13th century that was built on the remains of an old Roman bridge. The field between the rivers used to hold jousting tournaments in the 14th century. We had just missed a festival over the weekend all set up for a jousting tournament. This was a very attractive town set up for hosting pilgrims. With any luck, George will end up staying here tonight.

The next two towns were only a mile and a half apart. We did stop in the second town because we had such a long stretch without any towns after (about 5 miles). Something else that was different today is the presence of terrain. For the last week we have had pretty level walking but now we are getting close to mountains again and will actually have some climbing today and tomorrow.

Allen greeted us at the door of the bar and told us there was a nice courtyard behind the bar. We went in and saw Sherry whom we haven’t seen for a few days. She sat with us for a while and we talked about future plans we all have. We found out she has also sold her house and is traveling this year to decide what the next phase of her life is going to be. After the Camino, she’s going to Iceland for 6 weeks to see where her Grandmother came from. She has an exciting journey ahead.

Continue reading “Day 26–Monday, June 5. Villar de Mazarife to Astorga (19.5 miles)”

I’m forced to say that Pam was up first today. Her alarm went off at 6:15 and she was up by 7. We were on the road by 7:45–early for us, late for the Camino.

Rounding the corner from our Pension, we found a group of Spaniards still drinking and celebrating Madrid’s win last night. The dance club just closed at 7:30a–Shaun complimented himself on not gaining admission last night as he would not be able to hike today. We continued walking and found another group of “slightly” inebriated Spanish men. They tried talking with us for a while but one of the guys broke off from the group and started walking with us across town. He followed us and tried communicating with us all the way to the Parador Hotel. It was an old hospital/monastery/prison and was featured in “The Way” when they rented a nice hotel suite.

There’s a pilgrim statue staring up at the facade. The Spaniard told us to give him our camera and he would take our picture. He flashed us his badge to indicate he wasn’t going to steal our camera. He was a detective protecting us on our walk out of town.

We stepped inside the Parador to grab a bite for breakfast, but since it was Sunday, they only offered a 20 Euro buffet for breakfast and we wanted to walk today so that was out of the question. I would feel obliged to eat 20 Euros worth of food (food is cheap in Spain and that would bloat me).

The rest of the walk out of Leon was depressing at best. I hate to say it, but the guide book was right in suggesting taking a bus to avoid the blight, but I’m here to walk the whole trail no matter how much it sucks. This was all road walking and through depressed areas of the city. It was a huge relief to make it to La Virgen del Camino (I always like encountering virgins on the trail).

We stopped for breakfast and did a little grocery shopping. The guidebook disagrees with itself as to which route is the official Francais Route. We chose to take the route away from the highway to get a little quiet. Several signs agreed with my assessment that this was the official route.

Shaun got accosted by a young German as to why he was hiking, where he started from, was he really hiking the entire way, etc. I wondered why he was so forward with Shaun (sometimes people are inadvertently rude to Shaun and it pisses me off). I walked with the guy for a bit and found out he was just genuinely inquisitive. They had a limited time to hike the trail and were forced to skip sections of the trail to keep their schedule. I explained Pam’s and my plans and they had a hard time comprehending how we could just quit but seemed to be behind the plan.

We left them behind at Fresno del Camino when they took a break. We had snacks and drinks to keep us going if we got to the point we needed a break. Today was perfect hiking weather–mid 60s and overcast so we were making good time (or so we thought–until another young couple passed us like we were standing still).

We decided to take a break in Chozas de Abajo right about noon. We couldn’t believe we were already 10 miles into our day before lunch. We all felt like we were dragging a bit even though we thought we were moving fairly well considering we were coming off a zero day. I did have a hard time staying focused on the trail today. I was spending too much time thinking about how my right heel was hurting as well as the piggy that went “Wee wee wee all the way home” on my left foot.

We got some Aquarius’ to have with our snacks and took off the boots to cool the dogs down. They gave us complimentary snacks with our drinks. I took one look and decided “no way” but Pam insisted it was a pasta dish and she was game. It was the chewiness pasta she ever had. After about 5 minutes of chewing, I pointed out the trash can for her. It turned out to be little bits of stomach she was chewing on which still makes me gag writing this 10 hours later. She needed a few snacks and gum (cheweys in Aussie) to get the memory out of her head.

When we got to the bar, Barry was there, but he was calling it a day. He was headed to the same town we were but he had been forced to carry his full pack today and it proved to be more than he was used to handling so he called a cab. He’s usually uses a luggage service and walks anywhere from 12-20 miles a day. Interrupting a routine at this point in the trip can be disastrous. I hope he’s alright tomorrow.

Right as we were packing up to hit the road again, Andre and Katalina popped in. They didn’t get out of Leon until 9:30 yet still caught up with us with 3 miles to go. They told us where they were staying and we agreed to meet up later.

I could barely walk once we got going again. All the road walking had completely trashed my feet. My compassionate wife could only laugh at the old man she was married to (maybe I need to lay off the older woman routine every now and then–not going to happen). She grudgingly gave me 1200 mg of Ibuprofen to mask my pain and I was good to go in a mile.

We still got into Villar de Mazarife by 2. We decided to go check out Tiopepe in the hopes that we might be able to get one of their small rooms for the night. We hit the jackpot and got a four bed room with another older German woman, Anna. She is section hiking the Camino and hopes to finish it next year.

We thought we’d take a 10 minute nap, but we all know how that ends. 2 hours later at 5 we woke up, took showers, and went down for a cold drink (non-alcoholic!). As soon as we got downstairs, we got a text from George saying he was in the same town. He wasn’t supposed to be doing 13 mile days so we were surprised and impressed. We hoped he had gotten a cab and skipped the exit walk of Leon. He didn’t.

He met up with us at the bar across from our Albergue. On the way there, we ran into Andre and Katalin, as will as Tim and Linn (but they were not drinking today so we didn’t spend time with them–how can you not drink with 1 Euro glasses of wine?). We also met Allen from Denmark.

We all ended up heading back to our Albergue for a pilgrim’s dinner (after 3 or 4 cheap wines). Andre and Allen bought additional wine for dinner which we all shared. We also met another Aussie, Gavin, and talked to him for a bit. Gavin is planning a 6 moth trip around the US so we developed an itinerary for him. We probably had too much fun tonight considering we have a 30K day looking us in the face for tomorrow.