Remember when I first broke the news that I was doing an 800 km walk across Spain with the incredible walking woman from BC? Everyone was aghast but I assured them that it was really a string of villages and cities and if there was any problem you could catch a bus or taxi to get to the next town.
Hahahahahahaha!
If life was so simple!
In the real world of el Camino you can travel long stretches of pure nowhere. To take a taxi through a difficult stretch is very expensive. The alburges are very cheap but only for pilgrims for one night only. In special cases where your feet have gone bad they let you stay while the mid day cleaners work around you. Happy for me when I was in Leon soaking my feet. To load my pack and find a hotel would have been painful. The cleaners and volunteers slid me in my chair with soak pan along the hallway so they could then mop that space of floor. They brought me coffee and toast on a plate. Very sweet!
Anyway enough of the WaWaWa! My feet are good again and I am like a spring lamb jumping through the hills.
In the beginning it was very hard slogging with our way too heavy packs. I was really questioning my sanity . Once we lightened our load and started hitting our stride the minds started to meld to el Camino.
It actually started to make uncommon but sure sense. You get up early and start walking in the dark or dusk. You walk through beautiful countryside and see the sun coming up. You enjoy many picturesque little villages and major cities with their gorgeous cathedrals. The cost of bed is cheap if you can accept the pilgrim life of bunkbeds and public showers. If you take a hotel for a break and a hot tub, that is pretty inexpensive too. No renting cars are hailing cabs at airports and train stations. Some people send their backpacks by transfer vans but that has not worked for us so far.
It is a surprisingly gratifying experience to be surrounded by so many languages and actually be able to connect a little bit; being all pilgrims make us birds of a vey large and inclusive flock. If you are lucky enough to step in and help translate for someone, your heart takes flight. Who would have guessed that could happen. Only on el Camino.
They say el Camino is addictive. Many people do it many times. On Thursday Sept. 13 th. I am starting to get this.
Pilgrim A
Sincerely Arlene
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