Day 27 and the halfway mark
Trip Start
May 29, 2005
1
4
9
Trip End
Jul 29, 2005
Sahagun, Province of Leon,
Spain
Monday, June 27, 2005
Our strength and stamina are definitely improving. We have been doing 20-odd kilometer days for about 5 days now and are getting to where we need to be earlier and feeling quite good too. Angela´s blisters are drying out and my feet are still in pristine condition. Which is more than can be said for the rest of me as I have been attracting all the mosquitoes in the Province of Palencia.
We have been walking in the Meseta - the long, flat, dry high plains of Castilla y Leon since Burgos - for about 116km now. It has indeed been very hot and flat, although about 4 days ago it rained continously from about 6 in the evening, all night and on into the morning. We were doing a bit of a climb that day out of Castrojerez (which boasts a ruined hilltop castle and was a Roman fortification as it commanded a view of the countryside for miles around) and the climb up and descent itself were fine as the path was gravelled but once we were back on the flat we were walking in boggy mud. We slipped and slided our way through at least a couple of kilometers of the stuff and it would have been fun to have had a tea tray or something so one of us could sit while the other person pushed. When we came to a rest area, I discovered that my rainproof jacket was not that rainproof after all, and I was soaked through and cold. Needless to say, this was exceedingly irritating as the rainjacket is quite heavy and I had been trogging it for hundreds of kilometers for it to fail in its function when I needed it. I may buy a rainponcho and go for the hunchback of Notre Dame look. I am in two minds about the rainjacket as it is quite a good windproof layer and I might need it once we get into the mountains again. The scenery here has been quite uniformly seas of golden wheatfields - not a vine or olive tree in sight. We have seen trees but none that provided any useful shade. The long flat walks have been livened up by a few wild flowers - today we walked along accompanied by three different varieties of purple flower - no idea what any of the were but they were charming. I am surprised by the lack of poppies in the wheatfields - in Navarra and La Rioja, there was an abundance of red poppies but here - nothing. They must really spray the crops like mad.
Creepy Ramone has just popped up to say hello - I do hope we lose him soon. He appeared on the way to Carrion de los Condes (two days ago) when I was walking alone. Angela and Linda were setting a cracking pace and as I don´t do cracking, I went at my own pace and was admiring the riverwalk and enjoying the birdsong and frogs´chorus. Somebody appeared beside me and I said "Buenas Dias" and expected them to pass me by with a "Buen Camino". This chappie stayed for a chat which is okay - but he didn´t move on and carried on walking with me and chatting which was a bit remarkable. My Spanish isn´t that great so I didn´t get everything and as his second language was German and he didn´t speak any French this made for a very interesting conversation. I was reminded of the ´Gibberish´game which we used to play in Impro - I felt I was doing the simultaneous translation and was probably about as accurate. He didn´t seem to mind though and kept right on going with the patter. Unfortunately he also got a bit touchy-feely which rather threw me. I have since been mentally rehearsing put-down phrases (must try and check the grammar) but haven´t had to utilise them as we have always either left before he got up and outpaced him - or he has moved on early and outpaced us. Linda also reminded me I had a stick and he didn´t which is a very good point.
Carrion de los Condes was where we stayed at the monastery of Santa Clara - apparently St Francis of Assisi also stayed there when he was doing this pilgrimage. That night was the worst night ever. Aside from the trauma of Creepy Ramone´s oleatinous attentions we spent the night sharing a room with El Rey de los Broncaderos (the King of the Snorers - no, not Schnorrers, although he might well have been that too). This guy was travelling with his mate and a donkey and I was just dropping off and dreaming about seeing the donkey when I heard this weird clattering noise - it sounded like storks - so I gradually came back to consciousness and realised he was doing some serious snoring. He would make this weird airplane taking off noise, the stork clattering noise and then huff and puff for breath - and all at incredible volume. Gradually, the rest of the room (another 5 women plus King Snorer´s mate) woke up and we just turned into a mass of giggling hysterical women. What was really awful was that the King´s mate got up to go to the loo with much fuss and noise getting out of the top bunk but failed to wake the King up. We weren´t quite sure what the etiquette was - are people allowed to prod other people who snore to make ´em turn over? I got up ostentatiously to go to the loo hoping to disturb his repose to get him to turn over - had not the blindest bit of impact. Angela was hoping I would accidentally on purpose trip and poke him in the eye or drop something - like a water-bottle - on his head. Dunno what sort of girl she thinks I am!
I have been talking to an Irishman called Sean who is a French teacher - he was telling me about the Celtic/Christian notion that East to West is a sacred journey. I really like the notion that this journey although a Christian pilgrimage is also an ancient Celtic sacred journey. The Celts used to go this way from the East where the sun rose to the West where the sun set and worship in the great solar temple at Finisterre on the westernmost tip of Spain. I would really like to complete the walk from Santiago to Finisterre and walk into the Atlantic Ocean with the sun to finish the journey. He was also telling me about a place in Ireland called Lough Derg which was on all the medival maps as a place of pilgrimmage and people including foreign royalty all used to go there. It was very far West and as people thought that the soul went West after death, this place was a place where one might experience purgatory. It is still a place of pilgrimmage now and one goes there to keep vigil and fast on bread and water/bread and coffee for three days. One is supposed to experience purgatory and people get visions of purgatory too. It sounds brilliant! Angela doesn´t seem very keen though - we could go for her birthday if we do manage to rush to Finisterre this trip as that was originally our idea - to come back in September and walk from Santiago to Finisterre and have a End-of-the-World party.
What else? We saw a dog that looked like a huskey or wolf today in a bar. He had beautiful golden brown eyes that were the colour of a light tea and thick black and white fur. AND I stroked him! Just the once mind!
