Anything weighs (to Belorado)
Trip Start
Aug 25, 2008
1
11
24
Trip End
Oct 02, 2008
Belorado,
Spain
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Most of the day I walk with Flo, meeting acquaintances here and there. As we maintain a good walking speed, we overtake some of our fellow pilgrims, stopping for a short while to talk to some while passing others just saying hi and what's up. Flo is an amiable fellow, german student of informatics. Walking pretty straight for six hours means that there's quite a lot of time for talking, but we manage with ease. After yesterday's almost solo adventure, I enjoy company once again. Walking alone too much only makes me moody and sulky. However, the weather's getting worse. The sky is overcast and I fear for rain, which would be kind of ironic because I've sent my raincoat home just two days ago feeling no need for it in the burning Spanish afternoon sun. We even equip our backpack raincoats (those come built-in), but luckily, it doesn't begin to rain.
Only once we part, as I realise after a short stop that I left my walking stick behind. Did I already tell you that I've named it Nirosta? There's several puns on that on which I won't dwell now, but rest assured that it is a very good name for a walking stick. However, leaving this precious gift behind is a no-go, so I have to retrace almost a Waldi to get it back.
Another day, another sunrise
Flo instead moves on and so there's some time for me to reflect again.Today's reflections bear two insights. The first is an alteration of Feyerabends famous lemma and it has never been more true before: "Anything weighs." If you ever have to pack a backpack which you are going to carry around on your shoulders for a considerable length of time, bear that in mind! Anything. Weighs. Really.
Flo puts it in his own words: The price of security is weight. That reminds me of that old Wing Commander game where the pathos-laden end sequence tells us that "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." So we have found our own versions of the same truth.
The next insight is about old paths, new paths, shortcuts and detours. It kind of annoys me to almost walk in a line following the same path as ten-thousands before me. That somehow lacks... well, originality for the start. Trying to catch up with Flo after my lost-and-found Nirosta experience, I begin using shortcuts across the fields. Besides, I like walking beside the track, because the ground is considerably softer there. Whatever time I might have won by cutting short, I lose again by realising that the biggest shortcut isn't walkable due to a steep gradient which separates the upper fields from the lower fields. Hell, why do they organise their fields in levels? At home they never do that. Anyway, the shortcut turns out to be a detour at that point, and grudgingly I walk back to the main road. Finally, I manage to catch up with Flo, and it is not until Belorado that we part again. Flo walks on, I decide to stay in the first refuge along the way.
