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LONG TIME NO WRITE!
In the days since my last post from Foncebadon, there has been so much to tell -- about the trails, the towns, the people, the pilgrims, and many special little encounters and moments -- and yet the days have been so full, and WiFi has so erratically available, that I have fallen way behind. It is hard to sit down and write after a long, full day of walking, and the more great things that happen, the more challenging it gets. I have notes on those days and places, though, and plan to add them to the blog when I get a chance. Normally I would write them in order, even when behind, but at this point it seems silly to pretend it´s five days ago...and NOT acknowledge I´m almost at the end. So that brings us to today.
HOMESTRETCH
On Sunday June 2, on my 30th day of walking the Camino, we crossed below the 100km threshold in terms of distance left to Santiago. At that point, stone markers appeared, counting down every half kilometre, and it has been startling not only to be in double digits, but to see them dropping so quickly. After that, the scenery got less scenic, the towns more frequent, the unique incidents more ordinary...because it became all about the walking.The impetus to get to Santiago has become stronger and more urgent over the last few days, because it's suddenly within reach.
At the same time as I´m trying to pick up the pace, things seem to be slowing me down.Hot days have returned, making the afternoon walks literally a drag...we are sweltering from 10 am well past 4 and I´d forgotten how the heat saps the energy. (I keep feeling like I am crying, but it´s sweat running down my face. My HAIR sweats.) More heat means less clothing, meaning there is more to stuff away into the pack, and that plus the extra water I now need to carry make the load noticeably heavier. Most interestingly, my body seems to have decided it has a 30-day warranty for distance walking and that has now expired. In the last few days, the strong striding I enjoyed all the way to Sarria has been undermined by a pinched nerve in my left thigh that only Advil can treat (I may be developing a non-prescripton painkiller addiction), my first blister (mercifully small, and happily this means I can finally justify carrying foot care and medical supplies all this way!), and a bit of a phlegmy hacking cough (which, to the joy of my bunkmates, only seems to manifest itself at night -- lo siento, everybody!). As far as my headgame, the routine of walking is beginning to wear, probably because these last few days have become about the destination instead of the journey (those of you with children will recognize this as "Are we THERE yet?" syndrome). So between all these factors, I feel myself getting tired...it seems to be taking me longer to cover ground. But at least I am still covering it! I really feel how every step brings me closer to the final destination....it's just odd to actually know a date and estimated time now. I will arrive in Santiago tomorrow morning, June 6, Day 34 of walking (of 37 if you´re counting Finisterre as the real finish line. But one goal at a time!).
As it happens, the past four days since Sarria haven't been especially remarkable walks -- or perhaps we are just used to the range by now. There has been a lot of gently rolling terrain, a mix of highways and country roads, plenty of hills that have us all cursing through our exhaustion (including one last one tomorrow, just for the Camino´s amusement!), and thanks to the sunny weather,it's all been quite pretty and pleasant without a lot of standout moments as in the past. (Although the increased passage through active farmland means we are getting assaulted by powerfully noxious fertilizer fumes at more regular intervals...whew, that is strong stuff!) There have also been more and more stopping points the closer we get to Santiago, from small cities and towns....to medieval villages so traditional, someone just walked four cows within three feet of me as I sat in an outdoor cafe writing this. It´s obviously varied, but there is a certain thematic sameness to these past few days. So I thought I would update in a more general way and combine them into one entry.
Due to a very satisfying, but very demanding walk into Sarria that went down, then up, then down some mountains (be sure to check back for that entry in a few days!), I was moving pretty slowly the day I left that town. I was very aware that a lot of people were passing me (which even after 4 weeks still frustrates me). And by a lot, I mean A LOT...because as of Sarria the Camino gets a lot more crowded. Sarria is positioned just before the 100km mark -- the minimum anyone has to walk to get the same Compostela certificate I do after walking 800 -- so it's a very popular starting point for a huge new influx of walkers.It also makes it a really ideal and easy vacation pilgrimage for people who can´t devote a month or more to the whole thing. About 20% of Camino traffic every year starts from that point.
This situation made me inordinately cranky, as you're about to find out.
Our guidebook actually warns about the feeling of resentment that veteran walkers often find themselves feeling toward newcomers at this point in the journey. But I was still unprepared for how annoyed I got by the newbies. They were very easy to spot . For one thing , I didn't recognize them (it's funny how you get to know the faces of fellow pilgrims who walk alongside you day after day, even when it's peripatetic contact). For another, they were clean, rested-looking, cheerful and chatty, their clothes still looked fresh, and they often had surprisingly lightweight footwear and thin socks instead of the hardcore gear sported by longer-term walkers. And what REALLY made me growl was when they sauntered past me on the trail, and I saw they had just a little daypack, or nothing at all; their bags are being transported from town to town to their prebooked hotels.I even saw one woman wearing WHITE PANTS...how serious can you be?
This bothered me way more than I thought it would, and several times I felt like yelling, "Oh sure, why dontcha walk with this #%^*+ heavy pack for a few weeks up and down mountains and THEN see how easily you bounce by me?!" I know, so petty...I´m not proud. But given my under the weather, underperforming state of mind, I really couldn't help gritting my teeth as I watched them keep coming (and going).
The other thing about the new entries is that they seemed particularly...touristy. Don't get me wrong; I'm well aware I'm a middle class bourgeois sort of pilgrim, and pretty touristy too. Just because I walk all day and have dinner in my pajamas before turning in at 9 pm doesn't make me a local. But unlike so many of us who came, and walk, either alone or at most in groups of two or three, the newcomers tend to travel in herds. At one point,I counted six of them going by, walking poles swinging in cadence. And I hear their conversations...like the gaggle of women (at least one clearly not cut out for this fitness-wise, who needed help getting up from her seat) who all tied up a bathroom line at once, and who all stopped by the side of the road to rest en masse even though they were 15 minutes from their destination...or the Irish group with the husband who kept up a patter of know it all walking advice to his wife Alice just behind...or the two sets of French couples who stopped to take photos of the 100km marker as if they had had to work very hard to get to it or something. There are families with KIDS on the trail now -- a couple of tweens, and, astonishingly, two Spanish moms shepherding three girls under 10 -- I'm sure hoping that was just a day trip for them and not actually the start of a 100km trek. That idea that oh, we'll just take the kids, somehow REALLY felt like a lack of respect for the pilgrimage and the internal experience and the work, emotional and physical, that so many of us have put into the long walk to date. The last straw for me was when I passed by a small crowd that had stopped at a town with a popular upscale cafe, and I heard the tour guide -- TOUR GUIDE! -- announce, "Okay, we seem to have lost about half our group, so let's stop for lunch here and wait for them to catch up....."......AAAAA! HOW IS THIS NOT A CRUISE LINER OR PACKAGE VACATION FOR THESE PEOPLE?!THIS IS A PILGRIMAGE, FERCRYINOUTLOUD!
I know. Hardly a model of charity and generosity the way a pilgrim should be by now.
As it turned out, I found an interesting solution for overcoming that prejudice and resentment of newbies, and it happened quite by accident: I talked to them. At the end of the first day in Portomarin, a gregarious Irishman named Gerry just started chatting at the bar and laughing/groaning about how hard the day had been and how his legs were "jus´KILLIN´" him. He was one of the guys who had brought the wife and kids, but listening to his sincere good natured complaints, so familiar to my own in the early days, brought back my own newbie memories and we had a good chuckle about the learning curve on the road. A few days later in Arzua, I fell in conversations with a trio of Canadians sitting nearby at a cafe, and although they too had only begun in Sarria and were having bags transported, they were such nice people I found I could hardly begrudge them, because they were still so sincere in their experience and enthusiasm. Turns out a lot of these newbies are really lovely, and just as nice as the veterans. So, another lesson well learned from the Camino, and I got some fun new acquaintances out of it to boot.
Of course, the increased numbers of pilgrims have made the competition for bed spaces in various towns a little more dynamic. But so far, even with more places posting "COMPLETO" signs, we are managing all right and everyone seems to find something somewhere. There is a nice camaraderie emerging as we all approach the finish line, a bit of "we are all in it together, and these are the people I´ll be seeing when I arrive". As always, it has been fun to walk into a city, town or village and be able to spot familiar faces all over it and say hi wherever you go, even to people whose language you don´t speak.
I still tend to walk alone, and given that I have learned I hate the sense of people coming up behind me, I tend to let them pass rather than feel like they are bearing down on me. I´m stunned how many books I have gone through on my iPhone audiobook app. After a ton of Wodehouse (oh those Jeeves and Wooster!) I switched to even more classical classics, and having just finished some HP Lovecraft and Sir Walter Scott´s Ivanhoe, am now on Anna Karenina. If nothing else, this Camino experience has been an educational upgrade.
However, at this stage of the game when so many people are familiar, I often find myself switching off the audiobook because someone I know has come up and we decide to walk together for a while. I´ve come to enjoy the company from time to time. There is a trio who regularly pass me, but whom I then pass down the road while they enjoy cafe breaks, and we have a nice leapfrogging relationship going on.
The albergues have gotten more expensive since we crossed into Galicia. They run an average price of 10 Euros a night, instead of 5 or 6, although arguably they are often quite modern and well outfitted (wifi, internet, washer and dryer options and hot water all reliably likely to be available). I have varied between preferences on where to sleep. Sometimes I have gone for the basic municipal albergue, which is like a military dorm of bunks but you get the fun group sensibility of a collective (especially entertaining when a loud snorer goes to bed before everyone else does and the rest of us all exchange glances, roll our eyes, laugh and reach for our earplugs.) Other times I have preferred more intimate private hostels, where you still share bunk space but with six or ten people instead of thirty, and where they often offer a communal meal that lets you all get acquainted. It often depends on the day which I choose, but I´ve really been enjoying the range of experiences and variety in ambience each place can offer.
One thing I will not miss too much is the pilgrim menu for dinner. These are admittedly great value: 9-10 Euros for a three course meal that includes wine or water, dessert, and hearty entrees. Portions are often generous too...we were surprised to get spaghetti bolognese and then discover it was just the appetizer -- there was still a main to come, to say nothing of dessert! It is much appreciated bang for buck. But over time you discover the pilgrim menus are disappointingly uniform, and the taste wears after a while...I really can´t deal with any more of the ubiquitous bread, which shows up in every meal (tostadas for breakfast, the bocadillo sandwich for lunch, and all over the table at dinner). Potatoes are also very well known to caminantes by now, in all their various forms. Salads are usually mixtas, which means iceberg lettuce, some tomatoes and maybe asparagus, and tuna in the centre of the plate. And the entrees tend to be more or less from the same range of choices, heavy on pork (I remain amazed at the variety of things the Spanish come up with to do with a pig). I´ve been glad to have a cheap, hearty option to follow a day´s hard walking but by now, I see food as fuel, and choose carefully what I eat and when to optimize my day´s performance. I´ve found that, surprisingly, I do better without eating breakfast, because I feel like digestion diverts blood flow from my feet where it´s needed. But a stop mid morning for cafe con leche can keep me going for a long time, because it´s a latte made with whole milk, not the skim I usually have at home, and thus much more nourishing and filling (plus the sugar I add helps give some kick!). And of course, I never pass up fresh squeezed orange juice whenever available.Lunch, if I am hungry at all during the walk, is often fruit and nuts -- I´m now finding chocolate and sweets very resistible -- and dinner is either a pilgrim menu, or just some high protein tapas like chorizo añ sidra to help rebuild the muscles, or occasionally nothing at all. Or I will treat myself, like the pulpo y gambas ajillo (octopus and shrimp in garlic, very plentiful all of a sudden in Galicia).I´ve very much appreciated the chance to listen to my body for food as for sleep, and like what it tells me.
(That was why a dinner we had in the tiny hamlet of Fonfria was such a stunning surprise -- a home cooked, whole food feast that outdid anything I´ve had on the Camino so far, and a masterpiece of simple wholesome cooking in its own right. I´ll definitely be writing that one up later.)
With Santiago literally just over the horizon now, everyone is strategizing about how to get there in time for the Pilgrim Mass at noon. There are almost no places to stay between my current location of O Pedrouzo (awash in hostels and albergues) and the edge of Santiago...so you either walked about 20-25 km today, stopped here and planned for a 20km walk tomorrow, or went an additional 16km to a 400 person hostel and can enjoy a short walk tomorrow. Some people are taking their chances on the handful of pensiones and small residences in between...others plan to get up super early (ie 3-4 am) and try to get ahead. I haven´t yet decided what to do, although I have just learned that if you get there early and get your Compostela certificate by 11 am, they read your name out during the mass. That woulod be cool to hear (if really long to wait for!) So that is definitely motivating me to get to bed pronto.
One thing that seems certain ..the road tomorrow morning is going to be packed with eager pilgrims. More than ever, possibly; the Pilgrim Office reports that already, at the start of peak season, there are 10% more pilgrims than last year. We will likely resemble a parade marching into the town and heading for the cathedral in hopes of getting one of the 1000 places for mass.And to think this happens every day!
I will update on the whole experience of arriving in Santiago (and whether it equals the as yet unwritten entry to the town of Molinaseca, which was an unprecedented moment of triumph in its own right). And while I will save the bulk of photos to be updated for when I write their corresponding posts, I will post a few new photos from recent days just to give you a sense of what it´s been like. Look for the album Sarria-Santiago. Thanks for keeping the faith and coming back to read after the long silence! Seems that walking and talking, online at least, is harder than it seemed....
- comments
Tamara Can't wait to hear your last entry. I truly enjoyed sharing your journey. Please keep writing!
Fay Thanks for your postcard girl! What an adventure. I cant believe you can walk and watch movies (if i understood that right). When does Matt join or have I missed that along the way?
Christina Congrats on your amazing progress and a big thank you for letting me share your experience by writing such detailed blog entries!
Rob So happy to hear about your journey (from Jim Curran) and now read thro your terrific blog. Do go on to Finisterre -- it's a wonderful walk and like the pilgrimage of old. Big pilgrim hug and congratulations!