Sunrise on the Camino.
We completed our longest day of the trip walking 16 miles from Castrojeriz to Fromista. We stopped at 6 miles for breakfast and they for a snack around the 12 mile mark. The difference between 12 and 16 miles was enormous and we all suffered to the end, but made it without any significant incidents. I have become so much more aware of my bodies abilities, as well as aches and pains. The general weak point for all pilgrims is the feet. There are a lot of pilgrims in their 20's who can easily walk 25 miles per day, but their feet can't hold up. They have blisters all over their feet and are forced to take days off.
For me, my weak point was some tendinitis in the ankle for one day, then my left shoulder. I've resorted to walking with two sticks to lessen the impact on my feet. This in turn has resulted in more effort on my arms and shoulder. For ever action, there is a reaction. We gradually have gotten stronger as we continued to walk, but now I think we have reached our limit of improvement. We have realized that 12 to 13 miles is a comfortable day, giving us time to find a place to stay, do laundry and all the other tasks for the day. Give this, we will need to skip a few more days via bus or train in order to finish. It's unfortunate because we wanted to see the entir Camino, but we have to make sacrifices.
The following day, we cut back our distance to 13 miles and skipped ahead one day at the end via bus. We were in much better shape at the end of the day and spent the night in Terradillos, which would give us an 8 mile walk to Sahagun to take a train to Leon. We were unprepared for Terradillos as it was so small there wasn't even a small store there. There was only a restaurant attached to the Albergue. The albergue was new and we were able to get a room just for the four of us.
Most of the towns have at least 100 residents and a little store to buy some food and a cafe. On Sundays, the stores and cafe can be closed and you are without food. It's best to try to being larger city on a Sunday to avoid this. However, this town was only surviving with an albergue and all the residents had to drive 10 miles to the nearest store. We made due with ordering from the restaurant, but that meant that we would have to wait to eat breakfast until we walked to the first cafe that was 4 miles away, about 1.5 hours.
The next morning, we were rewarded with one of the best cafes that we had eaten out, run by a German woman and her Spanish husband. Julie and Emi both ordered the German sausage and Gisela had the dark German bread with eggs. It Was a good change from the usual muffins or egg and white bread. We continued our walk into Sahagun and caught a train into Leon, walking another 3 miles to our albergue. By the time we made it to Leon, most things were shut down, so we have decided to have a rest day and stay tomorrow to see the city.
I mentioned in my last entry about a German, Marcus that we met. For the last five days he has been walking with us and helping us out. He started in St. Jean, but had a foot injury and had to rest in Burgos for four days. We met at the albergue just after Burgos and really connected with him. He has changed his plans just so he can walk with us. We eat at the same restaurants and agree on times to meet in the morning to start walking. He has been really good with the girls playing cards with them and laughing a lot. It has been an unexpected pleasure to have someone join our group.
We continually get pilgrims coming up to us saying how proud they are of us walking as a family. We have only seen three other families since we started. One pilgrim said that we have inspired him to bring his son back with him next year. Another gave us some patches that he had made before coming to el Camino. Everyone is very generous and for the most part open to start up a conversation and walk a while with us. It continues to be a great experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment