According to my schedule, I should be in Astorga at the moment, however I´m about 4/5 days ahead of myself, plus another day in hand. I´m at Villafranca, at the foot of the steepest climb on the Camino. I will take a resat day here, to recover from a particulary demanding day yesterday and to prepare for the climb over the next couple of days. Yesterday was 29, very hot kilometres, but in my narrative, as in my camino, I´m getting ahead of myself.
I´ll hop back to Leon, for a bit, where the route out was rather horrible, I too the shorter one, by the main road, and its was hot and noisy. But I ended up in a very nice albergue, in the company of the three Dutch people I´d met some 100k earlier. Ana, the owner, was happy to provide as much ice as I needed, and she also provided the best diner and breakfast on the camino to date. I paid a massive 17Euros for dinner bed and breakfast. I met a Danish lady, Marianne, who was finding her camino very moving, she was touched (as we all are) by "the kindness of strangers". One small example being the old man who left biscuits outside his front door to help fortify the passing pelgrinos. It would be a betterb world if we saw more of such kindness.
Then it was on to Astorga, a mere 15k. Again I opted to do the road route in order to minimise the pressure on my shin. Of course, if I was sensible, I´d get rid of the half-hundredweight of lead I´m carrying, for fun, in my rucsac. The Gaudi church in Astorga is famous, but it sits uneasily beside the traditional catholic cathedral. We had to hunt round to find a quiet bar for dinner - Spain was playing their football cup match.
The best treatment for this tendonitis is ice, and so i have good reason to rest up in bars at the end of the walking day, and after regular application of ice the swelling drops down again. Bars are very accommodating in filling my ziploc bag, it is a pretty common request from similarly afflicted peregrinos. However the most teeth clenching element of the inflamation isn´t pain, its the creaking noise the muscle makes when it is manipulated! We are all adept at helping each other with massages to back, shoulders, feet and legs - its part of the camraderie of the camino. It is nice, if one is having a break, and another walker passes, when they call out, in one language or another, to ask if you are ok. And if you have met before they´ll probably come over to just make sure. And everyone wishes each other "Buon Camino" whenever we pass. And we lift each other sometimes with a light touch on the shoulder or arm.
After Astorga it was another 22k to Rabanal del Camino, a hot, steady climb from 870m to 1149m. Here i stayed at the albergue run the the UK Confraternity of st James, and I have to say it was the best yet, very hospitable to the extent that they carried your rucsac to the dormitory for you, and provided afternoon tea and biccies! And its a true refugio, with no charge, you are merely asked to make a donation. The building has a large garden and a wonderfully cool courtyard.
Here I met again with Tobias, who was staying in the mini monastery next door to the albergue (his education was with the Dominicans) and with his encouragement and with Marianne´s, I attended the service held in the Romanesque church. Neither god nor I were particulary impressed with each other. But at least I wasn´t struck with a thunderbolt as soon as I set foot over the threshold!
That evening we had a very nice shared meal, with everyone contributing whatever they could by way of food. We made 5 small fishes go a heck of a long way!
A small camino story: There was a group of 4 German girls staying here, two had set out together, two others had started solo. Of the solos, one had taken into here head to do the camino when ashe was working in Leon, and had set out particularly ill prepared, but she was ok. A couple of days earlier she had taken a siesta at the side of the path and the other girl had come along and just sat beside her - watching over her - until she woke, then they walked on together, meeting the other two the day after. A sweet camino story.
After Rabanal the path climbs to the highest point on the camino, just after the iron cross (Cruz de ferro) at 1504m, the path gets to 1517. Happily, Rabanal is already at 1150m, so it isn´t a massive height gain. Cruz de ferro is traditionally where pilgrims leave the stone they brought from their home, and it is surrounded by a veritable mini-mountain of rocks, but frankly, many of them aer of such a size that i frankly doublt anyone´s ability to stagger more than a metre of teo carrying them.
We started out in a clear pre-dawn and climbed into the mist, coming out above it, finally, and briefly, before descending again. after a brief break for a toasted bocadillo (sandwich) (and an iced leg) the descent continued. All 1000 metres of it, almost all of it being very rocky. Halfway down, and now in sunshine, I came to a grove of old trees, and after eating some of the fruit I was carrying, i decided to have a siesta. It was very, very nice. I was joined later by Marianne, and then some of the others, who also found the cool shade a delightful temptation, and then we moved on ...
It was a painful descent, taxing on the muscles of thigh, hip and bum. But finally got to Molinaseca, a pretty village, but the albergue wasn´t very nice, rather grubby. The plus point is that there were only 4 of us in it. That evening I ate the best meal yet, but it was a la carte, not the pilgrims menu. The German girls arrived late and slept in the beds outside the albergue, but their noisy chatter carried through the night air, into the small hours.
Yesterday, walking here, was not good - at least in the morning. Pontferrada was noisy and confusing, I had a left foot that hurt and a right shin that hurt, and I was walking solo. I later teamed up with a German girl, Susanna and the walk became better, and bought some cherries at the side of the route from an old lady with the blackest fingernails you´d wish to see ... let´s live dangerously! We decided to take a siesta on ariving at a nice place, and who should we meet but Marianne, just waking from hers. We all went on our ways separately, a bit later. My leg felt a lot better, perhaps becasue of the wine that had been pressed upon me from a walker, in response to my offer of cherries, and i decided to walk the extra 8k here. It was incredibly hot under the afternon sun, but it has set me up for a relatively easy first day´s ascent tomorrow.
I aim to seek out a massage today, to catch up with some reading, and generally chill out. But I don´t find it easy to stay in one place, their is a pressure from the tide, pushing us all to Santiago, and some of us to Finisterre.
We are seeing more on the "tourists". People who join the Camino for the last 200 or 100k, and who carry only light day packs, having their luggage transported by van or car. Some of them are on tours, decending from their mini-buses obnly top get their passports stamped at places along the way. To them we are objects to be photographed.
If i stay so many days ahead of my schedule, I might dally on the coast, or even walk back to Santiago from Finisterre (instead of taking the bus), and thus make up the 50k that I didn´t walk a few days ago. Perhaps. Or perhaps not. We´ll see.
Hmmm. I think I might just be chilling out.