Bus Day

For the first time in almost two weeks I’m carrying my pack more than just from the front desk to my room. I keep basic toiletries and foot care in my day pack along with sunscreen/hat/snacks/etc, so quite often I’m pulling only my main clothes bag from my pack when I arrive somewhere. Especially in hotels where they provide towels and shampoo, and I’m not required to use my sleep sack.

It does make me think about how much I’m carrying that I don’t need. (Both a literal and figurative lesson of the Camino.)

I feel like I’m starting over! Plus, now I have an added two pounds from my hiking shoes strapped to the back, which more than offsets what I sent home with Missy. I’d guess my non-food/water weight right now is around 17 pounds. The new shoes are good so far. I’m leery of not having the old ones with me until I know how the new ones feel when walking over all my favorite rocks; if I’m confident about finishing in them I’ll probably beg/bribe one of the crew to let me shove them in their bags.

Tom and Yvonne use a zippered Ikea bag to send items ahead each day. They brought one each as protection in case they were forced to check their packs on the way here. It was a good decision which providentially offsets some bad decisions. Tom’s original pack weight — that he carried over the Pyrenees — was 29 pounds! I don’t know Yvonne’s starting weight, but it wasn’t light either. After day two she whipped out the IKEA bag, and they started shipping daily while still carrying their packs.

My bus wasn’t til 1:00 pm, but I headed to the bus station first thing, planning to find a cafe near there. I hate that I can’t spend more time exploring León, but that defeats the purpose of resting my blister and shins. So coffee it is. (Such a hardship.) There’s a lovely park and river on the way to the station, which made it a very pleasant place to kill time.

For five Euros and a 40 minute bus ride I skipped two days and 30 miles of walking. Mim was listening to an audiobook today and accidentally took an alternate route, adding 5 miles to an already long day, ending at 22. Like me, Kathy is trying to get her issues under control to manage the mountains ahead, so she also took a bus. She can’t get her foot in her shoe so has no choice but to hike in sandals, but that is causing its own set of problems.

I am staying at Hotel Gaudi here, right across from the Gaudi Palace that’s next to the cathedral. This town is beautiful, and I spent a couple of hours just sitting outside reading a book, enjoying one of the last cool days for a while. A local sat down and played a guitar and sang for about thirty minutes of that. I stopped in to a church that’s next door to the cathedral, rather than paying an entrance fee for the cathedral itself. Even the most “basic” churches, in towns much more podunk than this, are stunning.

An American couple and I started chatting near the church; they started from SJdPP on May 15, in the thick of the snow on the mountain. They went halfway the first day, then got a taxi to take them over the top to Roncesvalles. They heard of many injuries from people who had walked that day, plus, as they said, “we’re from Florida. No way were we prepared for snow!”

There must be some sort of Borda Crew bat signal, because around six there was a WhatsApp to the group from Andres: “Hey, I hear some of you are here. Want to meet up?” This was an unexpected surprise; I shouldn’t have crossed paths with him again this trip, but he took an extra rest day here. I was just walking out of the grocery store with my dinner, but I did go to the plaza to meet him for a beer. He updated me on Meg, who hurt her knee and went home for good, and I let him know about Lynn. He also gave me some ideas of what to do tomorrow.Read more