Meeting Norman on the way to Montemarta

Following the pilgrim I found I thought I'd catch up easily but he kept his pace up and it wasn't until he stopped that I was able to catch up and introduce myself in Spanish. "Hola, Buenos Días, cómo están? Me llamo es Jonathan de los Estados Unidos" "buenos días" he said "ingles? I speak English" he said. Shocked I said "English, that's great I'm from America where are you from?" "I'm from Scotland he said" now I'm hearing the accent. I told him my name and where I was going and we just began talking. I warned me he walked a bit quick and I'd have to keep up. He had been hiking from Almería on the coast since May 1 over mountains and through the desert. An older guy slightly hunched over he was also a nice, caring and talkative guy. We talked about a number of things, Scotlands desire to be independent and the English that attempt to stifle that at all costs, Brexit and American politics. " Let me ask" he'd say " about Trump, what do people see in him?" He seemed genuinely curious but also vehemently anti-trump. I didn't care though and I think it would be a good conversation for the few hours we had until we got to Montamarta.

The scenery was rather flat and the cool morning was giving way to the dry heat of the day. The wheat fields all around, I found rather nice to look at. They aren't around in the areas I live in. The Camino itself seemed to be a farm road, a bit a gravel path generally moving north. We crossed the highway and the AVE high speed train which also was a conversation. "An engineering feat" Norman would say.Read more