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  • ViaggiatoreCamino del Norte
    2
    211
    Giorno 33

    Ribadiso

    20 maggio, Spagna ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Day 33 Ribadiso

    Feeling under pressure for time - I want to arrive in Santiago on Thursday and have a couple of days to rest and enjoy the city before setting off with Luca again at the weekend - and rather threatened at the prospect of therefore having to walk up to 30km a day feeling as weary as I was yesterday, I skipped a day's worth of walking by taking a bus. Happy cheat! It's only me (...and petty, competitive people, you know) who take any interest in the 'purist' completion of the Camino: the unspoken rules of the road include always carrying your own bag, never taking public transport, going completely offline even for finding the way, not taking any days off. Now I have broken them all, hooray! (I call it 'grace'!)

    Hilariously, I missed the intended bus stop and had to wait for another bus to go back 20 minutes so I could start at my intended town at 4-doable-days' distance. We pilgrims' collect 'stamps' at every overnight stay and often in restaurants, cafes and churches, did you know? It is part of the Camino culture that every sleepery and eatery has its own logo, so the collection serves as proof of where we have been; at the end, in the Santiago pilgrims' office, the well-stamped 'Credential' enables us to receive the 'Compostela', a rather super certificate of completion. In the last 100km we have to have at least 2 stamps a day over the distance we have walked; that was why I needed to go back and not just double-cheat!

    I managed then to walk over 25km, feeling bright and perky all day ... perhaps I needn't have taken the short cut after all! It was pretty flat terrain today, and the weather was mostly dry and even a little sunny, which of course makes every step feel a little lighter.

    Lugo city centre was much nicer empty and in the bright morning sun than yesterday, when it was full of TOURISTS (those pesky people!), noisy and busy. The other photo subjects just took my eye. The more the days and the distance pass, the less I'm interested in the landscape, it seems. Perhaps it just seems to be 'normal' now; I wonder if I will regret in future taking so few pictures. But I still found several new flowers today! The number of flowers I have identified has is nearing 200: YES IT'S TRUE!

    Ginny and Martin, Orlando. Jenny, Islington. 2 couples from Boston. Dora, Hanover. Laurence, Sandwich.

    It's so good to be here    Leggi altro

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  • ViaggiatoreCamino del Norte
    Giorno 32

    Lugo

    19 maggio, Spagna ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Day 32
    Rain. Even the town sculpture in Castroverde suggests that it rains a lot here and that we need to support each other when everything is grey.

    I felt very weary today, and emotional. The old chestnut tree was one of the loveliest encounters this morning. When the churches are all locked, as if we are disapproved of, as if to fend us off, the natural beauty feels all the more sweetly welcoming and wonderful. A tree like this might predate any of these buildings; it might have seen more comings and goings, might have witnessed a huge variety and number of human, animal and plant life-events never usually taken indoors! I still knock on every locked church door, a symbolic act of request and protest: this Camino is for at least some of us - for me, yes, for me - intended to be a spiritual pilgrimage experience: we pilgrims should be able to enter designated religious buildings to pray along the way, or what's the reason for their existence? It seems to me that if I can't do that, then I am better off not wasting my time approaching the church buildings (I passed perhaps 6 locked chapels today, and knocked at each one) but letting nature communicate the presence and strength, the faithfulness and peace that I seek. After all, nature was there proclaiming everything good long before humans created philosophies and structures intended to contain and direct our behaviour.

    Still finding new flowers I haven't spotted before, but it takes an eagle eye to spy anything new among the greens and colours of the wayside. Or to notice that this little flower head, whilst being very similar to whatever-it-was the other day, is actually probably a different plant or even species. Spotted rockrose, southern camomile, sweet spurge.

    I am enjoying the Galician stone and slate cottages; I could almost be in the Cotswolds! It's a gentle grey, comfortable, homely. The landscape has reduced from mountains and heathland to hills and fields, and again feels familiar from home.

    Lugo, a walled city with a wealthy feel, obviously of historic significance (but I'm not going to explore what its story is, either in person or online) is grand, and the Cathedral grander yet. I met with Petra, the pilgrim I've most enjoyed catching up with again and again, and we ate lunch together, before finding a central hostel. Joined in a Pentecost mass. Although the cathedral art is impressive, I find much more pleasure in the quirky bits of decor than the grandiose, like this little cherubic guitar maker (Luca?).    Leggi altro

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  • ViaggiatoreCamino del Norte
    Giorno 31

    Castroverde

    18 maggio, Spagna ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    It rained all day. All day it was either actually raining or just-finished-just-about-to-rain.
    My feet were wet within about an hour of leaving the hostel, but - hey did you know? - merino really does keep you warm even when wet. The goretex shoes impress me less.

    One friend, known anyhow for her speedy pace, raced past me with an audiobook on loudspeaker, saying that listening to a distracting story helps her feel the day is going more quickly ... and as she dodged a muddy puddle groaned 'ich hasse es!'. She hates what?! This glorious opportunity to spend all day walking yet again, in idyllic Spanish countryside, with today's particular views (admittedly limited in distance), these flowers and this birdsong, these companions, this destination? At that moment it felt like I had fireworks going off in my chest, I was so HAPPY: Happy to be here, now, with these conditions, all of them, and happy that somehow I have come to love what some others experience as suffering. Isn't that wonderful?

    Met Anne and Steve, brother and sister from Peckham. I was taking a food break in the porch of a little chapel, and playing my fife, when they came to see if it was open, and her 'ooh' was SO English (a disappointed sort of sound, when she saw it was locked) that I had to comment: "that's definitely an English 'ooh'!" We walked and talked for an hour or so, until we all stopped at a cafe for coffee, and walked on then separately. I enjoyed a bit of British chat for a change!

    For the last 7km I happily coincided with Steve from Oxford/ now living in Maine. Intriguing how conversation topics develop, and how it's possible to invest trust in a stranger to tell one's personal story in a way perhaps many friends haven't heard it. It seems to me that some of my pilgrim companions are letting their guard down more at this point, and making use of each others' ready ears and open hearts to explore and express important personal issues. I like this dynamic.

    The hostel here is nearly empty, but one friend (actually the mud-hater above) has the bunk next to mine, so we've enjoyed a meal together, gone shopping to prepare breakfast to share, and played a game of dice. She bought a bottle of wine in the last town, but her two Camino buddies gave up today's walk early and haven't shown up here, so she and I glugged some of it down in the early evening. Not bad, not bad.

    Older Italian couple, also from Lake Como! Brazilian couple, very friendly.

    Few pics; it was not a day for stopping.    Leggi altro

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  • ViaggiatoreCamino del Norte
    Giorno 30

    O Piñeiral

    17 maggio, Spagna ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    Day 30
    The hostel common room was busy last night, especially with a group of 8 or so youngsters eating together, and another group of 3 Italian men plus one Dutch guy: Italian men know how to look after themselves, don't you know?! They were cooking a superb spaghetti carbonara together, which made my individual vegetable omelette look measly (but it was delicious, and just as well as I had been schlepping the already cooked vegetables for two days in my rucsac, waiting to find eggs!). Sometimes, I think, it would be nice to be part of a meal group, but somehow I end up eating on my own. Am I too self-sufficient? Or too shy to invite someone to join me? Or too 'something' to be invited by others?

    I then took a walk into the village and sauntered into the Museo Etnografico, just at the same time as Alfonso from the Netherlands. The lady assumed we were together, so he paid my ticket; in return I bought him a beer later. These easy get-to-know-you relationships are great, no complications, lots of simple openness and of course lots in common to talk about, even if only about sore feet, or the rain, or 'yes it's my first Camino' (or, '... my 4th' ... or, 'I have been coming every year since 1972'). I'm tending at this point to ask straight up what someone's 'Camino story' is, and mostly people answer something very ordinary like 'it's just a sport holiday', but sometimes I get to hear something more personal, and that is of course what I love. Jason, 23, Netherlands, rubix geek and self-taught/ self-motivated social researcher in their field of expertise, children's mental health services. Awe-inspiring personality and a lovely energy. Alan, US, second wife, downsizing, ' I have come to realise I like my life just as it is, simple, ordinary'. Dieuw, Netherlands, 'I want to be a mum, and I'm considering being a single mum'. Petra, Germany, 'I nearly packed it all in today ... do you want a hug?'

    Slept rather restlessly and woke before 6, so decided to walk with the dawn and left the hostel before 7. Not that there was any sun to see; a day of cloud and rain, almost all day. Wet feet. Dry everything else, with my lovely umbrella (hmmm, do I need to give her a name? Suggestions please). Happy everything.

    Entered Galicia! Ate lunch in a restaurant, a super delicious fish soup, with white wine, and shared a Pastel de A Fonsagrada dessert with Frank and Jürgen. Jürgen's dessert, that is to say, with three forks. (I'm gonna try that recipe at home; will you come and share it? Basically butter, eggs and almonds, with a splash of cognac. Soooo good.) AND Jürgen paid for my meal!

    Upgraded to a single room at the hostel/ hotel, so I'm in bliss. I've put the heater on so I can dry my shoes out properly. That's about the level of interest in life for a pilgrim after a month of walking and a day of wetness. Bare necessities!

    I'm very aware that I will arrive in Santiago in under a week. Walking 25km a day is normal, now, and 30 easy enough. My back is strong again. The journalling and painting has not done what I'd hoped, but that's okay. Perhaps another time? I've had no great revelations along the way, but I'm content with what is.
    It's just me. This is it. Easy.

    Just thankful.    Leggi altro

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  • ViaggiatoreCamino del Norte
    1111
    Giorno 29

    Grandas de Salime

    16 maggio, Spagna ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    Day 29
    Started in grey and wet bluster with lots of complaints from the walkers but none of them from my mouth! I love weather. I love the changeability of temperature, atmosphere ... of the feel, the challenge of it all. And it really really helps that I have great kit ... I even sang a little song to my super storm umbrella.

    Stumbled across a friendly Italian gent, Eduardo, while he was sheltering from the rain under the decrepit roof of the porch of a tiny chapel, and we walked most of the way together. He's carrying his tent and everything, impressively for a 73 year old, and - can you imagine - even including 'Prince of Wales' tea, which he then provided for me in his billy can at a little lunch stop we made. And he generously granted me a sliver of his precious parmigiano reggiano, brought with him from Italy and obviously the biggest treat of his hike! All I could offer him was black chocolate.
    Yes, he's smelling the moss (see pic). I like weird.

    A short day, 17km, essentially one huge up and one long down, followed by a little up-down. Now you know. All remote. The reservoir is (or was) the biggest in Europe, Eduardo told me, built in 1948, and villages up and down the valley had to be lost to the water. Isn't it a remarkable decision to do this? A bit like the HS2 project, at least for those who lose their homes, but there's something that feels really ancient and archetypal about it, intriguing, haunting, romantic even.

    Joy (China/ London) shared a room with me at the monastery on Day 12; she just turned up at this hostel. Surprise!
    Everyone else seems to be new. I find that also surprising, almost more so: I might meet no-one all day, or, as today, leapfrog many others (Danish, today, for the first time, and Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, don't know what else), but there must be a finite number of people out there!
    There's just one week left of the usual 'stages', the last 160km or so before Santiago, and I've been planning accommodation a bit more in advance than up till now. We will join the French Camino for two or three days at the end, which will be very interesting and, according to the talk on the ground, possibly awful. There could be several hundred or more pilgrims in any one town, some of whom will have walked a similar distance to me, from St Pied de Port in the French Pyrenees, but others only the last 100km, which is the distance that justifies receiving the Compostela certificate from the Cathedral. We will all be wanting a bed, and food, at the same time!

    My application for Italian citizenship has at last at last at laaaaaaaaast been accepted, after months of hassle and anxiety about all the hoops to be jumped through, and the documentation required. I've had to deal with additional elements of it several times in the last month, for hours in fact, on the road, when I was wishing I could be paying attention to nature and beauty and la-la-la ... as you do, on the Camino. (Thank you Luca for all your patient help). One of these days I shall be accepted as an Italian/and therefore also as a European. That day there will be beers all round, whoever I'm with!    Leggi altro

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  • ViaggiatoreCamino del Norte
    11
    Giorno 28

    La Mesa

    15 maggio, Spagna ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    Day 28
    I actually overslept this morning, unbelievable, right, in a dorm, but felt so good when I woke up! The terrain was the hardest yet, with a huge ascent for the first half day, and a rain-wind storm at the top; tough going. But it was familiar mountainous walking, like the Alps perhaps, and I was alone ALL day ... apart from the moment I missed a turning, walked way down a forest path, and heard a voice shouting all sorts of things of which the only thing I understood was 'chica'! It was the forest ranger who had watched me wander off, came after me in his vehicle and gave me a lift back to the road. Rescued! Then I walked with an elderly Australian man for several miles until he stopped off at his accommodation; I sang my way downhill to my hostel. The cows are always intrigued when I sing.

    I was loving the patterns, tones and textures today. Fewer flowers but more lichen, moss and ferns. Loving the cloud, the sudden low visibility, the spit and blast of the changeable weather, the subdued light into the distant hills, the loneliness.

    Just before bed I experienced a hostel classic. Three friends at one end of the 24 bed dorm opened the window, creating a cold draught; the ladies next to me went to close it. Twice. Or was it three times. The 'Openers' objected, loudly, in bad English, the 'Closers' responded in similarly bad English, neither listening to the other of course, and no 'please can we... because..'. To and fro, voices raised, shouting, foreign incomprehensible aggression flying over my bed when each just wanted to express their anger; the Closers went to get the Host who marched in and clapped it shut, muttering and tutting; the Germans worked out that if they lowered the shutters the draught would be less, so planned to open up again later... Which they did, I'm glad to say. Hostel muff is awful.

    It was a cartoon, would have been funny if it were not a really uncomfortable caricature of people's inability to treat each other as humans sharing the planet. Isn't it just like life? Sigh...    Leggi altro

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  • ViaggiatoreCamino del Norte
    Giorno 27

    Pola de Allande

    14 maggio, Spagna ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    Day 27
    Another day without the rucsac, and what a difference it makes to walking a long distance! Today was incredibly changeable in the weather, with no half hour constantly this or that: sun, spitting rain, strong wind, wet rain, gentle breeze, a mix of this and that including, at the very end, one half of the sky blue and the other covered in raincloud (two photos show this below). No rainbows though, but I kept looking. Marvelous, all of it.

    It was lovely walking with Simon and Denise/NZ at several points, chatting about this and that, as you do. It's very easy to be together for a short while with another pilgrim, perhaps meeting up at a cafe when you stop for a coffee, and then leaving together, but then to go your separate ways if someone needs to stop and put a coat on, or if your pace is different, or just because you wanna walk alone. Nice to not have to excuse yourself or be embarrassed. Everyone knows we all have to go at our own best speed and take breaks independently.

    I was playing my little fife at one point, wandering down an idyllic woody pathway, and failed to take a critical turning. Found myself way off the route, but at such a simple parallel distance from the right path, I thought, that I decided to brave cutting across the wood/ field/ fence/wall/ undergrowth/ stream ... a bit of a hack, to be honest, but I do like a challenge!

    Took another alternative path (shorter, and on purpose this time) and wandered around an abandoned monastery a little, but it felt a bit creepy so didn't stay long! My practice now with all the churches and chapels we pass is to try the door; mostly they are locked. Then I knock, to show I'm requesting entry! If the door is open - yesterday, unusually, there were three open churches, all explicitly welcoming pilgrims - I go in and kneel to pray briefly, or even lie down on the stone floor. Just a symbolic action (a bit dramatic, but noone else sees me so it's only me who finds it weird!) of open-handedness, and open-heartedness. I want to keep reminding myself to welcome whatever offers itself to me on this Camino, without pre-determining what that should see or feel or sound or look like.

    I'm singing a lot when I'm on my own. Easy, fun, la-la-la, unambitious, funny how I can remember words of songs sometimes and not at all at other times. Lots of childhood songs coming up into my memory! When the road is right and steep, glad that I live am I, I'll sing you one-oh.

    A nice short day tomorrow, 12 miles perhaps, but with a very big ascent at the start. Looking forward to it!    Leggi altro

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  • ViaggiatoreCamino del Norte
    2
    Giorno 26

    Tineo

    13 maggio, Spagna ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Day 26 Tineo
    My back was really badly in spasm last night, but this morning I felt well enough to walk, slowly, having sent my rucsac on to tonight's hostel by pilgrim taxi. It was tough in places, when I was feeling drained, especially when it was also raining. But remarkably the landscape felt really English today, and therefore kind of homely, with green green fields spreading out gently in every direction, woodland paths, stony and muddy, and almost every flower the same as at home: foxglove, daisy, dandelion, aquilegia, bugle, honeysuckle, bluebell, greater and lesser celandine, campion ... you get the idea.

    I met some great people, the slow ones who saunter along at the back end of the day's flood of pilgrims, like José Luis (apparently the most popular name in Spain, I've met three already) with whom I sheltered from the heaviest rain alongside Isabelle from France and the local magazine delivery lady. He made really nice jokes the whole time, the sort that make you really laugh because they are so silly, in Spanish plus hands; everyone was made to feel as if we were part of some big warm huggy friendship thing together, in all spontaneity. My conclusion is that this man is simply fluent in communicating - the language being relatively irrelevant. Three weeks ago all I knew in Spanish was hasta la vista (didn't know what it meant) and vamos a la playa (only useful in some places), but now I'm able to laugh at jokes and understand when someone is talking about the deeper meaning of the Camino. Jose Luis, that is, when we walked together a short distance later in the day; surprisingly, in a way, after all his joking around.
    Google translate helps when ordering food or wanting to take advantage of a two-for-one offer in the supermarket, otherwise I can now proudly claim to 'get by' in this language, mostly of course because of my Italian.

    I'm sending my bag on tomorrow as well. Hooray.    Leggi altro

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  • ViaggiatoreCamino del Norte
    1
    Giorno 25

    Salas

    12 maggio, Spagna ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    So many more people on the Primitivo, more than the Norte and more than I expected. It seems likely that I'll be able to see someone else for most of the day while walking, although today I stole away to use some other smaller (if perhaps longer) tracks I could see on the map. Took an hour's lunch break under the shade of an oak tree, and could watch other pilgrims in the valley trogging along a horrid hot road, and felt pretty smug. One local lady stopped her car and tried to convince me to go back the other way: she didn't like it all that I insisted on continuing! But another man who was working in his garden and greeted me, to question my path, accepted my halting Spanish explanation that 'este camino es mas bonito': 'this path is more beautiful!'

    But in general this route is much more rural than so far, with proper footpaths and tracks through woods, alongside streams and rivers, through hamlets and villages, as well as the town roads, unavoidable as they lead to the hostels. Birdsong all day, frequent river noise and no traffic noise at all. Lots and lots of flowers, with new ones for my collection again and again. Sharp-eyed flower-spotter I am!

    All delightful and charming.

    Today my back went into spasm so I'm feeling fragile. Need to sleep properly again tonight.

    I still have little clarity about the 'why' of this pilgrimage, and I'm going to try a different tack from now on.
    I'm going to open The Noon Meditation Room every day at 12noon and 5pm UK time, if anyone would ever like to join me. It's just a zoom space for 20 minutes of silence, which you can use in any way you wish such as meditation, reading, praying, journalling, painting... Up to you! I created TNMR during lockdown and we have a great little community that still meets, both for meditation and for a monthly 'spirituality' book club. And a creative writing group has been started up by one of the members too! Let me know if you would like to join in (any of the above); we have a whatsapp group for the zoom links.

    Love y'all!    Leggi altro

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  • ViaggiatoreCamino del Norte
    Giorno 24

    Grado

    11 maggio, Spagna ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    Day 24
    Took three wrong turnings today and walked miles off course ... but what a way to spend an evening! The atmosphere is buzzing, and the ladies got me to join in the dance! The lady on her own asked me to film her. Hilarious, fabulous!Leggi altro

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