Day 27: To El Acebo

Physically:
I’m definitely out of the Meseta…
For the past week or so I have been walking through what they call the Meseta. It’s basically a relatively flat agricultural region. Now that’s in my (metaphorical) rear view mirror as I’m back to climbing and descending mountains. In fact, today I passed the highest point on the entire Camino. While today’s assent and decent was not nearly as challenging as my first couple of days crossing the Pyrenees, I’m definitely not in Kansas…
Also, to play a little catch-up as payback for yesterday’s 10k day, today I did a long 30k trek. It made for a very long day, although after the fog/rain subsided it was a beautiful solitary hike on a trail through the woods with wildflowers all around.

Emotionally/Spiritually:
I was completely alone virtually all day hiking very rocky mountain trails often in the mist & rain. Plus, one of the best-known locations on the Camino; the “Cruz de Ferro” (Iron Cross) was on today’s hike. Physically, it’s just an iron cross on top of what looks like a telephone pole sticking out of a big pile of rocks.
Not being a “religious” guy, for me, the cross was not the most important part. The relevance was the rocks. The spiritual strength comes with the tradition that you leave a rock or a small memento behind to release a burden, or in memory of a loss or perhaps as a sign of a current love or devotion. It’s a tradition that has been repeated countless thousands of times as is evidenced by the many thousands of rocks people have carried from around the world to leave there.
I did all the above and am not ashamed to say mine were accompanied by free-flowing tears. (In my best Yoda voice); “Very strong the Force is there”. It’s a very ‘spiritual’ place and hard to not be moved.
Finally, I stumbled into my Albergue after 6pm and just crashed on my bunk until my 8:15 dinner time. Then enjoyed my three-course 15€ Peregrino dinner. Now I am in my bunk and ready for sleep.Baca lagi