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Camino de Santiago

March - May 2024
A 49-day adventure by Lexie Read more
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  • TravelerCamino de Santiago
    11
    Day 4

    SJPP to Roncesvalles - part 1

    March 26 in France ⋅ 🌧 5 °C

    It's been difficult to know which language to start with on the first day of the Camino because we are in France, but Spanish is the language of the Camino, and as much as English is probably the common language with whoever I'm talking to, it feels super arrogant to launch straight in. Might just start screeching g'day at people so we all know where we stand.

    After a truly rubbish night's laying still (sleep would be an overstatement, I think I called the jetlag triumph early) it was finally 6am and reasonable to get up. I joined some early risers in the kitchen, intermittently poking a hand out the window into the dark to confirm that it was still both cold and raining, and talking about what lay ahead. This, incredibly, involved a chat with an Australian guy about how much he likes bloody George Town. What on earth.

    About 7.30am I was strapped and clicked and covered and on my way. Today is supposed to be the hardest day of the whole thing, which is probably a combination of soft new bodies, distance, and elevation. Adding rain was a genius move from the great sky dispenser, it added to the gravitas.

    The elevation is all crammed into the second half so my plan, informed by a complete lack of competitive spirit and relative abundance of time, was to break the 27km into two days by staying at Valcarlos and do the hard bit tomorrow on fresh legs.

    Did I? Go to part two, don't forget to like and subscribe!    Read more

  • TravelerCamino de Santiago
    Day 4

    Lunch in honour of Bran and Block

    March 26 in Spain ⋅ 🌫 4 °C

    After four hours of walking, I figured it was lunchtime, and as I was in Valcarlos, I had a decision to make - stay here for the night or push on to Roncesvalles?

    To help me think, and invoke the spirit of two thirds of my board of walking advisory angels, I whipped out a bit of food.

    For Branna - a heel of bread and a wedge of cheese, in the shepherd boy tradition.

    For Blocky - a pouch of tiny tiny salami, in recognition that jerky comes when you most need a boost, it's magic.    Read more

  • TravelerCamino de Santiago
    1
    Day 4

    SJPP to Roncesvalles - part 2

    March 26 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    I pushed on - the absolute hubris on me, can you believe! This isn't what my itinerary said! I've dipped my toe into the fast and loose pool and it's nice in here.

    It was important for me to walk on my own today, and I managed to. At one point my hands were so cold I stuffed all my fingers in my mouth for warmth, that probably helped maintain some solitude.

    The route climbed and climbed until I was in the white stuff, which kept getting thicker and was quite frustratingly hard to get grip on, but the novelty outweighed it. I swung wildly between beaming manically (again, probably kept any would-be chats away) and wishing I was in front of a fire eating a steak.

    But I got it done, 27km in just under 7 hours, with breaks. Some quick stats now:

    Slugs avoided stepping on: 55,000.
    Slugs stepped on: 1 .
    Cats seen: 1.
    Cats patted: 0.
    Gear MVP of day: Dad's hanky.
    Gear 'room for improvement': rain jacket pockets waterproofing.
    Lessons learned: pay attention to opportunities to fill drink bottle.    Read more

  • TravelerCamino de Santiago
    3
    Day 4

    A vision in the snow

    March 26 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 1 °C

    Home for tonight is this albergue (pilgrim hostel) with a whopping 200+ beds, across three floors, in pods of four. In mine I've got Tigore from England, a 74 year old Swedish guy who was so committed to travelling light (4.5kg*) he refused to bring a sleeping bag and is now cracking it about being cold, and a Spanish speaking man wearing, and I shit you not, high performance suspenders. Everything smells like deep heat.

    The accommodation was €14 and when I arrived Ana, my Norwegian friend from breakfast at SJPP, let me know that she had booked dinner for 7pm so when asked at reception if I wanted to, I said yes without knowing what was involved. I was handed a laminated card that said Pilgrim Meal, and an extra €13 was added to my bill.

    In the intervening hours I had a thaw out shower, some laundry, a few chats, updated here, and read a bit of the book I grabbed in SJPP. In exploring, I saw sky dispenser has blessed me anew! Peep these vending machines, they count as odd because of the sheer number of them and the slight left-fieldness of their contents which include yogurt and sandwiches that will outlast me on this earth. Praise be to sky dispenser.

    At 7 we all excitedly hustled to the restaurant where I was on a big round table with Tigore and my Swedish bunk mate (emerging as a huge character), Ana, a guy from Padua, a couple from Minnesota, and a woman from Chicago.

    Over wine, bread, soup, pasta, a choice of chicken or trout, and strawberry yoghurt, we talked about the day**, what had brought us here, and our lives. Particular attention was paid to Lake Superior. I've never had such an enjoyable evening with strangers in my life. It was cliche and perfect.

    I'm going to sleep very well now, and hope nobody flushes the toilet that sounds like a jet engine and involves about 50L of water. Tomorrow is 5km shorter, downhill, and not raining. Can't wait.

    *I'd like it known that excluding my meds I've got 4.8kg which does include a sleeping bag so pipe down mate.

    ** Turns out that beech forest/snow slog Ana, Tigore, and I did was the bit the pilgrim office told us not to do due to weather and stick to the road instead. That was a bonding discovery. They also told me they were following my lead for directions from afar half the day, which was bold of them.    Read more

  • TravelerCamino de Santiago
    1
    Day 5

    Tip shop abroad

    March 27 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 1 °C

    A fun game is emerging. I've decided you win by finding the most bonkers thing someone brought with them then culled, and I'll be playing against myself throughout the trip. This was my entry for today, strong odds.Read more

  • TravelerCamino de Santiago
    Day 5

    To summon the spirit of Eva

    March 27 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 2 °C

    ...the remaining third of my advisory board of walking angels, I decided this would be my wallet for the trip. I think its secure in the sense it shows any would-be thief that I have a sense of humour and style it would be tragic to disabuse me of.Read more

  • TravelerCamino de Santiago
    321
    Day 5

    Roncesvalles to Zubiri - part one

    March 27 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C

    A 22km stage today, optimistically framed by the gang as short and downhill, between Roncesvalles at 960m and industrial Zubiri at 520m. Got up at 5.45am once I heard the first toilet flush (I didn't have to try hard to hear it) as I figured that was the band-aid ripped off the peace.

    By 6.45am they were piping monastic chants through the PA to wriggle us on, they're very serious here. In the pod we had a laugh imagining the words of the unintelligible chant were "gettttttt outttttttt". With the ummmmming booming, I rounded a corner and nearly fell over a woman engaged in what with hindsight I recognise as yoga but at the time I truly suspected might be a possession in progress. She was bent at the elbows and knees to create like a table, with her torso and thighs as the top, and had her eyes closed. OUT (of my way) demon!

    On the road by 7am, which started with a truly lovely yet CRISP wander through dense woodland described in the literature as the home of "secret covens" in the 1500s, and when translated, named Oakwood of Witches. Excellent, all my love to the girls. While we're on the literature, I wasn't joking about the Charlemagne stuff, cop the attached page from the Camino bible.

    At one point the guy in jeans passed me, which was a good proof of life check for him as I did worry about his chafe and general health yesterday when I saw him leave SJPP. Every now and then someone with really swishy pants will come up behind me and I'm enraged by it by the time they stick the overtake, I can't imagine the cognitive dissonance it takes to put up with that all day.    Read more

  • TravelerCamino de Santiago
    Day 5

    Roncesvalles to Zubiri - part two

    March 27 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

    Today's path is almost all off the road, which is good because I'd started to wave to cars that gave me space yesterday and clearly I was losing my edge. The mud got a bit annoying, but you can't have everything. As a result, there were long stretches of the day without an interaction (like a passing car) which made me *feel* more alone than yesterday.

    From my conversations so far, it's clear that medical motives are behind many journeys. A lot of what I hear is that they had a stroke (two at my table of eight last night) or other serious scare, and are walking with eyes freshly widened to life, in triumph and celebration of their opportunity to have a bit more of it.

    There's lots I want to reflect on and resolve on this trip, but also the need to balance that with being present for the experience. I think if I'm not careful it'll turn into my rot days at home, where I manage to completely inhabit the grey between productivity and relaxation, not doing either properly and feeling guilt about failure on two fronts.

    Yesterday I was completely mentally present on the walk. It was challenging, I had to pay attention, it was uncomfortable and beautiful and new. Maybe because today was less difficult, I found myself in my head for long stretches, asking myself questions I think I will only know the answers to once I've been doing this for a lot longer. I'm trying to show myself grace and not rush. Today is my third day of leave for Christ's sake. You probably can't get enlightened in a long weekend.

    To distract myself, I started thinking about how, at work, we could make the process of network variations more efficient (its going to need a LEAN workshop) and that was so boring that it forced me out of my mind and back into my body. While I was there I had a look around and realised steak was still on the agenda, which is interesting because I was - not consciously but in practice - reasonably vegetarian at home. We discussed at dinner there might be something about the experience that's sending us all a bit primal, and by extension, protein oriented. Perhaps tomorrow I'll kill a wild boar with my bare hands.

    Slugs: 1, at 9.54am
    Cats seen: 4
    Cats pat: 1    Read more

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