Frades

I feel like the entertainment on the trail is becoming about the people rather than the scenery. We’re walking through small towns that are sweet and scenic but by this time we feel like we’ve seen it. The eucalyptus forests smell good and harkened us back to our California days but we’re over that now too. The volume of people on the trail is greater now and the characters are coming out. Today there was a basque walking the Camino on stilts. Ollie says they use stilts to shepherd their flocks so he must be doing it to represent his culture. I walked with “Springfield”(That’s what I call them) today- a couple who live in Springfield Illinois. They started in St Jean and have done the whole thing. There was also “Holland” who started in Holland and has done over 3000km and is almost done. He was having a bad day. I think he’s struggling to return to normal life after walking for the past 148 days straight. He’s two days out from being done, that’s they only reason I can come up with to be having a bad day. Then there’s a man we’ve passed every day now for the last three days. (We pass him every morning which means he walks hours longer than we do to catch up at night and gets up earlier than us to get back in the trail.) He walks with a struggle- one step for every five I can take. I can tell he has to think about the movement every step he takes. He has scars all over his head from surgery. I am embarrassed that all I can think to say is “Buen Camino” as I pass him. There has to be more I can come up with in my limited Spanish to encourage him. I pray he makes it.

My feet are sore and my shins are killing me but I’ve got 18 km left to go. Tomorrow will feel awesome!Read more