Today marks 2 weeks exactly since I set my niave, smooth feet in clean boots, carrying an immaculately packed bag on this Camino. I walked the Pyrenees in pure sunshine with visibility for as far as my eyes would allow... Now it is snowing there in the great heights of the Camino and a bitter cold wind is blowing across the Meseta.
I am sitting in a cosy bar eating potato chips and drinking a vino that cost me a massive total of €1.70! Love Spain!
Sylvia and I started out on the track around 630am. It was so cold the roots of my teeth were aching! The first town we were going to hit was around 10km away and was going to be the source of our energy through coffee, tea and one of my amazing cakes. The laughter and joking between us died to complete silence as we reached the town and found it completely closed with no bars (a bar is often like a coffee shop, but where the English are served tea and the German are served beer!) open for service. We were both devastated... I would use a stronger word, but I can't think of one! We would have to slog it out in the icy wind for another 5km. We did this without talking or stopping. Fromista finally arrived - with the red chairs!
Red chairs are significant. They mean coffee, food, Jess' dairy free cakes, shelter and most importantly, rest. They are very simple - plastic outdoor chairs branded in San Migal (the main brand of beer) but damn it, they are a blessed sight from a distance.
I calculated that we had walked 15km in 3 hours. 5km per hour is not a bad pace! We settled in for a couple of hot drinks and around 1 or 2 or 3 little, very little-ish Jess muffins! Here we met up with Mike - yet another fricken Canadian. The streets of Canada must be empty right now as they all seem to be on the Camino!
I chatted to Mike about relationships. He has just come out of one, which was straight after another, which was straight after a 20 year marriage. We talked about what the opposite sex means to us and our lives. He told me he jumps from relationship to relationship and is always on the look out. I talked to him for 3 hours,me playing Dr Phil, and Mike telling me his story. This was indeed the shortest 14km I have walked so far. He was a lot of fun!
Then we arrived at our Albergue. Here I met Sumi, a Japanese woman, who in the same year lost her brother to disease, her best friends in the Tsunami and lost her job. She is here to allow her mind to reconcile with it all. Then there is Glen from the US who has cancer in his leg but is walking every day, spending time by himself, not allowing any attachments to walkers. Then there is the big Scottish man, around 6ft tall, broad and gruff, who found a tiny kitten in one of the many ruins around the camino. This tiny black feline, with bright blue eyes is home in the loop of his scarf hanging below this huge beard. And then there is the group of bickering christian Canadians, and the couple who decided on the Camino to divorce.
Today, the Camino, for me was about the people. For everyone, this journey is a very unique one. But, like many puzzle pieces are joined to make a whole picture, these stories and journeys are all apart of mine too. And it's beautiful. Too often we are caught up in our own little worlds. When we solely live our days here, inside our own self, we lose perspective. Our pains and negativities are magnified. Sometimes, the best healing for within ourselves is to reach out and listen to other people around us who are hurting and who are in need. Did I say sometimes? No, all the times.
Today was a good day. It is true. Patrick, the 9 time Camino walker said that after 2 weeks on the path, you simply wake of a morning, put on your pack and walk. The pain goes and you settle into this rhythm. There is still a little adjusting to do, but I am feeling a part of this now.
My feet are heaps better but I am worried about my leg. Just above my ankle on my left leg, it feels bruised to touch. It is slightly swollen and this increases when I rest of an evening. There is no bruise or redness. Hoping it's not a stress fracture (not that I really know what that is). I am rubbing an anti-inflammatory on it and am taking anti-inflammatory tablets. It seems to be getting worse each day and sometimes shoots pain right up to my hip! The damn thing even wakes me up at night. Fingers crossed it goes, or I find a teaspoon of concrete soon and just harden up! I guess at this point of the Camino, these sorts of pains should be sorted ASAP. Like I said, fingers crossed!
Oh, and before I forget, today I saw a shepherd! It was great! He whistled and the sheep just followed him! And strangely enough, I was suprised that the shepherd wasn't airing a long cloak with a hooked staff! He was 'normal' looking! Who would have thought! :)
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