They say that the Camino can bring back memories that have been blocked and make you dream a lot. I don't have many dreams, but on Camino, I have had many and most of them are about friends and family who are getting hurt either by disease or an accident. I am always there there to help or revive them, but they get taken away in an ambulance and I never know the outcome. I woke this morning rather distressed after one of these dreams and feeling like I had hardly slept at all.
I had tried for another early night due to the fatigue I felt yesterday. I was unsuccessful! I was in my bed early, but there was a heavy rain and a thunder storm above me and a Pilgrim party below me. I rested my body, but not my mind. I lay in bed, looking out to the darkening mountains as the rain fell, thinking about how far I had come. I considered today's walk. As a pilgrim, you rarely get choice, you simply follow the arrows. However, every now and then, you a graced with a choice, often with varying difficultly. Today there were 3 choices. One ran flat beside a main highway. One ran up the mountains, including 3 high, steep peaks and 3 low valleys. One ran up a mountain for around 6km extra, meaning that the busy highway could be avoided. I don't like the roads. They are dangerous and noisy. The hard rain on the roof top cancelled the 3 peaks for me, which left the route with the medium difficulty. This meant my day was going to be a big mountain at the beginning then a steep climb at the end for around 10km, totaling my days journey at 36km.
I woke at 6am and left by 620am. I was driven by the need to walk off the previous night's dream. And that I did. The first climb was more significant than I had imagined - although, I should have known this. It is a regular occurrence on Camino that nothing is at it seems - it is always harder. The pilgrims have a saying, "That's Camino" - meaning that you really should never have expectations because the camino changes all the time - weather, terrain, busyness. Another regular saying for when things don't go as planned is 'c'est la vie'.
I climbed and climbed and could see the pilgrims below, like ants, walking precariously between a white line and a road guard, nothing between them and the large trucks passing at a high speed. Then, to give me a sense of complete solitude, a mist that rolled in, engulfing the road, the tiny pilgrims, the trucks and the trees below in an eery silence. And still I climbed.
I must have been the first pilgrim up the mountain as cobwebs which hung across the path, stuck to my face and legs in the most annoying fashion!
After a few hours of climbing, I found a place to sit and eat a banana - amazing bananas in Spain! I sat and contemplated an extremely low time in my life. It was a time where had it not been for a close friend, I don't know what would have happened to me. But I knew that the pit I was in at the time could not get any lower. Tears rolled down my face - I don't think I was crying as such, more releasing I think - if that makes sense. I was neither sad nor happy. Just grateful.
The downhill was made up of half walking and half sliding in the loose gravel and mud from the night's rainfall. At the bottom, I joined up with the other pilgrims who had walked the road.
I looked around. I was completely surrounded by huge mountains. The flat, monotonous Meseta was most definitely a thing of the past. In fact, I was heading for a new province - Galacia! This is the province in which my beloved Santiago awaits my imminent arrival in just 7 days time. A province that I was going to enter within 1km of my days destination!
Dark clouds hung low, threatening the forecasted rain. Combining this and the steep mountains, meant that I sung a verse from 'wayfaring stranger' over and over in my mind...
"I know dark clouds will gather round me,
I know my way is rough and steep.
And beautiful fields lay just before me..."
Round and round in my head it went. I smiled at the relevance.
I climbed the steep 10km. Even though there was no direct sun, the humidity meant that I didn't have one moment with a dry forehead! The air was heavy and the road was rocky. I came across two pilgrim friends, my italian singer and an amercian girl. Together we walked for the first 3/4 of the climb - helped it go by faster! They stopped at the town just before mine - rather tempting, but I had a certain province I wanted to cross into!
My town, O'Cebreiro is quaint and small, but a bit touristy for me. The first hotel I came to was booked out, and at the next stop, an english couple were speaking to a man in rather good spanish about accommodation. I stopped and waited there until they could help me translate. Through the english couple, I asked for a solo room and he responded with €20. A bit more expensive than an Albergue (last nights accommodation was around €5), but it was somewhere to lay and I was tired. The Spanish man showed me down some stairs and to my room. Here he changed the rules - "€30 please," he asked. I argued with him about the quoted amount of €20 for a while but gave up in my tired state and paid him. I just wanted a shower.
There are some gift shops here, but I am avoiding buying anything until Santiago. Every bit of weight counts! I even throw out muesli bar wrappers from my bag in hope that my load with lighten!
I have found a good place in a bar and have just consumed the most amazing garlic soup with bread and a vino. Will settle here for the evening I think!
So, 7 days.... wow.... not long now!
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