Total for Camino 2015: 321.2 km (200 miles)
There is something about breaking the 50 kilometer mark that makes me want to just keep walking to Santiago.
Rand and I had been talking for several days about what these last 50 kilometers would look like. And we planned to spread them out over 3 days. "Poca a poco." Little by little. To enjoy the last steps of our Camino. And arrive early on Saturday morning in order to get our names read at noon mass and find a place to stay given the Holy Week ("Semana Santa") crowds.
A recent newspaper reported a 61 percent increase in pilgrims arriving in Santiago this March as opposed to last March, so we knew we would never find a place to stay if we arrived late in the day.
But then we unexpectedly ended up staying at the same albergue I did last year right before I walked the last 47.5 kilometers to Santiago. And the hospitalero/bartender recognized me right away.
Something about this encounter triggered in Rand that we, too, could walk all the way to Santiago, if we wanted to.
We immediately decided that regardless of how far we walked we would still have our long breaks throughout the day. We took one at lunch time, for nearly 2 hours, mostly to get a respite from the heat. Our cold, wet Camino has turned hot in the last couple of days, today reaching into the 70s. When walking with a backpack over hilly terrain, the lower 50s are ideal for us. So you can imagine how uncomfortable we were at 20 degrees warmer than that. We took another hour long break at dinner time. Not quite sure what we were going to do at this point.
A large group of pilgrims we had seen during our first break were there settling in to their albergue and having dinner. We asked if anyone wanted to walk to Santiago with us, and they all pointed to one of the guys who had apparently been telling them they should all walk by moonlight. He told us he thought it would be "the best way". But they were all showered and wearing flip flops at this point, so they told us to have a "Buen Camino".
After this second rest our feet felt refreshed and we were energized at the idea of going all the way to Santiago. We had 25 kilometers under our belt already for the day and a mere 20 or so to go. We thought for sure we could handle it. I knew it was a long, hard walk. Even longer than the 20 kilometers it claimed. But also that it was possible.
We set out in the dark into the forest, and were talking about how scary this would be to walk alone, when a voice with a British accent spoke out of the darkness, "Buen Camino."
I was too scared to scream. But soon made out the two figures sitting on the side of the trail that we had nearly walked right past. "You scared the crap out of me!" I said. Rand had a few other words to say. And the boy handed us a bottle of wine, which we each gladly took a big swig from.
We spent the next 30 minutes or so getting to know these two, whose faces we never did see. Danny is from England but currently lives in New Jersey. Natalie is from Australia but currently lives in England (or vice versa, we can't remember). They dated 6 or 7 years ago, but it didn't work out. When Danny put on Facebook that he was going on Camino, however, she sent him a message saying she'd always wanted to go. He told her when he was going and said she was welcome to walk beside him if she wanted. He was going either way.
The got to St. Jean Pied de Port and started walking on March 23. The snow was too deep and dangerous to go over the Pyrenees, but they told us about some friends they met who had done it anyway and survived the night by staying in a shepherd's barn. We had seen that barn last year just meters before we pitched our tent! Danny and Natalie took the easier route to Roncesvalles and arrived so quickly that they kept right on walking, all the way to Pamplona, a good 70 kilometers. It took us a week to walk that far! This pace continued and they were about to complete their entire Camino in just 11 days. Not without hardship, however, At one point Natalie's feet were so messed up that Danny was ready to rent a car and drive her to Santiago. But she got rid of her hiking boots and traded them for a pair of sandals and they continued on their way.
"Now we don't know what to do," Danny said. "Because we've kind of liked spending this time together." We told them our story, and that if you can be together 24/7 with someone for that long and still enjoy one another's company it might be worth exploring. Natalie laughed and said, "Maybe we will be the two of you in a few years!"
The reason they were sitting on the side of the path was that they had just pitched the emergency tent that Danny had been carrying the entire trip and decided to sleep in the woods rather than finish the last 17 kilometers to Santiago that night. They'd been up since 5 a.m. walking and had decided they'd had enough. Who knows how many kilometers they had already put in! They had two more bottles of wine to keep them warm, and gave us the third. We gave them our phone number and told them to give us a call once they landed in Santiago and maybe we could all meet in the daylight!
It was one of the highlights of this long night of walking. The moon, too, was beautiful, guiding us on our way. But at midnight when we stopped to rest, we still had 12.5 kilometers to go!
(To be continued!)
No comments:
Post a Comment