Why Walk So Far in One Night?

Continued...

Day 14/15 of walking: Boente to Santiago, 47.5 km (or was it 56.5?!)
Total for Camino 2015: 321.2 km (330.2 km?!)

During our stop at the 12.5 km mark, Rand duct taped a flashlight to his walking stick. I nicknamed him “Macgyver” during our first Camino, because he was always coming up with these kinds of innovations. Despite the full moon, we were glad for the extra light. The path was often through trees, small towns, on rough terrain or with potholes. And after meeting our friends in the woods, we were prepared for the unexpected.

It was a cold night, so we didn’t sit long. An hour break in a café would have been perfect, but that wasn’t available to us in the midnight hour. As we passed through several small towns, we wondered about stopping in a hotel and asking if we could take a rest for an hour. If there was a couch in the lobby perhaps. Or simply somewhere to get in out of the cold and off our feet.

I had heard that the Albergue just 4.6 km from Santiago was open 24 hours. But as we passed by, there didn’t seem to be any way to get to it. Not at all like we both remembered from being here last year.

Before 3 a.m. we had descended the last big hill, the last flight of stairs, and crossed the last bridge into Santiago. But having been here before, we knew we were still a long way away from the Cathedral. So we stopped at a park, pulled out a sleeping bag, and laid down until 4:30. Too exhausted to care about the people sitting in their car right next to us, who also appeared to be taking an early morning nap.

The rest did our feet well, but we were still exhausted, sore, and ready for a place to land. We had to force ourselves to take photos at the “Santiago de Compostela” sign, before walking for another hour across town to get to the Cathedral. Making a short stop at an indoor ATM to warm up.

The Fitbit I’ve been wearing this trip told us that our 47.5 kilometer day had actually been 56.5 kilometers. Where did those extra 9 kilometers come from? Perhaps the guidebook was only giving us the measures to the edge of town, and not all the way. Who knows. Regardless, it was a long, uncomfortable walk.

In those moments as we entered the Cathedral Plaza, where a handful of pilgrims were celebrating and taking photos of themselves in front of the dark, construction clad Cathedral, I wished that I had insisted we take these last 47.5 (56.5?) kilometers “poco a poco”. That if we had walked over 3 days instead of one, perhaps then we would have a positive emotional reaction to this final entry into Santiago and the taking of our last Camino steps together. Instead we were too tired to even care.

We found a covered entryway to one of the many shops nearby, across the street from the Pilgrim’s Office where we would get our official credentials in a couple of hours, and once again pulled out the sleeping bag. It wasn’t as comfortable as a hotel room or even an Albergue bed, but at least we didn’t have to walk anymore.

Despite my exhaustion, I quickly found myself restless. So I walked back to the Cathedral Plaza and sat down in the middle of the now abandoned square. I hated the idea that we might have “ruined” our Camino by walking so far on our last stretch. So I prayed and asked the Father what good there was in this. More would be revealed in the coming days, but the initial sense was, “How else would you have the entire Cathedral to yourself?”

In just a few short hours, tourists and pilgrims and bicycles and street vendors would pack the square. But in this moment, the early morning hours of Good Friday when Jesus and his followers suffered the longest, hardest day of his earthly life, it was mine alone. And for that I was grateful.