Liz and Linda and El Camino de Santiago de Compostela Pilgrimage 2017

In which Liz and Linda make a run for it, breaking out of an albergue in the middle of the night. Brace yourselves for this blog post: it's a doozy. Grab a coffee or a glass of wine (or for you Mum, a G&T....maybe two).  At 7 am, there is a major discussion going on outside our bedroom in the hallway with one of the volunteer  hospitaros (volunteer host of an albergue) and two peregrinos. 'It will have to be treated with chemicals.' I interpreted this as meaning the bedroom across the hall had bedbugs. The two peregrinos did not look happy. TPTP peed again thus time in the bedroom. It is not even 7:30. This is the earliest we have ever left, 5 minutes before they would have kicked us out.  It's only when we are having our first coffee that I notice a slight itch and a welt on my wrist. Then I see two more further up my arm. They say bedbug bits are usually 3 or more in a row and found more at your extremities, I.e. Towards your feet and hands. Da...

Last night we had a communal dinner at the albergue. It was optional at €8 but with only a few buildings standing there weren't a lot of options.  We liked these opportunities to meet people over dinner. So we sat at a table with 5 other people by the fire: a young German couple (he turned 28 yesterday), a couple near retirement from Berkley, and an Irish man, and enjoyed a huge paella.      This morning we had already been walking 30 minutes when we saw the sun come up over the far horizon.  We were pretty high up which meant that eventually we had to come down. It was hard going on the rocky trail. Mats and I decided to take the road down to the next village instead while Linda persevered on the trail. We should have read the guidebook which specifically suggests not to take the road. Switchbacks with Hairpin curves and no shoulders has meant a few pilgrim deaths. We were lucky. Despite the dangers and the fact it was longer, it was still beautiful en...

When you are feeling sick, you loose things. Sometimes even your mind. I am not that sick.  Yesterday I lost my anti-chaffing cream for both feet and thighs AND my new and favorite bright flourescent yellow socks! It isn't the colour that made them my favs, although they do look good with my blue with orange trim shoes. Nor is it the fact that they have a right and left sock clearly marked on the toes. It is because I haven't got a blister since wearing them. With such a reputation, I bought a second pair (subtle blue) 2 days ago. Thank goodness. Even so, I like to change socks at least twice a day, and I will have to revert to my Darn Tough second favs.  Feet are everything on this trip. Everything! So to loose your foot glide cream and your fav socks in one day is bad. Very bad. So last night I was careful to put my bag with my gortex runners under my bed and carefully placed a toe sock and my new fav blue socks on top and went to sleep. There were 4 of us in the...

I am definitely not feeling well. Diarrhea. Nuff said. But a pharmacy was top priority and I remembered seeing one on the way in from the bus station. We had heard from Mats that he had passed through the village of the virgins and feeling so peaceful he accidentally walked 30k instead of 12.  Linda and I had a vague plan. On a map there were railroad tracks between León and a town about 40k north. We would take the train there and start walking. We ightbsomehow connect up with Mats. But coffee and a pharmacy first. We had a café con leche at a small café where you are also served miniature doughnuts. Walking out, I threw my backpack on one shoulder planning to put it on correctly once outside. There was a loud voice, in Spanish, and a man rushed up gesturing 'agua, agua' . My pack had peed again.  All over the floor and everyone noticed. At the train station we found out there was no train to where we planned to go so we moseyed over to the bus station and were to...

  Yesterday we decided to bus into León. Even THE guide book suggested we consider it. It is 18k of boring city semi industrial suburbs. So Linda, myself and Mats left Victo and Thomas at the albergue. They plan to walk, so we left in the dark in search or good coffee which we suspected, correctly, would be in León. Nothing like a need for coffee to get you going in the dark. In León we ran into Dee, the Aussie who gets bitten by any bug in th neighbourhood. She just got out of hospital. A very nasty reaction to some bug bite has finished her trip. She and Rob had made it to the next town but within hours of getting bitten she had huge blisters and the kind ladies at the albergue called a taxi and sent her to emergency to hav e them dealt with. The doctors thought it might be fire ants. We often visit the churches along the way. Linda and I decided to go into the León cathedral while Mats had another coffee the square. He has been here before and prefers smaller towns t...

Thomas felt the need to walk at a faster pace today, so he was off and away early.  Rob had a schedule to keep, wanting to be at Finisterre (three days past Santiago) for his brother's birthday, November 1, and he had lost three days while recovering in Burgos.  I don't know how or when his brother had died, but Rob was committed to this date, so Rob was taking a bus to Le ó n to keep on schedule.  Rob had been happy to join us back in Burgos. I had wondered why when he could have joined up with younger pilgrims closer to his age.  I thought he would connect up with Dee and walk with her, but he stayed with us.  His parents had moved from the USA to Portugal last year just before he graduated university and took time off for the Camino.  'So I don't have a home to go back to.'  I think Rob was missing his family and our Camino family was a good substitute. We were quiet without them. Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunc...

Injuries: Linda has a blister which forces her to alter her gait which grinds her hip; Rob's Achilles heel is stiff; Mats ankle is ok but he doesn't want to push it; and I chaffed my inner thighs while hiking yesterday in the heat for so long in a pair of shorts I hadn't used before that were too stiff. While fine for colder wet days they proved less than ideal for hot sweaty days. Thomas was fine and being Norwegian, anxious to keep going so he pushed on while we decided to walk 5k along a canal lined with trees in the autumn colours, then we would take a taxi to our destination and have a rest, repack, respite day. Rob's friend Dee had a similar idea and waswaiting to take a bus to Carrión, our destination as well. Rob said he would share a taxi with her. I wondered if that meant we were going to lose Rob. We ran into Brian and Zosia from Victoria and had coffee with them and they pointed out a peregrinos equipment store. I was looking for a l...

Now our pilgrim/peregrinos family consists of Mats, Thomas, Rob, Linda and I. As we left Hontanos, we caught up to and passed Mat. I keep thinking we will never see him again but the energizer bunny just keeps going and going and going. He only stops to eat dinner and sleep. He told me that was his secret, not stopping, but to keep on going. 'If I stop, I won't want to get up, and I will never get anywhere.' He survived on bananas and cans of coke. 'I drink more coke here than at home.' The day started out fine until 'THE HILL'. In the guidebook, they downplayed THE HILL: 'a steep but short hill'. HA! It was a 12% grade for just over a kilometre. Up and up and up. Every time you thought you could see the top, you turned a corner and there was another top and another corner. Finally, I reached the top to see Thomas (not even breathing hard) and Rob sitting on a stone wall enjoying the respite and view. I couldn't see Lind...

We are now a party of five: Linda and I, Mats, Rob and Thomas. We are a bit worried about Rob and his Achilles tendon. We only did 10k yesterday, and he managed, slowly, but he made it. Today we plan on twenty km, and we do not want Rob to overdo it and make his tendon worse, but he is determined to try it. Twenty km will bring us to the Meseta.  Meseta means high plains.  Pilgrims have told us the Meseta is 200 kilometres of nothing. Mind-numbing nothing.  Nothing to see, nothing to do, just think.  By the time you get to the Meseta the blisters are under control, you have either succumbed to your ailments, and dropped out, or you can live with them and carry on. They say it is the Meseta where you come to know yourself. The first two hundred kilometres of The Way was to prepare your body. The Meseta's two hundred kilometres is for your mind. At this point, many pilgrims take the bus. Crossing the river, just past the stone hospital church Thoma...

We lost Steffen again today. Suddenly, sadly and permanently. While putting my shoes on at 7:30 am, Mats informed me that Steffen was in hospital. Rob, who was sleeping in the next aisle to Steffen, heard what he thought was a loud explosion around midnight and a man yelling in Spanish 'We need help!'. Steffen had rolled off his top bunk and fallen onto the floor. They couldn't wake him and called for an ambulance. There was a bit of consternation when Rob and some fellow pilgrims found the front door to the albergue locked and no staff to open the door for the ambulance personnel. Somehow someone appeared, and the ambulance people managed to get in and wake Steffen and take him to hospital despite Steffen protesting 'I'm fine, I'm fine,' while blood trickled out his left ear. There are five hospitals in Burgos (that we know about).  Thankfully Rob had kept calm and organized and had written down the name and address of the hospital that the ambul...

Timing can be everything. On the Camino, it is standard practice that you must be out of the Albergues by 8am, sometimes even by 7:30. And, you cannot arrive before 1 pm, as most are closed until then. If you want to wash and dry your clothes you need to be at the albergue before 3 to give your clothes an hour or two of sunshine in order to be dry by morning. If you need to shop you have to do it after 10:30 and before 2 or between 4 and 7. Stores close between 2 and 4. Dinner is rarely before 7. If you need to buy a speciality item like walking shoes you need to be in a large enough town. All of this timing needs to be coordinated with your walking schedule. So today I needed to buy another pair of shoes. My new pair were okay but had created a different set of blisters.  Not as bad as my heal blisters but sore.  Surely I could find a pair that would be blister-free? We were headed to Burgos, a large enough town to have a choice of shoe stores. If we got there bef...