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Photos of our camino 2009

Day Ten Sunday 7 June

Still 1.5k to go, I didn't realise at the time

Where millions of others have had the very same photo taken!

‘The Day we only had 40k to go’

Stirrings of some going to attempt the whole journey began the night before, we were undecided, but we thought to get 10k away would be nice, so we would have a brief walk in the next day and get to the cathedral for 12 O’Clock mass, in plenty of time.

That morning, the early risers, rose earlier…it’s a very good job I am an early riser too, because these things listed below would probably test my tolerance if I were not a morning person.

A list of irritations:

1.  Rustling carrier bags

2.  Loud whispering

3.  Door handles squeaking repeatedly

4.  Sleeping bag/rucksack zips that are zipped quickly to get it over with

5.  Zips that are zipped slowly (just as loud)

6.  Zips that are zipped in small stages – more irritating than 4 and 5

7.  Early risers who are still packing and have not departed, by the time you yourself get up and pack and depart half an hour later!

So, a Sunday in Spain is a quiet one, there wasn’t much open for us to stop and rest and use facilities, so we pushed on through the rain.  Quite heavy rain today and the scenery wasn’t much to write home about …hence my brief words now.  The scenery appears to have got less aesthetically pleasing as we have progressed, but we don’t know how much the weather has to do with this.

At 2pm we stopped for a pilgrim meal, drenched, starting to feel a bit sore in the legs, but we knew more rain was coming over the following days and the thought of another day of wet walking did not appeal.  We decided to walk on to Santiago, as we were soaked anyway.

As we were leaving, our freshly showered and dry Canadian friend (Vancouver guy, not snorer) and nice South African lady came down from their individual warm pension rooms upstairs.  They thought we were mad.

So we had 11k to go, 2 hours walking?  Oh, but it went on and on and we were both walking with limps and grimaced faces, we passed a brand new Albergue and saw our NZ friends rucksacks at the door (They were contemplating going to Santiago, but quite sensibly decided to stop)…we pressed on.  This last section was the ugliest, we walked passed TV stations, a disused camp site, that looked very sorry for itself, and our yellow arrows and markers had disappeared for a long straight stretch, leaving us a little puzzled (finding we had taken a wrong turn at this stage would have resulted in tears, and I would have been emotional too….ba boom!).

We finally reached Monte de Gozo, a peak just before the descent into Santiago, with a huge monument dedicated to St. James, John Paul II and the pilgrims on top.  The wind and rain howled around us, as we looked down to the outskirts of the city.

We started the descent and noticed that there were no other pilgrims anywhere, so it seemed a very lonely road.  As all the shops and businesses were also closed, this added to the desolateness.  Where were the hoards of people lining the streets welcoming us into the city and cheering congratulations?

We passed a few pilgrims the closer we came into the centre, who had got to the end and were waving their certificates at us and telling us, ‘not far to go’ in numerous languages….it seemed like an eternity!  But once we had turned several corners, we arrived (we thought…a little unsure as it looked a little different in real life…or were we just delirious?).  We got our token photo’s like those in all the guide books and promptly went to get our certificates…there were lots of relieved faces and excited pilgrims in the office, especially those who had been walking for 5 weeks solidly!

Relief!  More from the punishing weather than the walking, although it was hard going today and we both felt the pain of our near marathon distance.

Oh boy did we sleep well…8pm through to the morning, warmth, a bed where your feet didn’t hang over the end, no snoring, no rustling of carrier bags, no zipping…peace at last!

Day Nine Saturday 6 June

A rainbow for you, to prove we did have an ounce of sun

Our hostel that night

‘The day Damien watches relegation play off final from the Spanish second division, because he’s missed football so’

Good sleep – hoorah! 7a.m. set off and RAIN.  It seemed like a long walk today even though we sliced off an extra 3k the day previous.  Unfotunately when it rains you tend to look at the floor rather a lot, so I can’t say much for the scenery.

I got to practise a little of my pigeon German when we stopped and a German guy we shared a hostel with last night sat with us…we like true pilgrims, offered him some of our bread..he accepted and was then forced to share his chocolate with us, yum.  He got a bum deal, there’s method in the madness there.

Damien dawdled today (the bad weather does not suit him and his blisters were ‘giving out’ to him), so I cut the ropes and walked on having a life story telling from a lovely Australian lady.

We soon arrived at Arzua and claimed our bunks in a new hostel.  We then ate, watched the washing machine, internetted, bought some chocolate (We got a taste for it) and then watched the random football match as described above.

p.s. When shopping for my..our chocolate the snoring man and his wife were in the supermarket…I, very unpilgrimlike, had to aisle dodge to avoid meeting and then watched like a hawk as to which direction they went in once leaving.  You’ll be pleased to hear they went in the opposite direction to our hostel…PHEW!

Day Eight Friday 5 June

E.T phones home

Now waterproof...or so I thought

The students stir early, as some of the early birds start to pack.  damien and I want to get out of the place after little sleep, in order to get as far away as possible, so we lessen the chance of sharing a room with that man again… EVER.  Very low mist and clouds which lift briefly and then descend again, and oh boy did it rain…Damien got to use his new poncho for the first time…nicknames such as Yoda, Shrek, E.T. and the Hunched-back of Notre ‘Dame’ (get it?) are all on the tip of my tongue, but he stays dry, whereas I do not.  Quick stop at the walking shop for a rucksack cover and the job´s a goodun’…now I truly blend with my fellow pilgrims.

We decide to walk on to a country Albergue passed the town of Palas del Rei, as we have preferred the quieter places to stay, a bit more rustic, welcoming and Damien is forced to talk to me more!  So we stay at Casa Domingo, with many Germans (the most common nationality doing the trail it seems, even before Spanish).  We steal a few hours sleep in the afternoon, out of necessity and hope when we wake that no Canadians have moved in.  (I feel some poetry coming on to vent my feelings…..!  Watch this space)

Had a fab peregrino meal, in a lovely converted barn with log burner on the go, bliss.  The pilgrim meals are cheap, with three courses and wine.

Rain forecast for the rest of our trek  :0(  never mind.

Day Seven Thursday 4 June

100k 'mile'stone and the extent to the graffiti

“Blistergate”

7 a.m. start after machine cafe con leche (NB: Dulce means with sugar…yuck!).  There seemed to be an explosion in the numbers of people on the trail today, lots of new faces, but Damien says today is the day people will start the walk, as you have to complete the final 100km to get your certificate.  We are now into ´Mickey Mouse´territory…the signs are cartoon like, which is criticised in our guide book, they are a bit cheesy.  We have passed many vending machines too, in the most remote and random of places…where there´s money to be made.

We stop as Damien is showing the first signs of weakness, he takes off his shoe to reveal a fantastic blister on the end of his little pinky toe.  Cool, I get to inflict pain and put needle and thread to it (apparently it helps to leave thread in a blister so it drains slower…eeeuuuggghhh!).  Oh boy, did he slow me down after this…he had to go.

Called my best matey Helen, as it was her birthday, and spoke to Mum as they had been up to see Helen the previous night…but it´s not cool really to be walking and talking on the mobile, when doing a pilgrimage through quiet Spanish villages…ka cha.

We finally passed the 100km marker, well there was two, and both had been vandalised (shell stolen from one and the other graffitied).

We arrived at Portomarin our final destination…weather a bit poor again…town a bit sleepy and again not particularly attractive, we have noticed a definite change in the scenery and the weather doesn´t help matters.

Our accommodation was infiltrated with a large group of excited students, “ah oh”, we thought…but as it turned out, they were fine, however the Canadian man sleeping in the opposite bunk, had a wee sleep problem…I will not relive the horrendous noises coming from his orifices, but it kept us awake until 2am.  We woke him and his wife (who also started to snore after she´d initially tried to wake her husband and get him to stop snoring…she failed), to ask him to stay awake for at least 2 hours so we could get some sleep.  He replied sleepily, ´Ok, I can try to do that´, and then promptly fell asleep within 10 seconds and started to snore again.  We fell asleep from exhaustion.

p.s. my tolerance of others aim has slipped a little notch or two….oh and Damien started to develop his

Day Six Wednesday 3 June

'Julie and a cow'...or should that be 'A cow and Julie'

´The Day with no sun´

Woke early with Damien snoring…he stopped when I angrily shouted his name across to the other bunk.  Our book told us it was a flat day…it was not…so good job it was a sunless day.  Quite a wilderness day, with not much life, however most other pilgrims took the quicker alternative route (lightweights).

We arrived at 1pm in Sarria, and not overly impressed with it.  Damien had decided where we were going to stay so went straight there, booked in, got our stamp, opened the door to our 4 berth room and who is sitting there but the NZ couple we have travelled along side for the whole journey so far…v funny… my money has gone on the pc ..more later x

days later I am back..

It was the NZ man´s (he´s German really but now living in NZ)…by the way, I´m not using their names in case I get sued for writing about them!…anyhow, it was his birthday, so we bought him an arrow badge (he has been taking photo´s of  all the eclectic yellow arrows which show the way) and we had dinner together in the evening.  Slept well…ha!

Day Five Tuesday 2 June

Our lovely haven in La Faba, after a steep climb. Two pilgrim statues.

Getting used to the usual start of some getting up in the dead of night to start walking (we always seem to catch up with them pretty soon though, setting too fast a pace…I am actually calculating times and speeds we travel…how sad is that????!).  Set off for a steep incline to start, not too bad in the cool temp., amazing views across the valley behind us.  We stalwarts took the longer route over the brow of the hill (we actually didn´t look at the map and missed going via the road – a much quicker route, drat!).  However from on top of the hill we got an amazing panoramic view of the valley ahead of us…it did look like it could be Derbyshire or Yorkshire dales, but with sun  (We have now entered Galicia by the way).

We have named this ´Farm´day as we walked through many and encountered many unfriendly farm dogs,  and farmers!  Our fellow Canadian Peregrino more aptly called it ´Shit´day, because they smell of manure never left the nostrils!  We stayed in a very relaxed Albergue, could have gotten away with not paying if we hadn´t been so honest and morally upstanding (I thank you).  We had quite a different experience passport stamping wise, we had to do it ourselves, unlike our previous stops, where they had incredibly strict, almost ceremonial passport control, checking every detail!  (OK, I am using too many exclamation marks…have to stop!!!!).

Nice Albergue, still being painted inside, a little worried that the owners didn´t record who was staying at the hostel, the doors appeared to be open all day, there was no official person at the hostel itself, many pilgrims came in and used our facilities because theirs were not too hot…who was going to shut the door at night? If there had been a fire who was in the building? Health and safety, I ask you…it´s an issue.

Other exciting news in the world of our pilgraming…Damien had a shave for the first time, gone is the foxy (irish)/ginger (english) beard.

I no longer have my book, I left it in the last hostel for others to read…so I have to resort to writing poetry or sketching from now on… in fact here are two haikus for you: (Poetry written in three lines with syllables of 5-7-5 respectively, for those of you who are not teachers who tend to do these to death in school, because children love them)

Poem 1:

When in La Faba

A Franciscan monk…

gave Julie a hug

Poem 2:

Getting up early

and no p.m. sleep, makes a

cranky Damien

(2 poems by Julie)

Damien is concerned that we are not saying enough of what a lovely time we are having, the lovely people we have met along the way and what beautiful scenery we are gazing at… so there, I have just said it (…and maybe Damien needs to write more entries on this blog then, I feel)

J and D x

Day Four Monday 1 June

'Cold!' but nice

Hi, swiftly going onto day 4, as we don´t know when we will next see a computer…may have a wee bit of wilderness before we get closer to Santiago. So..

Spent the night with an eclectic group…the American etymologist fanatic, a Polish couple, her with a haunting voice…brrrr! a lone french guy who appeared very late on and a French couple, she of the same name as moi…but sounds so more exotic in french.  We had a through draft in our room, and had a few loud bangs in the night when the chuffing door was left open by all who went to the loo in the night.. (My aim after all this is `we´ve´ decided that I should become much more tolerant of others…baby steps though`…baby steps!).  Damien woke 5 ish, me later at 6 ish and Damien in a rare moment shot out of his bunk and said let´s get out of here.  So we had our first 6.15am departure time, after stopping off for a cafe con leche and to let the sun rise and give us a bit of light before our big ascent.  Legs were better and got into rhythm.  We had shade for most of the climb, which was bliss.  Still had the shin-splint-going-downhill pains so ended up practically running down the hill on the other side! (Damien says a rare sight).

We had a lovely dip in a river with some cows, which had been herded down a main road for about 1/2 km ahead of us and went for a pit stop.  The heat was strong, so we cut the walk short and decided to stay at La Faba, after a sharp but picturesque incline.  Arrived and the NZ couple (lovely) we have been travelling at the same time with practically, were there, and eventually many other familiar faces.  Had food and drinks in the local bar (Very small farm village with very few buildings), where we met a  lovely Canadian couple from Alberta.

Best of all was our visit to the chapel attached to the Albergue.  Damien needed a little coercing, but I thought it would be an experience… it was all a bit too audience participation for our liking!  We had to speak, hold hands and HUG!  We got a hug from a Franciscan Monk!!  It was great though…put a smile on our faces and gave us energy to go onwards…and upwards!  (oh yes, more hills to come)

More later, but less is more next time…

j x

Day 3 Sunday 31 May

'YES WE CAN!'

Ouch, Ouch, Ouch!

Felt fine after day one – kept up the pace on day two and oh how I pay: EVERY muscle in my legs give me excruciating pain. If I sit ´n´ stop I seize up and cannot move – I am walking very awkwardly. Damien says it is like marathon pain. He coping better. I am fine uphill, but going downhill is a killer. Lovely walk today from Ponferrada to Villlafranche del Bierzo, but temp today very high. At 5pm the signs said 42 degrees. Usually we start walking by 7 and finish by 2.  Stopped in Fuentas Nuevas for coffee – met American girl who worked on my shin splits (only right leg) it helped, so down the road she did the other leg for me – bless – as I said she had healing hands. Bought cherries from local man – yum- but could have picked ourselves as many cherry trees en route.

It is amazing how the signs change from outstandingly clear ´mile stones` like monuments, to the scrawling spray painted arrow on random objects/buildings along the way…but you´ll come across arrows made from stones or wood, which have been obviously been constructed by earlier Peregrinos (Pilgrims).  You often see messages constructed in places too…the one above was maybe done when Obama got in office, and a bit of inspiration to those who are flagging (see photo).

Had pastry and pizza at Cacabelos, lots of children in communion outfits. Had cherry stone spitting contest, Damien won – tip – only spit one stone at a time, doing 3 is false economy and very unladylike. Had beer in square. Staying in very austere Albergue. Severe woman at reception signing us in, she was grumbling in Spanish to Damien, he knew what she was saying but pleaded ignorance – basically our Irish pilgrim passport is different. Met American man – interesting but spaced out, head full of facts, discussion with Damien on the origins of the word ´jitney` and ´donnybrook`. Damien´s legs hurts now, what a wuss! (tee hee!)

J x

Day Two Saturday 30 May

Cruz and Damien

No sleep – frogs chorus of snoring. German group wakes very early and packed for what seemed an hour (in order to get to the cross on the mount in order to put their towels on it first, probably). Lovely morning walk, very fresh and soon caught up with everyone who set off earlier – uphill for a while then shin splitting down hill all the way. Very picturesque. No real stops, no food until stopped in Pontferrada. Took first short cut route- ugly – but got to Albergue before nice German guy (Peter) who we tracked all the way. Showered before the doors opened. Tried to find Everton match in bar after dinner (served by vertically challenged Spanish girl- she was nice- Damien taught her some Irish – `no worries´).  Anyhow 2 -1 to Chelsea. Had bread and beer for snack - mucho scorchio. Spoke to S.A couple at length, fingers crossed for sleep tonight. 9 in a room . Travelled 52k in two days.

Buen Camino!