Category: 2018 Camino

That last picture was from Sunday in Leon…not from my wonderful 12 apostle…and Jesus experience!!!

I knew that this was going to be a tough day and I wasn’t sure if my body would do it. The best plan was to not have one and just go through my usual routine without thinking about other things too much!! In other words…I could do it …maybe!!

I was up earlier than usual and I could hear Diane waiting for her taxi but the house was shut up and she was trying in the pitch black to open the huge yard doors. I crept down and asked if she was alright..

” I got this, “ she said as she used a pot vase from one of the tables to reach the top bolt. She disappeared into the night. I followed..on foot…6.45am. I need’nt have worried too much about the blackness because ahead of me stood the road… and right in the middle was a huge moon. It was almost eerie because the air was cold and my hands were freezing up quickly.

Its a funny thing but I was so alone on that long moonlit road that I felt a little vulnerable . My ears were tuned into listening for a vehicle. If it stopped and someone got out and pushed into the side…who would know. Its the first time I wanted the sunrise quickly…not that makes anything better but…it just felt like that.

It seemed forever and I knew I had a big big day and of course the sun cam up before the moon went to bed.  The scary thing was that I didn’t see anyone for hours and to rely on my app. So I duly followed the red arrow. 

Im not a lover of extreme health and safety but after a couple of hours I cam across a railway line. I panicked. I must have taken a wrong turn, it wouldn’t bring me to a track with no signs or railings etc??? Would it? I checked and checked again, and then I looked both ways and scarpered across!!

…and it wound across motorways and along a farm track until I came to a beautiful 13th century bridge with lots of arches. I was really ready for a break and so ventured into a lovely inn at the end of the bridge. The patron was middle aged with an immaculate white shirt on, busy at the coffee machine but with one eye on everybody. I asked for a coffee. He hardly acknowledged me but when some Americans swanned past him to descend the stairs to the toilets, he barked,

”NO Privado, Privado…no, no”

That didn’t bode well because I was desperate. Gingerly I took my cup back to the counter, to save him clearing up after me and asked if I could use the toilet…

He nodded approval….saved!!  I think he wanted people to buy something rather than use his lovely establishment just as a toilet facility. I get that!

I took a picture of a sign outside with a Knight on horseback…whoever he was, he was ‘Honourable’…honroso !

High up on the hill, I saw a huge guy…I had to look twice before I realised it was a ‘GUY’…as in Guy Fawkes Guy…..

I think this walk is getting to me so I stopped at the little hippy stand and rested a while just to restore my equilibrium.

I pass a big stone cross…and a hill with civilisation below…I must be here I stupidly thought. No!! It was a mirage of Astoria, the city I was supposed to be getting too so I stopped for a ‘Cortado” along the road and sat next to a  policeman and his GUN.. I was a good girl!!

I’m not going to describe climbing a zig zag contraption over another railway line or the fact when I reach the city there are hairpin bends with an incline of at least 1 in 3…!!!!  I was almost demoralised.

After fighting through the closing market day in a tiny square, I turned the corner onto another medieval cathedral and another Gaudi building…I was staying at the Gaudi.. I had arrived.

I collapsed and wept.