Category: 2018 Camino

Its funny because the smallest villages have the longest names and when you go for a peek inside , they take you breath away. I took a stamp from here and felt humbled. How beautiful is that!!

I know it was only 24 K after such a stupid long day yesterday…but it seemed enormous because my body hadn’t healed from the day before….and worst of all was the fact that there was a huge 30,7K the next day with the steepest climb of the whole Camino..

I can do this I thought. I have rested. But the thought of the following day was enormous.  Not to be disheartened…life is full of surprises…i stagger down into the village. I must be the house at the end of the town…and there I am. Its a corner …no bag!!! Oh my God and she takes me round the corner to get to my room which is up steps!! But my Menu de Dia was exceptional and it was clean.  I slept bout feeling so fearful of 30 K plus the steepest uphill?   I can do this  I thought…!!!!

Its nothing I thought.. I set off in the dark as usual praying that the track would be safe. It led me past the road for such a while when the dawn broke. I have to say that the title villages offering food and water were all charming . The road was flat and rippled with the river so there were several waterfalls..it was lovely…..huh!! No really it was but I knew there was a climb coming. I paced myself. I was doing it.

I started out, loving the chickens in the road and all things green and Galicia…I took the wrong road up the hill. I was following a tall lady who seemed frosty but it was just that she was Swedish. We both checked everything and clambered down again to a little tiny bridge and took the right turn. Not the thing to do on a 30K climb.

We are on the road…Let’s not go back and do it again!

OMG….the road went up, and up and up…then it became rocky and it went up, and up….by now I am gasping for breath. I am walking on a rubble pathway no wider that my body. There is so much donkey shit that I wonder if I am really in an alternative universe?  I see two horses trot carefully down..not UP where they could have carried me perhaps. Mary rode on a donkey for heavens sake!!..I reach a bar….and order a  lemon juice…I don’t care about the calories any more…and its not half way. But I don’t know that…its up and up… I truly can’t breathe and the sweat is coming from places  I didn’t know I could sweat.

I have to stop and take water frequently. This is unreal. I cannot describe the endless rises and it was so much harder than the Pyrenees….a sudden incline of 1300 meters. It was almost like climbing 2600 steps of loose rubble.

I just know that I can’t stop or I will never get there. I just keep repeating my children’s names, Natalie, Lyndsey, Matthew….Natalie, Lyndsey, Matthew……

Eventually, alone, I arrive in the mountain top village.I know I am there because a statue of a green lady sits poised on the village wall overlooking the most astonishing view from a height that seemed to outrank the Pyrenees.

In my exhaustion  I can’t find my Casa. I stop and the tears trip me.

Casa Venita Celta is round the corner. There is a cluster of grey stone cottages and buildings and I stagger up to the bar.

The patron takes one look at me and asks if I am alright.  I shake my head, its as much as I can do and try so desperately to hold the tears back.

She has an iron appearance with no smile but I can see she is studying me. She disappears for a second and I stand there dripping and exhausted thinking…I just want..would like…please…my room.

She reappears and proceeds to brandish a large wrapper from a giant chocolate bar. She breaks some off and looking at me with her stony face, she says

”One piece for me and one for you!”

I cant respond…I need a bath…she says …only shower.

I look at her and immediately and she looks at her pice of paper and declares that she will change my room.

I cant speak…but I follow her outside and up some steps to a huge wooden door.

“Turn Iron handle!” She explains and leads me into a heavy wooden corridor with about 5 rooms off it.

“Room 3…has bath” she nods.

I know tomorrow will be better …I get in to this very simple twin bedded room, no TV but a bath. WELL….A giant foot bath? …or is it a giant Bidet?

Im not sure, but I slowly strip and peel away the dusty clothes. The bath….?… is about 2’6” by 2’. It has a seat in it. I guess you are meant to sit on the seat and bend your legs so your feet are in the deepest part…..Not me…feet need to be up so like a contortionist I sit my backside way down and lift my feet up on the ledge. It did the trick!!!

I gather myself….what will my family think…I dress and saunter down the only little high street to another bar. I see Diane!!!

She shouts…

”Its Christmas Carol, I am so pleased to see you. “

Is there something wrong with me because I splutter that my charger is not working..!!!! Daaah!

I am Agassi’s. I am so pleased to see her but if I have no phone charger I am sunk!!!  Its my directional app in the dark of the morning…my email connection..everything…where i stay tomorrow….

Really tall Americam/Chinese?`Simon helps me out. I buy him a beer. Some American ladies tell me to put it on airplane mode as it will charge more quickly…

What a day!! I return to my bar and have the Menu del Dia….it was lovely. I crawl into bed….Will I ever get there? Diane says meet me at 6.30 am but I think I will never get up…..zzzzz