Again, we were only allowed to get up at 07h00 so it was a another peaceful start to the day. I had a bit of a cash crisis on this particular morning. I mistakenly thought that there was a cash machine in Villafranca. When I got there, it turned out that there was no cash machine until Burgos, two days away. After a moment of panic I went to the hotel and managed to persuade the manager to let me “draw cash” from them. I was so grateful as I had about Euro 1,20 left at that stage. I was so happy about having cash again that I just headed out of Villafranca and completely forgot to eat breakfast. This was silly as from there to San Juan de Ortega it is another 12km or so. Regardless, I really enjoyed the walk, especially the first part past Villafranca which climbed up and down through natural forest. Needless to say, I had quite a large bocadilla for lunch, well, afternoon tea actually, in San Juan de Ortega. It ended up being a memorable stop because as I was leaving, Kevin arrived. It was so good to see him. I had met him on the train from Bayonne to St Jean. He had decided to spend a day in St Jean before starting and I hadn’t seen him since. We walked on together, with Cathy, who I had met on the road that morning. With lots to catch up on, we talked non stop and the 3,5km or so to Agés went by really quickly. I decided to go on to Atapuerco so that I had a slightly shorter day in to Burgos. I walked on with Rich and Scott and we had a good laugh as we went, so, basically, it was a very good day of walking. The albergue had a tough job living up to the experiences in Granon and Tosantos but it had a nice sitting area outside and it was lovely to sit in the sun and chat and catch up on journal writing. The next morning, I watched the sunrise on the way up to the view point above Atapeurca. It was such a clear day I could see all the way in to Burgos which was deceptive because it was still a good 16km away. After such a wonderful start to the day the wheels came off a bit and I just felt really tired. I got into Obanje and stopped for some desperately needed coffee and bumped into Frank, a Chaplin in the Australian army and David, a Canadian minister. It was so good to see some familiar faces. I walked on with David. He had developed tendonitis in his shin and as a result was walking really slowly, i.e. my pace! We walked in to Burgos together. It was a long hard slog in to the town through some pretty boring industrial areas. We had discussed going to the Emaus albergue, another parish run hostel but we managed got somewhat disorientated, note, not lost, but disorientated to the extent that we thought we were about 4km further than we were. This was a bit of a blow. It seemed to much of a detour to get to the Emaus albergue so we headed straight for the Cathedral and the municipal albergue there. It was a great call. The albergue was amazing and literally a few hundred meters from the Cathedral. The long slog into Burgos made walking into the square and seeing the Cathedral so special.
It was a stunning day and, being a Sunday, the square was full of people and there was such a wonderful atmosphere. It was a really special afternoon - I found Suzie and KKin again, I went and sat in the Plaza Mayor and wrote my journal and just watched the people, met up with David, Andy, Dale and few others in the square, went to Mass, and then had a drink with Dan, Dom, Caz and Mel. I had last seen them heading into Puenta La Riena so it was great to see them again and catch up. It was a wonderful afternoon and evening. This day was very much a case of meeting the right people at the right time. I was feeling so battered and tired when I caught up to David and Frank. If I hadn’t met up with them it would have been a really very difficult day but as it was it was one of the best.
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We were only allowed to start moving around at 07h00 so it was a very slow and relaxing start to the day. The challenge for the day was a really strong headwind. While walking I rated the adverse weather/walking conditions, number 1 being the worst:
It was a beautiful walk but because of the wind I pretty much walked non stop to Tosantos, my stop for the night. Albergue San Francisco de Asis in Tosantos is a also parish hostel. This was the sign as you walked into the albergue: Translation: “Do not walk ahead of me, I can not follow you. Do not walk behind, I can not be your guide. Walk beside me and I'll be your friend. If you judge people, you have no time to love them”. It was also a perfect Camino evening. We were asked to be in the kitchen by 18h30 to help with the cooking of the evening meal. Among the pilgrims staying there that night was a group of Italians who sang while they cooked. It was quite wonderful. I uploaded a clip of the singing The hospitalero said a three-tiered grace that Laura translated beautifully. It basically thanked God for bringing us together, for the food and for being able to walk the Camino. After a great meal we were invited to go up to the Chapel for a prayer session. The Chapel was a small room in the “attic” of the house. It had a bench built into one wall, a small alter and a stained glass window. The hospitalero got people to read the six chosen readings in six different languages. A box was then handed around with prayers written by pilgrims who had stayed there over the last 20 days - 20 days because that is the time it should take to get from Tosantos to Santiago. So, the prayer requests are read out for the duration that the pilgrims are walking. Hearing the prayers read in so many different languages was beautiful and I found it very humbling - so many people from all corners of the world, each with their own story. We, in turn, were invited to write down our prayer requests and leave them to be read out for our remaining 20 days. For me, it once again cemented the community of the Camino.
Closing prayer before we left the Chapel: Lord, illuminate our night and give us a quiet rest. May we rise tomorrow and contemplate, with health and joy, the dawn of the new day. For Jesus Christ, our Lord. This night was definitely a Camino highlight. After a bit of a dodgy night, I literally could not wait to get out of the albergue. The early start was rewarded by a beautiful sunrise as I walked through the mountains just beyond Najera. This was a also a very good morning because I met Dale and Andy for the first time as I was leaving the albergue. It was a lovely warm morning. I stopped for coffee at Azofra and picked up some breakfast for the road. It was just to lovely outside to sit and eat inside the bar. I found a perfect spot a little later. I heard a “cuckoo clock” cuckoo calling for the first time on this stretch. I later found out that this cuckoo is called the Jacobin Cuckoo, which makes sense really!
A strange part of the day was passing through Circuena (Area de Descanso), which was literally a maize of empty apartments with a golf course. Clearly market research gone horribly wrong. I had decided to go on to Granon and not stop in Santa Domingo de la Calzada. Santa Domingo is a beautiful town that is so full of Camino history but I really wanted to get to the parish hostel in Granon, about 7km on. I had met up with Nicola and Young on the way and they also wanted to get to Granon so, we paused for a lunch break in Santa Domingo and looked around the town a bit and then walked on. Literally as we started walking out of Santa Domingo it started raining. It rained all the way to Granon. It actually somehow rained horizontally, straight into our faces. About half way there, I seriously doubted that the albergue in Granon could be worth the effort but it was. It is in the upper floors of the building adjoining the Church of Saint John the Baptist. The living area had a fire place and after going down to Mass, we all made supper together. There was such a wonderful spirit and I met some great people - including Chris, Craig and Laura. I reached Santiago on the same day as Craig and Laura and they were just absolute legends all the way. And, although we slept on mattresses on the floor, I had the best night sleep yet. After such a wonderful rest day, I got an early start from Logrono which was rewarded by a stunning sunrise over the cathedral. It was a beautiful morning, sunny and clear and actually quite warm. Once out of Logrono there is a stretch of paved track through an open parkland. The pathway was pretty, especially in the lovely sunshine, but it was enormously important in that it was the on that pathway that I met “The Sisters”, Susie and KKin, from Puerto Rico, for the first time. I also met Richard, from Canada. I didn’t technically meet Rich at that stage but he came flying past me and I met him officially a little later.
I stopped in Navarrete for a cup of coffee and a look at the 16th century Church of the Assumption and then again in Ventosa where I found Susie and KKin again, as well as Rich, Scott, Nicola and Young. Just to digress a little. When I stopped in Logrono, I “lost” the people I had met up to that point. It is quite difficult to explain how quickly you form a bond with when walking. My friend Ben reckoned that a day on the Camino is like 3 years in “real life” (his blog is great by the way, have a look at http://simplybencamino.blogspot.com). However it works, if you spend one day walking with someone, you feel as though you have known them for a long time. The shared journey obviously plays a big part in this but I also think that part of it is because the Camino is such an equaliser and when you start talking you somehow cut through all the usual formalities and “ramblings” and get straight to talking about interesting, real stuff. So, it had been sad to say “goodbye” to people when I stopped in Logrono as I had already been walking with some of them for 8/9 days. I did, however, learn to say “Buen Camino” instead of goodbye as I went because people who you thought you had left behind/thought were well ahead of you often reappeared again, which is one of the most wonderful aspects of the Camino. And, the stop ultimately meant that I met up with another wonderful group of people who became my Camino family and played such an enormous role in making the journey so special. So, the stop on Ventosa was a good one. I spent time with lovely people and there is nothing like a bocadilla and cup of coffee to set you up for the last few kilometers of the day which tend to get a little long. As you get into Najera, my stop for the night, there is a poem written (graffiti style) on a wall. I got the general meaning at the time and spent the rest of the afternoon thinking about the phrase, “Pilgrim, who is it who calls you?”. It is loosely translated as follows (thanks to Kevin Codd, author of To The Field of Stars): Dust and mud, sun and rain, Such is the way to Santiago. Thousands of pilgrims And more than a thousand of years. Pilgrim: who calls you? What hidden power attracts you? It’s not the field of stars Nor the great cathedrals. It is not the beauty of Navarra Nor the wine of Rioja Nor the seafood of Galicia Nor the fields of Castilla Pilgrim, who is it who calls you? What unseen power attracts you? Not the people of the camino Nor their rural customs. It is not the history nor the culture Not the rooster of the Calzada Nor the palace of Gaudi Nor the castle of Ponferrada. All that is seen in passing, And it is a joy to see it all, Is still less than the voice that calls The feeling that is yet so much deeper. The power that pushes me The force that attracts me I know not how to explain it. Only He who is above understands it. I chose the first albergue I came across in Najera. It was right on the river in a very pretty part of the town. For about an hour I had the 12 person dormitory to myself.....then, I was joined by a group of 11 large Spanish guys. I mentioned in my previous post that when I got to Burgos, I got a proper set of ear plugs. Najera is before Burgos, so at this stage, I still only had my little foam airplane ear plugs. They just stood no chance against the snoring onslaught that took place that night. I ended up sleeping on a chair in the living area downstairs. Not the best night ever, but it made for a good story which is all that really matters! I decided to walk a very short day and stop Logrono (about 10km). It just seemed like a good idea. The cold was pretty exhausting and I just felt like a hotel and some serious sleep. And, most importantly, a hot bath.
Just a quick word on albergeus and more specifically, the showers in the albergues, so that this “hot bath requirement” may be put in perspective. The albergues are so much a part of the Camino that I think you miss out if you don’t stay in them. Sitting and chatting in the afternoon was such a highlight that it was well worth dealing with large dormitories, double bunks and of course the snoring. After Burgos, the snoring was not a problem for me. I met Sally, from Australia, walking in and we had some lunch together. After mentioning to her that I was struggling to sleep because of the snoring, she bought me a pair of silicone ear plugs that literally meant a 100% sound block out. In fact the silence was quite eerie. I will always remember her as one of my Camino angels for this kind act. The gift of a good nights sleep....priceless! Some of the showers, though, were an experience. A lot of them are co-ed. This is fine except it means that you have to undress, shower and get dressed again in the shower cubicle. Doing this successfully is actually an art. You have to keep the clothes that you take off dry as chances are you will be walking in some of them again the next day. Once they are off, you need to put them somewhere so that they stay dry while you are showering. Hooks were not that plentiful so they usually got hung over the shower curtain rail with your clean clothes and toiletry bag which also, preferably, needed to stay off the shower floor. This requires a very careful balancing act. An added challenge was that slip slops, which are non negotiable in shared ablutions, tend to be extremely slippery on wet floors so, while trying to undress and balance everything on the curtain rail you are also trying to stay on your feet. Then you shower which is actually the easy part. After that, the fun begins. You retrieve your super absorbent travel towel, which is the size of a large face cloth and try to dry yourself. Actually you just rearrange the water on your body because they are not that super absorbent after all. When you give up and consider yourself to be as dry as you are going to get, you get dressed into your clean evening clothes (the same that you will wear every evening until Santiago) without letting any of them touch the shower floor. Considering that a shower is 1m X 1m, this is actually quite tricky especially because you are not actually that dry and clothes are more difficult to get on when you are still a little damp. Having said this, the cold beer/hot chocolate/coffee/dinner that you have with whichever friendly pilgrims are around after your shower ordeal more than made up for it! Alas, the thought of a hot bath in Logrono was to much and I took a “half day” there. It was worth it. I got there and booked in by 10h00. Had a hot bath. Slept for 2 hours. Had another hot bath. Found lunch. Slept for another 2 hours. Found supper. Had yet another hot bath and was asleep by 8. Perfect. This stop over also meant that I met up with the most amazing people over the next few days who I possibly would have missed if I had pushed on. The way of the Camino indeed. The day after the snow was perfect. It was clear and beautiful with snow on all the surrounding mountains. I can’t describe this day much better then the photo below so I will let it do the talking. My stop for the night was in Los Acros which I found a strange place. It may have been the slightly offbeat albergue and the fact that it was freezing cold but it wasn’t my favourite stop over.
My highlight on the walk from Los Arcos to Viana was the 12th Century church Iglesia de Santo Sepulchro in the village of Torres Del Rio. Like the church in Eunate, it is based on the octagonal church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and linked to the Knights Templar. It was incredibly beautiful and I ended up having the church to myself for a good half hour or so. I knew the history of the Camino before I started walking but I think that sitting in that church, the enormity of the fact that people have been walking the Way for more than a thousand years finally sunk in. All those hundreds of thousands of people who had gone before us with their own reasons and joys and sorrows and pain. It somehow put my sore feet in perspective! The walk from there to Viana was straight into a nasty headwind. I decided to stop in Viana instead of pushing on to Logrono. Another 10km in that wind seemed just to far. Viana was a great stop. It is a beautiful town and the albergue was great - mostly because I found a lot of friendly, familiar faces and we had good afternoon pottering around town. I had a lovely walk through Pamplona and spent some time looking at the Cathedral in the morning light and at some of the beautiful parks in the city on the way out. The walk up to Alto del Perdon was beautiful although very muddy and slippery in places. I started down quite quickly as it was very cold and actually started snowing at the top (this was my first official snow so was quite exciting). The descent to Uterga was steep and quite tricky but the enormous bocadilla (a sandwich that in normal conditions one would be unable to consume due to its vast size) was well worth it. The sun came out and made for a beautiful afternoon walk. I took the detour to the church at Eunate. The church is modeled on the Holy Sepulchre church in Jerusalem and has been linked with the Knights Templar. The day ended in Puenta la Reina. It is a lovely town that takes its name from the six arched bridge that was built to support the safe movement of pilgrims. I spent the afternoon with a german couple and we explored the Cathedral and had supper together. A very good day! My plan for an early start was somewhat thwarted when I got to the front door of the albergue to find that it was snowing. Really snowing - not just the light sprinkling that fell yesterday. Other pilgrims seemed to be ready for this. They pulled out snow proof gear and just started walking. I was already wearing everything I had and considered it utter madness to venture out in such conditions. I just stood there. Eventually the hospitalier closed the albergue and I realised I didn’t really have a choice. So I started walking. I was completely soaked by the time I reached the first town so I tried to stop but the hospitalier told me I could come back at 15h00 that afternoon. It was 09h00 at that stage and I would definitely have died of exposure if I had waited until 15h00 so I went on. Actually, I ran for about 2km until I was warm again and then just kept walking. I am so glad I did. It was magnificent. The path went through vineyards and olive groves which were so beautiful when covered in snow. My stop for the night was in Villatuerta Puenta. It was one town before Estella where I had planned to stop but the road leading up to Villatuerta was literally one long mud puddle. Up until about a km before the town, I had successfully negotiated this mud by stepping from one protruding rock to the next but I finally met my match when my next stepping stone exceeded my “legspan”. The result was mud up to my calves and soaked socks and shoes. So, Villatuerta Puenta it was! I found the most wonderful albergue that had big duvets, a fire in the kitchen and a resident Great Dane. It was perfect. We made supper there as it was just to cold to venture out. Again, very little common language but we had a great time and laughed a lot. It was a wonderful evening and made me realise even more how important the company of fellow pilgrims would be on this journey.
The Pyranees. After a pretty late arrival in St Jean plus the admin required at the pilgrim office, it would have been prudent to spend the day in St Jean and only start the following day. However, I did not yet have confidence in my level of courage and was still afraid that if I had to much more time to think it through I may not begin at all!
It was a tough day, probably one of the toughest I have experienced but it was magnificent. Truly breathtaking with snow clouds, clear fast flowing rivers, birds singing, forests full of trees that seemed to reach the sky, moss covered pathways, mountains towering all around and simply the joy of being able to walk in such a place. As I started getting to the highest point the temperature plummeted and the pathway was covered in stretches of unmelted ice. It was definitely the coldest I had ever been (although this level of cold would trumped 3 days later when we actually walked in a snow storm). I arrived in Roncavalles about 7 hours after leaving St Jean. I was tired, hungry and cold but truly happy. The routine began - shower, sort out and clean gear, head to pilgrim supper. There was a great vibe at the pilgrim meal that night. The room was full of people who had walked the same route and were heading in the same direction, two facts which made sitting at a table with no english speaking fellow pilgrims and non issue. We had lots to say anyway! Through the journey I grew to greatly cherish shared meals - camaraderie, laughter, some tears and stories being shared with fellow pilgrims who gradually became lifelong friends. Having walked the first day on my own, the walk from Roncavalles to Zubiri was where I got to say my first “buen caminos” to passing pilgrims and the feeling of Camino community started becoming apparent to me. A simple “hola” and “buen camino” carried with them a mutual understanding and connection that made up for so many language gaps. The two days following Roncavalles were tough.The enormity of the journey started becoming clear to me. The Pyranees had been such a focus and once it was behind me, I realised that each day that lay ahead would hold its own challenge, be it cold, rain, mud, uphills, downhills, mental tiredness, physical tiredness. The third day into Pamplona was my hardest. I have a bad history with third days.....Berg River Marathon, Day 3, need I say more? The walk was quite beautiful but it got very cold and rainy and there were long muddy stretches to negotiate. I got lost going into Pamplona, in the rain, and arrived at the Jesus y Maria albergue somewhat rattled and extremely cold. When I managed to persuade myself to go back out into the cold, I found the most amazing coffee shop where I drank copious quantities of hot chocolate, wrote my journal and read my kindle until my sense of humour returned. An extract from the journal entry I wrote that night reads “Today was tough and lonely. I think it will make me stronger forever.” “Beginning is everything.” Spanish Proverb
I finished up my career of 13 years just before the Easter weekend after one of the toughest 3 month periods I have experienced. I was mentally exhausted and unfit. I had designed and scrapped dozens of Camino training programmes just because there simply was not time to implement them. So, I celebrated Easter with my family and on the evening of Easter Sunday, THE 31st of March, 2013, I flew to Paris to start the journey of a lifetime. When I look back I cannot believe how completely unaware I was of what lay ahead and being that unaware, I am quite impressed that I did not turn around and come home when I reached Paris. I arrived there at 06h00, survived being shouted at in French on numerous occasions (for the record, if you shout at someone in a language they do not understand, it does not improve their chances of understanding it), found my little “vacuum packed” backpack and made my way to the train platform. It was -1 degree C (after coming from an extremely hot SA summer), pitch dark, completely deserted and I had an hour to wait which is much to long to stop and think about where I was and why! Somehow all the reasons that I had come up with for making the changes I had and embarking on this journey simply vanished. I had left my family, friends, a great job, a home I love, a (warm) country I love and possibly the most difficult as it was impossible to explain to her, Gabi, my Labrador. Finally the train arrived and I climbed in. People have written that the Camino “calls” and I do believe that that is the only reason that I climbed onto the train that icy, lonely morning. I will be forever grateful that my courage held. From Paris I travelled to Bayonne where I stayed the night and then took the first train to St Jean Pied de Port the following morning. On the train to St Jean I met my first two pilgrims, Dan and Kevin. We became good friends through the journey and amazingly I reached Santiago on the same day as Kevin. We climbed off the train in St Jean and headed off to find the pilgrim office. When we did manage to find it we were told that the Napolean route was closed. In a way, I was glad not to have to make the call myself as I am not sure I would have made a wise one and as it happened the temperature plummeted later that day and the conditions going over that route would have been very difficult. Having said that, the “alternative” route is no walk in the park. Once you have signed in at the pilgrim office you simply start walking, the first challenge being to get yourself out of St Jean with out getting lost. In 2011 I did a trip to Liuwa National Park with Christie Fynn and Jon Morgan. This is the article that Christie wrote that was published in the Getaway Magazine (April 2012).
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Author_Jo-Anne Hay
I was privileged to spend a lot of time exploring wilderness areas in southern Africa from a very young age. I got my first camera when I was 6 years old and I have been passionate about wildlife and landscape photography ever since. |