Author: Mark Dowty

We crossed over from Castille y Leon and into Galicia today cresting new ridges and beginning the weeklong descent into Santiago. The clouds raked by the mountains made for some dramatic scenery and Allison and I were really walking fast, happy to be in the mountains. The day began in dense fog followed by a 30sec rain shower and then beautiful sun and clouds for the rest of the day.

We started talking today about what it will be like to be home and we both were quiet for a few minutes processing that the end is closer than the beginning and that we will actually stop walking (at least to this extent) soon.

Tomorrow we cross the 100k mark and the Camino will quadruple in population. (To receive a “Compostela” you have to walk at least 100km) reportedly bus loads of new pilgrims are dropped off to begin their journey. Supposedly it is a tough thing for those beginning their journey so long ago to be comfortable with.

Pictures to follow.

“There was mighty wind, but he wasn’t in it
There was an earthquake, but he wasn’t in it.
There was a fire, but he wasn’t in it.
There was a whisper and he was there.”

Folks, for those of you that understand the reference above, in a nearly silent moment in this town – there was a whisper.
More later. 🙂

This evening was odd. There is no WIFI in this small village ( so these posts may be out of order ), and there is only one shop selling a few onions, soft drinks, chips, etc. Basically we are forced to do nothing.
It is such an unnatural thing. But clearly I needed some rest and an afternoon nap came easily.
Dinner tonight will be different as well. The supper is donativo and will be supplied by a young couple operating the “other” Albergue in town (also donativo). This couple have started up this operation offering free lodging and free supper and breakfast as well as fresh juices. The offering is a gift to the pilgrims and they use whatever donations people supply to feed and house themselves and to maintain their place. It is hard to grasp.
How can they do this, and with such joy?

Tough end of the day by climbing for the last hour. We stopped for the night before the top in order to save some for the morning. 🙂

Sometimes the Camino is breathtaking and other times it isn’t pretty at all.

Pictures to follow.

Woke after too little sleep (stayed up to watch England v Uruguay) and felt slightly “off” all morning.
The day started with a seriously steep climb with swarms of annoying flies buzzing about. The climb was followed by a steep descent which wasn’t rewarded by beautiful views since they were mostly marred by power lines unfortunately.

Just before lunch now but i’m whipped. Today has much more in store however because it ends with another steep climb for the entire last 2 hours. Should sleep well tonight!

On day 1 of our pilgrimage I learned this phrase ( two red wines please). Today we walked through the second wine region in Spain. Lining the road were several bodegas that offered wine tasting. Generous as we are we decided it was our duty to support the local economies and Allison and I stopped by two. Different from the U.S. you typically only taste one wine in Spain, but you also get a tapa to go along with it. But two small tastes were quite enough in the summer heat.

File this next tidbit in the category of (should be in the guidebooks, but isn’t). Compeed is a British made bandaid product that is ideal for walking with blisters. It is ultra sticky but really expensive. I don’t know how they can justify the cost but along the Camino anyway, the stuff is golden. I estimate we’ve spent nearly $200 on these band-aides alone and we are not alone I scarfing them up at the local pharmacias. I wish I’d bought some stock in this company because the markup must be enormous.

We reached Villafranca del Bierzo, the last good-sized village before we leave Castille y Leon and journey into Galicia. Villafranca was (as the name suggests) settled by the French returning from Santiago. In the Middle Ages, if you were deemed too ill to continue on your pilgrimage across the mountains you could receive your indulgence here and it would “count”.

Most of today was a walk through busy suburbs so not too much else to report except we had a wonderful dinner again last night and an early start today.

Pictures to follow.

Because of yesterday Allison and I decided to enjoy our private room and sleep in and make a short day of it (17km). It was very hot out today and without my hat I was suffering a bit.

We are staying the night in the largish city of Ponferrada. It has a cool restored castle built by/for the Knights Templar.

After waking here, checking in to the municipal albergue, showering and washing the clothes we set out for a quick tour of the castle and a search for a store that would sell me a hat.

It turned out to be over a 4km round trip but now I have a cheap hat to cover the noggin. It is O so stylish.

We are pretty near the Portugal border and just into the “thumb” of Spain.

Pictures to follow.

Well…that was different.

We began the morning just a tad late just outside of Astorga after a wonderful night at our Albergue. We met a great group of young adults that were together part of a BSU group. A uniquely homemade dinner of soup, chicken and rice was followed by some games and a wonderfully cool – even chilly- night.

Starting out we has to have our cold weather gear on, but as usual as soon as the sun was up for an hour we were back into shorts and tshirts.

We walked 4km (about an hour at our pace) and came to Santa Catalina de Somoza where we hit upon a bar serving fried eggs and back with toast. Ah! Delightful!

We passed through a few towns today that were once major pilgrim stopovers in the Middle Ages (ruins of places and evidence of old activity). However with the recent revival of the Camino, they are springing back to life. It is very encouraging. One place even had a cowboy bar.

By lunch we’d reached Rabanal del Camino having already climbed almost 1000’. Rabanal was a major pilgrimage stop because it was a last stop before the dangerous crossing of the mountains. Here we had our first chance to stop but we’d already decided to go a bit further.

The next chance was another 1-¾ hrs down the road and we got there with another chance to stop. The town was so interesting. It was clearly once a major place that was once again springing to life. Allison and I saw that there was however an interestingly described place to stay only one hour further along so we decided to push just a bit more. This ended up being a mistake.

We had climbed a total of 1600 ft in elevation and walked a total of 29km (a long day for us) when we reached the peak and La Cruz de Ferro.

This is the spot where tradition holds that you place a stone or other object that you’ve carried the entire pilgrimage at the foot of the iron cross – symbolically laying your burdens at the cross – giving them up to God’s son.

It was a moving memorial. People had left many tributes, bad habits, pictures of loved ones, at this cross. It was nice.

It was a fun day and Allison and I had only 30 more minutes of walking to our proposed spot to rest our very weary legs. That’s when things went a bit badly.

The spot was … well… filthy. It was just pretty nasty and faced with another 2-½ hours of walking we still chose not to stay. However my feet were aching and I had to stop for a moment and remove my boots. Surprise! One big blister on each of my heels.

I bandaged them up and we headed off for about another half hour when we realized we’d left our hiking poles behind where I’d worked on my feet! But two Australian ladies had picked then up and we didn’t have to backtrack too far.

Bad to worse – about an hour farther into the journey it dawned on me that I’d my glasses were very blurry and there was a lot of glare. Funny – normally my hat kept the glare off – oh NO I’d let my hat back at the Dirty Albergue.

In the end, slightly sunburned, and out of water we stumbled into Acebo. This was our longest day ever and we are both worn. In disappointed about my hat and hope someone will find it and be good and call my cell number written inside.

But we are healthy otherwise and safe in a private room we’ve treated ourselves to for our efforts and bad luck. Oddly enough we are nearly 2 days ahead of schedule now and will have to slow down lest we end up in Santiago too soon.

Pictures to follow.

Will write more later but had a crazy 20.6 mile day with a lot of elevation chance. So tired and sore. More later.

Tomorrow starts week 3 of Camino. It is impossible to adequately describe the swing of emotions this week.
A week ago I was worn and emotionally shot after it looked certain that we’d have to abandon our Camino. Allison and I had packed our bags and checked out of our hotel resolved to not feel too awful about having home but both of us unable to accept it totally.

We set on a bench knowing we had about 12 hrs before the overnight train would leave and wondering what to do. Allison said “let’s give it one more day” and so we did. The next morning, one week from tomorrow morning we decided to walk for 30 minutes and then turn back if it looked bad.

After 30 minutes we decided to evaluate again at the 1 hr mark. We changed the way we walked Camino and every hour that turned into two became a gift. Soon hours turned into days and each day since had been cherished all the more.

Resting became a way forward and not a delay. After Burgos I changed. I saw the time to allow Allison to fix her shoes or ice her ankles as a gift and not an inconvenience. I saw an early end to the day as an opportunity to continue and not a delay to some artificial plan.

I think I know why I’ve come.

Let’s see what else is in store.

Somehow life is just better when you see mountains. After Astorga around lunch we will begin the climb back into the mountains and will be in them until we descend into Santiago.

Struggling to keep up with Allison’s pace reminds me how blessed we are and how fortunate that we decided to keep going. I’m sure there is a life lesson in this somewhere.

The number of pilgrims has increased as three paths to Santiago have now merged. This means that a lot of new faces are blending in with many of the old friends we keep meeting from the first week of our Camino.

Pictures to follow.

I had blessing from my kiddos and made 20+ miles today. Allison seems to be nearly fully recovered. It was the first day in a while that I had to work to keep up with her.

Saw mountains on the horizon as we finished up the day 21miles west of Leon.

The messages from the kids and my mom took me back a bit because I’d totally forgotten about it being Father’s Day.

“Best of” to my brothers and BIL’s who are all Fathers to their own children. I hope each of their kiddos takes a moment to let their dads know they are grateful for the love that was given. God knows we are all flawed and would love to have done better but each of my brother’s kids know they are loved and that’s a fine tribute to my brothers.

Happy Father’s Day gents.

Came to the tourism office in Leon early this morning and got one of two private rooms available in a private residence for 25Euros including breakfast.

Coolio.

Today we reach Leon the next to last big city and leave the Maseta. Another big city isn’t really what I’m looking for right now but let’s see what adventures await!

When I woke this morning I had no idea what had been laid out for my life. I didn’t know we’d have bfast with an old friend from earlier in the Camino. I didn’t know we’d stumble into a town during their fiesta. I didn’t know I’d see a bullfight (well it was more of a bull tease), I didn’t know I’d be in Spain during the World Cup and watching Spain lose (and somewhat badly) to Netherlands, and for sure I didn’t know I’d run with the bulls.

I did this all today with Allison (except the bull parts) and I loved life today. How blessed am I?

Have stumbled upon a fiesta in Sahguin. Only pictures can describe.

On our way to Sahagun today.
Breakfasts are fun with new friends. Tamara is Swiss and is wanting to do the Camino from Pamplona alone. Unfortunately she is a fun person to talk to and keeps meeting people. It is a funny inconvenience for anyone walking the Camino that wants solitude.

Today will be a relatively short day for us so a good day of rest for our legs.

Life is good. We are walking again. 3 days in a row. Allison is gaining strength.

So proud of Allison for the miles she is putting in. We find that if we walk about 2hrs and then get her feet up and ankles iced she is ok.

We are firmly in the Maseta today. The Maseta is the flat land (think Great Plains) in Spain full of wheat fields. It is beautiful but lonely (in a good way)

The people of Spain along the Camino have been wonderful. They exist off the pilgrims and are clearly appreciative of the tourism traffic, but the extent to which they go out of their way to help others is remarkable. Asking nothing, often they go out of their way to help.

Impressed.

Pictures to follow.

Well we started off today for a short walk to test out Allison’s ankles. After 15+ miles we stopped for the day in the “incomparable” Maseta. It was a joy to walk again. We’re taking it one day at a time. However.
Maybe we won’t be able to go any further tomorrow. Maybe I won’t be able to make it. Let’s see.

We are going to walk for 2 hrs. We hope we will be able to continue. But otherwise we will begin our trip home with an overnight bus ride to Barcelona.

Fully intent on beginning the trip home today we packed up and checked out of the hotel we’d stayed in to allow Allison’s legs to recover.

Allison however felt a little stronger this morning and we’ve decided to give it one more day. We’re not sure if it will make a difference but it would be a shame to pay all the extra costs to change our flights and then be all better once we were home.

Maybe we will receive a miracle and the Camino will go on. We will know better tomorrow.

Allison and I have a big decision to make. The diagnosis of tendonitis in her legs is a vague one but I fear it could end her pilgrimage. She is conflicted and doesn’t want to give up but her body may not allow an alternative. There’s no way of knowing how long is long enough to rest and if we leave this big city it becomes much tougher to get her home.

We are going to see tomorrow morning. If she isn’t better we will begin the trip home. Disappointed, for sure but we’ll end it together.
In addition I’m not sure what I should do. Allison wants me to continue so that she doesn’t cut my pilgrimage short but at the same time I’m sure she’d like it if she didn’t have to make it home alone and see/hear the rest of the trip through my eyes. Plus we’d set out together and to return separately makes me sad.

Honestly I’d like to continue but I’m sure it wouldn’t be the right thing.

Unfortunately, The next stage is the “empty” maseta where you are able to travel in relatively deserted places and it gives you much time to think. I looked forward to that.

The plazas are busy but most stores closed so we’ll siesta with the locals.

Went to a pilgrims mass this morning at the main cathedral here in Burgos. Burgos was the primary capital of Spain for a good bit of its history so the cathedral is suitably grand.

We didn’t understand much of the service of course, and not being Catholic , didn’t participate in the sacraments themselves. But we did get enough to hear the word perigrinos (pilgrims) and understand a call to be greeted after the service. It was a nice gesture and part of the whole pilgrimage experience that perigrinos are often recognized in such a way.

What will the rest of the day bring?

So we’ve been grounded. I’ve decided to hang out here with Allison in Burgos while her legs heal. I’m not sure what we will do after that but I’m sure something will occur to direct our path. We may or may not reach Santiago.

I’ve often repeated that it doesn’t really matter but facing that possibility I’m finding out that something I already knew about myself. I can talk a good story but I not always honest with others or myself. It is difficult to accept but maybe this is why we are here.

So what to do in Burgos for a few days? Well there is a lot, museums, cathedrals, etc. but they all involve walking and Allison should have her feet up as much as possible. Hmmm

Anyway, we may not post much for a few days.

Love to all back home. Thanks for all your prayers. Allison appreciates the thoughts as do I.

After walking yesterday Allison noticed a pain in her ankles and shins. Today as we walked into Burgos. We slowed to a crawl as the pain became worse.

Concerned about something serious like stress fractures we went immediately to the hospital. Good news no fractures. Bad news, Allison is ordered off her feet for 3-5 days with tendonitis.

Good news, we have some spare days in our schedule. Bad news, not that many.

Stay tuned… Meanwhile pictures as we approached Burgos.

They say the first third of the Camino is for the body. Well after blisters and worn out legs, feet, hips and knees We were both wondering if we could do this thing and enjoy it.

Well just when some discouragement was setting in we had a better day yesterday and an even better one today.

Oh, it still hurts and hurts quite a lot. I’ve never walked through pain like this before, and knowing that it has to be repeated again the next day doesn’t help you get through. But I think we’ve either just gotten used to the pain, or it is actually lessening. Maybe a bit of both. I do find it possible to sleep on my side at night though due to the added stress it puts in my knee and hip.

We’ve fallen deeply into the Camino routine. It would seem odd, for example to “sleep in” past 6:30am, or to eat breakfast first thing in the morning… I mean, before walking your first couple miles anyway. It would also seem strange have to choose what to wear or to have to find “something to do” in the morning.

Allison and I are also getting more confident in using our very basic Spanish. It has been fun to try it out with mostly kind and patient audience.

The food has been very varied. We had an awesome seafood piella last night and some homemade flan desert as part of our pilgrims dinner for the day. I know that they say it is impossible not to lose weight on Camino, but I swear I’m gaining weight. Some things I don’t think we’d ever tired of cafe-con-leche and vino tinta come to mind. Other things we’ve tired of already: bocadillos (the fast food of the Camino – basically a baguette with some ham and cheese).

Well enough for now. For those tracking us we’ll pass through Burgos tomorrow (Saturday), the last big city until Leon.

Blessings to all

Mark and Allison