Blastomatic
New Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- October 2016: Sarria-Santiago
Greetings to all the good people of Ivar's Forum!
My wife Kelly and I have completed our Camino, starting at Sarria on the 3rd, finishing on the 11th.
If you were on-Camino at that time during that stretch, you may recall us, as we were the fat ones.
And I mean, like, the ONLY fat people doing the Camino.
Not that everyone doing it is a flawless Olympian-bodied walking advertisement for energy bars, but the only people we saw who came close to us size-wise were a pair of cyclists. So if you have a friend who moans about the Camino because they're too out of shape to do it? If they're under 150 kilos, they can now officially no longer use that excuse. EXCUSE REVOKED!
STAGES
Sarria - Casa de Morgade - Ventas de Naron - Palas de Rei - Melide - Arzua - Salceda - O Pedrouzo - Lavacolla - Santiago.
DAILY ROUTINE
We started walking each day at about 6 AM, long before the 8:30 dawn due to jet lag, which worked in our favor because we were usually at our final destination before 3 PM. We booked ahead the day before each stage, going with private rooms most of the way, and never got caught short ourselves although in Ventas de Naron there were a few latecomers who got turned away.
WEATHER
Amazingly, it never rained once until right about noon on the 11th, when we arrived at the cathedral's plaza. And then the 12th, all day long. Mostly there was an intense fog layer which burned off gradually, leaving the post-dawn vallies cradling
PACING, HEALTH, INJURIES
A gentle pace, so no blisters, wounds, fractures, or bum knees. We saved ourselves a 'slack day' that we ended up not using and so we spent the 12th shacked up in an apartment, sipping tea with milk and eating pastries under a comforter while the storm raged outside. Delightful.
EQUIPMENT POST-MORTEM
Things I brought but never used:
Sleeping bag (blankets + silk liner fully sufficient).
Tarp (never rained, wouldn't have needed it if it had rained).
Wool long underwear (not nearly cold enough).
Things I didn't bring but should have:
CPAP machine. A full kg by itself, but I found we were never far from a power outlet at night, and I might have slept better.
Pumice stone. Picked one up in Palas de Rei, negligible weight.
The above is just for me - my wife used every single piece of equipment she brought and didn't need anything she didn't bring. Perfect score.
THE PEOPLE
Unfailingly kind and generous of spirit, regardless of the starting point. The SJPdP crew were out in force, bearing creaky knees, disintegrating feet and thoughtful advice. The Sarria gang seemed to be a similar quantity, not over-abundant or moving in large groups, usually able to be discerned by a louder 'Bon/Buen Camino!' than those long-distance folk who had been saying it non-stop for the previous four weeks. We also ran into a few school groups doing smaller sections, a day's length, and we peppered each other with questions.
THE STAFF
Always helpful to a fault and hugely overworked, we tried to be as gentle as possible with frazzled hospitaleros/hospitaleras and thank them for their efforts, both in word and coin.
THE MAGIC (no particular order)
1. Basket of 3-week-old puppies at our refuge in Salceda. BASKET. OF. PUPPIES.
2. Two people from two different groups we met at our 'afternoon beverages' table in Ventas de Naron, who after talking realized they'd grown up on the same street in Ireland at the same time.
3. The hospitalero at Casa de Formiga putting on Leonard Cohen's 'Live in London' as the sun rose.
4. A meal of bread, olives, and thick hunks of Arzua cheese in Palas de Rei.
5. All nine sunrises.
6. My wife despairing of not finding what she wanted, her reason for walking the Camino - what to do next now that she wants out of her career - then getting a job offer for a just-right position on our last full day in Santiago.
7. Portomarin wreathed in a river of mist.
8. Waking up at 1 AM on October 12th to roaring screaming crowds - like a parade and riot simultaneously performing Götterdämmerung in Spanish - and, quickly working out via Google that it was National Day, we promptly went outside to join the party!
9. Sitting on our sleeping pads in deep shade.
10. Our insane splurge in Arzua, sleeping like kings under an ancient timber roof in a deep-pile four post bed.
THE MUNDANE
I thought we were tough, but then we got in line for our credencial and we finally knew what hard REALLY looked like - standing still for an hour cheek-to-elbow with our fellow peregrinos. I can walk for eight hours straight, but God help me if I have to stand still. The organization was haphazard, and only three of the 14 locations were staffed by volunteers even though it was the middle of the day.
The last 2-3km were busy, crowded, and noisy. Tour groups drifted around like spilled water, seeking the lowest point, or maybe just the best selfie angle. (I don't get selfies - my friends already know what I look like!) The pews for the pilgrim mass were full of tour groups, and even though the priest - this is not some rock star asking you to stop recording, but someone who supposedly speaks with the authority of God Almighty - said no filming of the botafumeiro, guess how many tourist cell phones shot up the moment they started ladling in the coals?
I allowed myself to get to the point of these people do not deserve this and I had to check myself a little bit. The cathedral is for all comers, not just those who walked there. Worthiness or lack thereof was not for me to decide. I focused on the scent of the incense, remembered how privileged I was to be there at that moment, to witness, and immediately relaxed into the ritual.
PARTICULAR THANKS TO
The acidic, acerbic pair of Ozzie ladies with whom we mutually moaned about politics; Sean, late of Ireland, now Minnesota; Mike and Courtney, she starting from St. Jean, he meeting up with her from Sarria; the two middle-aged Germans from Leipzig whose pace matched ours the whole way, exchanging winks from Sarria to the streets of Santiago; the ladies of San Diego whose packs matched my wife's; Mari of Sweden who familiarized us with the ins and outs of bedbug infestation; Disaster Dave, already plotting his next grand adventure; Carol, Karen, Tomas, Anthony, Bruce and Kyle and a hundred other people whose smiles energized us and kind words motivated us.
GENERIC NOTES - IF ONLY WE'D KNOWN
1. Since Spaniards do not get sick on Sundays, the pharmacies are usually closed then, so plan accordingly.
2. The Movistar shop in Terminal 2 of Madrid Barajas appears to be inaccessible if you are arriving from outside of Spain; we were routed to Customs through an enclosed hallway and then right out of the secure area. So unless you are arriving from elsewhere in Spain, or are continuing on from Madrid to, say, Santiago, do not count on getting a tourist SIM inside of the airport.
3. Palas de Rei has an electronics shop that is licensed to sell tourist SIMs right on the Camino, which is located right across from the Albergue Castro on the Av. Ourense.
4. Don't get too bummed if you can't get a Spain-centric SIM card right out of the gate; everywhere you'll stop, there's Wifi. It wasn't a problem, we only had to make 3 calls while we were there!
If you have any questions, any at all, please ask below. Thanks for the advice and support of those folks who replied to my earlier posts.
My wife Kelly and I have completed our Camino, starting at Sarria on the 3rd, finishing on the 11th.
If you were on-Camino at that time during that stretch, you may recall us, as we were the fat ones.
And I mean, like, the ONLY fat people doing the Camino.
Not that everyone doing it is a flawless Olympian-bodied walking advertisement for energy bars, but the only people we saw who came close to us size-wise were a pair of cyclists. So if you have a friend who moans about the Camino because they're too out of shape to do it? If they're under 150 kilos, they can now officially no longer use that excuse. EXCUSE REVOKED!
STAGES
Sarria - Casa de Morgade - Ventas de Naron - Palas de Rei - Melide - Arzua - Salceda - O Pedrouzo - Lavacolla - Santiago.
DAILY ROUTINE
We started walking each day at about 6 AM, long before the 8:30 dawn due to jet lag, which worked in our favor because we were usually at our final destination before 3 PM. We booked ahead the day before each stage, going with private rooms most of the way, and never got caught short ourselves although in Ventas de Naron there were a few latecomers who got turned away.
WEATHER
Amazingly, it never rained once until right about noon on the 11th, when we arrived at the cathedral's plaza. And then the 12th, all day long. Mostly there was an intense fog layer which burned off gradually, leaving the post-dawn vallies cradling
PACING, HEALTH, INJURIES
A gentle pace, so no blisters, wounds, fractures, or bum knees. We saved ourselves a 'slack day' that we ended up not using and so we spent the 12th shacked up in an apartment, sipping tea with milk and eating pastries under a comforter while the storm raged outside. Delightful.
EQUIPMENT POST-MORTEM
Things I brought but never used:
Sleeping bag (blankets + silk liner fully sufficient).
Tarp (never rained, wouldn't have needed it if it had rained).
Wool long underwear (not nearly cold enough).
Things I didn't bring but should have:
CPAP machine. A full kg by itself, but I found we were never far from a power outlet at night, and I might have slept better.
Pumice stone. Picked one up in Palas de Rei, negligible weight.
The above is just for me - my wife used every single piece of equipment she brought and didn't need anything she didn't bring. Perfect score.
THE PEOPLE
Unfailingly kind and generous of spirit, regardless of the starting point. The SJPdP crew were out in force, bearing creaky knees, disintegrating feet and thoughtful advice. The Sarria gang seemed to be a similar quantity, not over-abundant or moving in large groups, usually able to be discerned by a louder 'Bon/Buen Camino!' than those long-distance folk who had been saying it non-stop for the previous four weeks. We also ran into a few school groups doing smaller sections, a day's length, and we peppered each other with questions.
THE STAFF
Always helpful to a fault and hugely overworked, we tried to be as gentle as possible with frazzled hospitaleros/hospitaleras and thank them for their efforts, both in word and coin.
THE MAGIC (no particular order)
1. Basket of 3-week-old puppies at our refuge in Salceda. BASKET. OF. PUPPIES.
2. Two people from two different groups we met at our 'afternoon beverages' table in Ventas de Naron, who after talking realized they'd grown up on the same street in Ireland at the same time.
3. The hospitalero at Casa de Formiga putting on Leonard Cohen's 'Live in London' as the sun rose.
4. A meal of bread, olives, and thick hunks of Arzua cheese in Palas de Rei.
5. All nine sunrises.
6. My wife despairing of not finding what she wanted, her reason for walking the Camino - what to do next now that she wants out of her career - then getting a job offer for a just-right position on our last full day in Santiago.
7. Portomarin wreathed in a river of mist.
8. Waking up at 1 AM on October 12th to roaring screaming crowds - like a parade and riot simultaneously performing Götterdämmerung in Spanish - and, quickly working out via Google that it was National Day, we promptly went outside to join the party!
9. Sitting on our sleeping pads in deep shade.
10. Our insane splurge in Arzua, sleeping like kings under an ancient timber roof in a deep-pile four post bed.
THE MUNDANE
I thought we were tough, but then we got in line for our credencial and we finally knew what hard REALLY looked like - standing still for an hour cheek-to-elbow with our fellow peregrinos. I can walk for eight hours straight, but God help me if I have to stand still. The organization was haphazard, and only three of the 14 locations were staffed by volunteers even though it was the middle of the day.
The last 2-3km were busy, crowded, and noisy. Tour groups drifted around like spilled water, seeking the lowest point, or maybe just the best selfie angle. (I don't get selfies - my friends already know what I look like!) The pews for the pilgrim mass were full of tour groups, and even though the priest - this is not some rock star asking you to stop recording, but someone who supposedly speaks with the authority of God Almighty - said no filming of the botafumeiro, guess how many tourist cell phones shot up the moment they started ladling in the coals?
I allowed myself to get to the point of these people do not deserve this and I had to check myself a little bit. The cathedral is for all comers, not just those who walked there. Worthiness or lack thereof was not for me to decide. I focused on the scent of the incense, remembered how privileged I was to be there at that moment, to witness, and immediately relaxed into the ritual.
PARTICULAR THANKS TO
The acidic, acerbic pair of Ozzie ladies with whom we mutually moaned about politics; Sean, late of Ireland, now Minnesota; Mike and Courtney, she starting from St. Jean, he meeting up with her from Sarria; the two middle-aged Germans from Leipzig whose pace matched ours the whole way, exchanging winks from Sarria to the streets of Santiago; the ladies of San Diego whose packs matched my wife's; Mari of Sweden who familiarized us with the ins and outs of bedbug infestation; Disaster Dave, already plotting his next grand adventure; Carol, Karen, Tomas, Anthony, Bruce and Kyle and a hundred other people whose smiles energized us and kind words motivated us.
GENERIC NOTES - IF ONLY WE'D KNOWN
1. Since Spaniards do not get sick on Sundays, the pharmacies are usually closed then, so plan accordingly.
2. The Movistar shop in Terminal 2 of Madrid Barajas appears to be inaccessible if you are arriving from outside of Spain; we were routed to Customs through an enclosed hallway and then right out of the secure area. So unless you are arriving from elsewhere in Spain, or are continuing on from Madrid to, say, Santiago, do not count on getting a tourist SIM inside of the airport.
3. Palas de Rei has an electronics shop that is licensed to sell tourist SIMs right on the Camino, which is located right across from the Albergue Castro on the Av. Ourense.
4. Don't get too bummed if you can't get a Spain-centric SIM card right out of the gate; everywhere you'll stop, there's Wifi. It wasn't a problem, we only had to make 3 calls while we were there!
If you have any questions, any at all, please ask below. Thanks for the advice and support of those folks who replied to my earlier posts.
but i didn't
