Trondheim (Nidaros) to Santiago de Compostela

[lovingkindness]

Day 364?/362 Riaño (rest)

Riaño is a melancholy place full of fascinations. In the 90s seven pueblos in the region were submerged when the Embalse de Riaño was created. A new pueblo was designed in granite/stone/concrete, a modern interpretation of ancient styles with terraced housing, balconies and courtyards. Up above the old pueblo, now submerged under the bridge, an Ermita from one of the now sunken villages was relocated, it´s gothic frecoes intact. Inside is a third-century baptismal font with a scallop shell as dipper [Ah, there he is, a hint of Santiago? ]. A memorial strung with bells from the 7 sunken churches stands out front. ( Oh dear, I´m beginning to sound like a tourist guide. Sorry....I had a deeply meaningful time here, really....I improvised a Blessing and a Hallelujah and let rip in the Ermita.... )

 

[lovingkindness]

...

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 365/363 Riaño to Las Salas

 

[lovingkindness]

===========Tarmac======Tunnel =======Tarmac + Curves========

My big sister (No. 1) has bosoms
She throws a discus
She´s State champion

My big sister (No. 2) bolted through a barbed wire fence and got 24 stitches
She won a beauty contest

My big sister (No. 3) cut a tennis ball in half and glued it to her chest.
She won an Eisteddfod

My big brother (No. 1) had a brain haemerage
My brother (No.2) plays with frogs and go-carts. He’s a soprano. We’re the same age, almost.

Dad flies an aeroplane
Mum works

I´m Musical: I love to go a wandering, along Life´s mountain track, and as I walk I love to sing, my knapsack on my back. Val-de-re-ee-ee. Val-de-ra-aa-aa. Val-de-re-ee-ee, Val de-r- ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa (repeat refrain) my knap sack on my back.

-Me

 

[lovingkindness]

tarmac==hop=hop===tarmac===tarmac===hop=jump=splat

....now I am at the Athletics Club practicing high jump, long jump and the splits. Dad is president and that man over there runs and jumps and boings with a pole vault. Then I see two cows and take a photograph.

-I am-8-years-old

 

[maricristina]

Dear Lk, My knowledge is too out of date to be of help especially since you have already reached Embalsa de Riano. Yes, you need to inform/involve Rebekah because she has recent experience of Vadiniense....indeed she is "queen" of such routes!! Her knowledge is up to date and hands/feet on.
You are in mind and prayer every day.
Maricristina

 

[lovingkindness]

Horcadas!!!

 

[lovingkindness]

.....and so on to Las Salas where I spread out my mat on a Community Room floor and sleep. Muchas Gracias.

-Nightie Night

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 366/364 Las Salas to Verdiago

A superb day! From Potes to Mansilla there exists an ancient Calzada Romana (134 kms). As one walks the 11 kms from Las Salas to Valdoré ancient stones lay underfoot grooved with the imprint of chariots and cart wheels, the sandaled feet of Legionairs, prisoners and pilgrims. In the meadows beside the RIo Esla are masses of wild flowers and all day I gorge myself on moras.

-Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

....a scorching wind desicates my skin and I flake out on the Curve Diablos....

 

[lovingkindness]

...In an El Bar by the roadside, Valdoré I read a mag. as I consume Goffres with chocolate and cafe con leche .....then I fixate on a wilderness of flowers before stretching out on a bench.....

 

[lovingkindness]

Temp: 60C
Hairdryer speed: medium

..I stuff myself on sour cherries.....then I plunge into the Rio Esla......

 

[lovingkindness]

....Verdiago......

May I sleep on el porche de la Iglesia, Por favor? It´s lovely!
I’m chatting to several abuelas. It is too hot near the fountain so we’ve migrated to an old stone wall. We gaze at the porch a while, pondering it´s age…..
Yes, if you like…

An old guy comes over waving a cane. When he discovers where my Camino began he gets animated. He jabs the air with his stick and tells us all about Norway and how it became rich on Oil. The eyes of the abuelas follow the stick as he moves back and forth like a boxer.

How about our old school house? Says one
She could sleep up there, couldn’t she?
……. Si…..Si..Si, Si
Muchas Gracias!

….Someone returns with a key and a bocadilla as long as their arm and hands it to me. It´s stuffed full of juicy jamon and queso. Yum. We climb up through the village to the School House and she settles me in. Old wooden desks clutter a corner, boxes of dusty text books are stacked by a wall, down the side rests an ancient map of Europe carved up into countries and regions long gone. I sleep on the dusty floor in the light of the moon …and at 3am ´polish off´ the bocadilla.
-Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 365 One Year a Peregrina!

Verdiago to Cistierna via Sabero Mines and Ecomuseum

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 365: in the afternoon, Sabero to Cistierna

Temp: 30-40 C
Wind:0
Humidity: nil
Cloud cover: 0

…..It is too hot. There is no air conditioning in the class rooms. There are redback spiders under the toilet seats and they make us drink curdled milk at playtime. We learn to chant: Mt Isa is the third biggest copper mine in the world. It produces copper, silver, zinc and lead. It is the fastest growing city in the world and has the largest manmade lake. The Queen comes to visit and we´re given little copper medals. The school teachers marry the students….don´t take your daughters there, there are no adult women…..

It´s too hot. It hasn´t rained in years. We stare at the smoke stack and Mum says, Never, ever play on a slag heap. It will collapse on you and you’ll suffocate.

Mum wants a garden but it’s far too hot. We go out Bush. She digs up a few anthills then carts them back home. She plonks the anthills around our tree then pokes marigolds in the dirt. Ants eat the marigolds.

It´s too hot, Mum, it´s too hot…. Mum says, you’ll have to walk back from Brownies. I can’t pick you up. I get as far as the pay phone and shout, Come and get me come and get me…someone shouts back, press Button A but it’s too late, the phones dead.

Mum has Gold Fever. Dad finds it funny. She shouts, Stop the car, stop the car, then says, Where there´s black sand there´s Gold …Mum, I´ve found some, I´ve found some…..She takes a look. No, that´s Fools Gold.

We used to have a bottle of gold dust but my brother painted it on his model aeroplane.
-I am still aged 8

 

[lovingkindness]

...

 

[lovingkindness]

...and so to Cistierna ...after the abandoned mine I followed an old dusty road beside a canal, eating great handsful of blackberries. I was drenched in sweat and expiring beneath the weight of my pack, longing for a swim. Fencing made it impossible to reach the River Esla. Finally the canal ended and I was able to get to the water´s edge. I sat in the shallows washing clothes and they dried in minutes. In Cistierna I found the albergue de peregrinos and had a room all to myself. The hospitalero amabile ´shouted´me coffee. Gracias!

-Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

PS ...just after Verdiago in the little pueblo of Alejico I came across two statues of Sant Roch and a beautiful scallop shell

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 366 Cisiterna to Villanofar
A beautiful day,
one 'spider'.

 

[lovingkindness]

...along the way...Pesquera

….shall I find the key? Would you like to see inside the Iglesia?
OK
…Do you need water? The fuente is dry, shall we go to the neighbours? He knocks on a door. I´m handed water. Later, after visiting the old Mill he invites me to dinner. He picks a huge lettuce from his vege patch, some runner beans, tomatoes and potatoes then cooks them in the kitchen. After a while he hands me sweet cakes and café con leche, by which time we´re glued to the Tele:
It is World Youth Day in Madrid and over a million Jovenes have flocked to see El Papa. A discussion panel explores current issues and in every El Bar the locals are buzzing.
-Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

************ :|
***Dad´s back is black. He says, **********no point brushing them off***
*************************** :|

**

 

[lovingkindness]

**shut your mouth! ***I can´t, I can´t. They´re up my nose******
********************Mum, I can´t breathe *******
***************************************************************I´ve swallowed one*****
*****She´s eating Fly-Simitry cake. Nahhh**na **ne*na**nahhh****
*

 

[Sojourner47]

..

 

[lovingkindness]

...and so to Villanofar....
It’s dusk. Light is beginning to fade and I realise I’m not going to make it Gradefes. Something keeps pushing me on, pushing me on until finally I get to Villanofar. I tell myself, Stop. That’s enough.

The first person I meet says, keep walking, keep walking. Go to the Monjas at the Monesterio. You can sleep there. It’s only another 30 minutes. I look at my watch. It’s 9.30 pm, nearly dark. No, I can’t walk after dark. It’s dangerous. Besides, it will be 10 pm by the time I knock on their door. That’s a bit late, isn’t it? No. You’ll be fine. They’re used to people turning up.

Gracias, adios.

But I don’t feel ´fine´. I drift to the other end of the village, to the fuente. An abuela with snowy hair is there with a water jug. I ask about a porch to sleep on. She gets really excited, enthusiastic and takes me to the Iglesia . Others appear and before long we’re all chattering by the porch. As I roll out my bedding a couple of teenagers look in. They’re concerned. I say, It’s ok. I’ll be fine. I´m used to doing this. They say, No, go to Gradefes to the Monjers. They´re at the entrance to town, just turn left. There´s an albergue there. But it´s dark. I can´t walk on the road. Please, don’t worry. I’m used to doing this.

They disappear then return with their mother. Would you like some food? A drink? And suddenly I´m devouring a toastie pie and cola cao. And just as I finish the beautiful abuela returns with bread and cheese, fruit. I’m overwhelmed, so I sing to them but my voice cracks and one of the teenagers laughs…

Is there anything else you need? the mother asks? May I use the Aseo? She takes me to her mother´s casa and before I know it she and her sister have put sheets on a bed, drawn a sello in my credencial and wished me, Buenas Noches. Apparently their mother liked to help passing peregrinos and now they are continuing the tradition. Muchas Gracias.
-Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

Days 367 + 368 Gradefes

……Where the serenity of kindly love stills my awkward thoughts……

For hours I sit outside trying to sketch perfect roof tiles, pillars and arches. Then I give up.

-Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

...In Gradefes el Cura, Sebastian and a local family took me under their wing. I stayed the first night in a part of the Monastery separate to the Monjas. The second night I spent with new friends whom I’d acquired a few days earlier down by the Rio Esla....... Gracias, Señor amabile y mis amigos .
-Lovingkindess

 

[lovingkindness]

SJ47, amigo! ¿´...´? LK

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 369 Gradefes to Santa Olaja de Eslonza (La Ruta de Los Monasterios)

 

[lovingkindness]

...

 

[lovingkindness]

....and so to Santa Olaja de Eslonza

 

[lovingkindness]

...Santa Olaja de Eslonza: an Ode to Anamarie

I was a stranger
You came to my aid

I asked for a floor
You gave me a bed

You were in grief yet you considered me
Then you walked by my side for an hour
Gracias.

-Peregrina

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi, lovingkindness,

So it seems like you're at the end of the Ruta Vadiniense, about to merge with the Camino Frances. If you tire of the crowds, you have the Camino de Invierno awaiting you in Ponferrada, just a few days onward (It ultimately merges with the Via de la Plata, but not till A Laxe, outside Lalin).

Buen camino, and your pictures continue to delight the eyes. Laurie

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 370 cont. Puente Villarente to Leon (El Camino Francais)

¿Where are they?

 

[ksam]

LK..your pictures get better and better all the time! I think the snail on the scallop shell is the perfect one for the Camino as a whole. Slowly, poco!! This last week has been truly amazing to follow. You also remind me to be grateful. Grateful for where I am and what is in my life. No flies on the trails I'm taking now...only mosquitoes and a few gnats. I think those flies would drive me mad!
Slowly mi Amiga...your nearly there! Wishing you peace this night..
Karin

 

[lovingkindness]

...Haven´t seen any .......¿since? ! ............... I fixated on that snail.......
.............................it´s just me and the weeds....................
...............[hi, KSAM ] LK .....................................................................................

 

[lovingkindness]

....and then I arrive.

 

[lovingkindness]

Days 371-382 Leon
My mind’s streaming. It has been for weeks. Heat has dislodged a few ´rocks´. I’m flooded with feeling and dreaming all day. I am always 8 to 9 years old. I should get walking but I can’t seem to move. My other Self says, You need a Rest. So, the next day I check into a Students Hostal with unlimited access to computers and give myself a room with ensuite. For days I splurge on Facebook and english novels then I set to work:

Dubdubdub dot see es jay dot oh are gee dot you kay Click
….wait…
click Forum wait…click…. wait……click pauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse…Yes! Wow, look at that! 20948 hits!

The minute I start typing I get sick. A head cold hits and it drags on for more than a week. I squander myself and give in to its rage. I live in the computer. Three times a day I exit the screen and sun myself by the Cathedral. Then I enter through the Portal, take off my specs. and spangle my senses. Prisms and jewels kaleidoscope my brain as darkness blankets my skin. I’m enthralled. When I need food I sit outside a café eating Empinadas or patata tortillas and Bombas. And if The Family drifts in or by I call out, Buen Camino!

-Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

.....When I was eight years old I left home. I had my first big adventure. Dad flew me in a little aeroplane across the Great Outback of Australia to the Coast. We slept at the Peoples Palace and Dad said, The Sallies are a great bunch. They’re corker! Then he took me to The Children’s Hospital:

The Specialist said, Stop telling lies. Which one’s brighter, the lion or the puppy? She fiddles with something then asks, What colour is this? Which one’s blurred? Then she calls Dad back into the room and says, Your daughter has an astigmatism in her right eye. For the next 12 months she needs to wear an eye patch and follow an exercise routine. This will correct it.

I stare at them in horror, thinking, Eye Patch, a pirate´s Eye Patch? I´m not wearing one of those! You´re suppose to say, Your daughter needs glasses. Then ask me, Which pair would you like, the Cats Eyes in bright blue or the pretty pearly pink ones? I don’t want an eye patch, I want glasses like Debbie at school.

Thwarted. For weeks I’ve plotted. I pretend to be cross-eyed, I drop things and I tell the Teacher I can’t see the blackboard. The Optometrist is perplexed. He says to Dad, I don’t know what the problem is; she’d better see a Specialist…

The Specialist talks with Dad. She asks, How many children do you have? He says, Six! He’s proud. She looks at me for a moment then says, Perhaps your daughter would benefit from a Break? How about 8 or 9 weeks at the Bush Children’s Home?

So Dad takes me to the Redcliffe Bush Children’s Home and gets all emotional. He thinks he’s abandoning me, just like his mother did him. I hardly notice. I’ve seen the beach and the swings and I can’t wait……

For the next 8 weeks I do eye exercises. I go to the State School with all the other Bush Kids and at night I sleep in a dormitory with rows of big white beds. Each girl has a white bedside locker and we’re taught how to do ´hospital corners´. We have Day Nurses and a Night Nurse and the thing we’re scared of most is peeing the bed. Every morning the Day Nurse checks and all the girls know. We’re not allowed our own clothes or toys and any gifts sent from home are confiscated ´till we leave. They give us foul tasting margarine on red-jam sandwiches and scour our hair for nits. And when we first arrive we have a Check-up. They make us stand in our knickers in front of a Doctor and it’s horrible. But…… I enjoy being there, mostly……

I´m curious and I like to play: that kid´s an epileptic. She has fits. That one has a hair-lip. See! She´s got a scar! The girl with beautiful long hair which the Day Nurse combs and plaits for school, she was born without eyelids –they made her some. That boy has speech therapy and that one over there has a hearing-aid box with something he pokes in his ear. It squeals and squeaks and he’s always playing with it. It’s very interesting…… I like the Day Nurse, Jane. She plays a fife. Sometimes she lets me play it, too. We get to go to the Brisbane Exhibition and a Ballet and sometimes after school there’s ice creams and pink watermelon AND at the weekend there’s Sunday School. We sing songs and memorise scripture and they give us tiny paperback Gospels and things to collect.

For a year I do eye exercises and wear the horrid patch…off and on….. Neither work. By the time I’m aged twelve I need glasses but by then I don’t want them……

Leon Cathedral is a spangle of treasures and prisms which fractalate through my brain. The colours splice through my short-sighted eyes and give me kaleidoscope visions……..
-Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

... --- ... ,,, ^^^^... ---^^

 

[ksam]

Wow...I'd forgotten about getting glasses...and the comments that lead up to it. Things like the lovely halos on the street lamps and how pretty and soft everything looked at night...rather like something from a Christmas card...fuzzy and beautiful. I didn't realize it wasn't supposed to look that way. Funny how you liked the glasses...I hated 'em from day one. Can't even think how many I lost or "broke"! But still to see, to see clearly, eventually mattered more... Thanks for the memories...although I can't do the fuzzy thing so good anymore...after lasik "fixed" em! I almost...almost..miss it!

Loved looking at Leon thru your "lens" again...been spending the afternoon going thru pics to share with friends on Friday evening...so just went thru my Leon pics too!

Say hello to the Family or as I think...the Tribe...for me! Buen Camino mi Amiga!

 

[CaroleH]

Lk...... for all sorts of reasons, I've been away from the forum and your story, switching off from all things camino (weeelllll.... not really)... but now back..... catching up with your Pico and Vadiniense journey. . . you crazy, amazing girl, wandering around fog encrusted peaks, sleeping in "porche de iglesias", FREE as a bird . . .

. . . . I am delighted again by your story . . . . and so envious. Buen camino.Carole

 

[lovingkindness]

Hola, Laurie, Ksam, CaroleH y todos nice to hear from you all.

Day 385 El Camino de San Salvador Leon to Cabanillas (17 kms)

 

[lovingkindness]

...Cabanillas: fine hospitality y el porche no. 7...such a lovely welcome in Cabanillas....I was feeling quite unwell as I entered the pueblo and realised I couldn´t go further. A Señora just happened by and asked if I needed anything. When I said that I needed to stop she took me to her casa and fed me. We sat outside chatting with the neighbours, entertained by an abuela teasing a cute little five year-old. After a funny interlude, a pleasant long while an hombre gentil walked me to the Iglesia. And that´s where I slept, on el porche no. 7 snooped on by a cat and kicked in the back by a breeze.

A lovely new albergue is being built in Cabanillas. It will be ready shortly.
-Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 386 Cabanillas to La Roble (10 kms) via La Seca
Cabanillas, at dusk: in the deepening gold of a waning sun, in the shade of a lovely old porche where weeds spread their seeds across terracota tiles and leaves drift and crumble on cobbles, I met some mujeres and niñas.They said,Come for Desayuna in La Seca, the next pueblo. it´s not too far from Cabanillas, just over the bridge...

So I arrived in La Seca the next morning in filthy clothes and quite frozen. Desayuna quickly became Fiesta and suddenly the niñas were dancing and I was singing and dancing too and before we knew it I´d been handed a big fluffy towel and shown the shower (Just as well. Phew what a stink). Soon after the madre and the tia and abuelas said, Lets all walk to the next pueblo! So we strolled in the shade of old Encinas and spindly Robles trees and chatted of That and This. And all the while, to make absolutely sure I didn´t starve or flake out from fatique a little niña graciosa about aged six fed me moras and pretty rocks and bayottas.
-Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

La Roble
Temp: 42 degrees C. (17.00)

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 387 La Roble to Buiza (12 kms)

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 388 Buiza to Pobladura de la Tercia ...and the hiking was superb and the views so fine that it took me all day to do just c. 9 kilometres....

 

[lovingkindness]

...

 

[lovingkindness]

...

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 389 Pobladura de la Tercia to Pajares (15 kms) ...a spectacular day...

 

[lovingkindness]

...

 

[lovingkindness]

...Santa Maria de Arbas...

 

[lovingkindness]

...and over the Puerto to Pajares where Marisa cooked me an excellent dinner at the albergue and los niños del pueblo grilled me for info on NZ and how old I was before granting access to a computer ...

 

[KiwiNomad06]

What truly beautiful places you are walking through lk! The last photo with the sight of a blackberry made my heart race. I know that while doing my final Camino 'training' in 1998 along the back roads in the hills behind Palmy (Turitea- Greens) I ate blackberries from the road verges. And I have just started walking some of those routes again, as I plan to walk from Cluny next April. I know that just before I leave, I will be eating more blackberries from the road verges....
Margaret

 

[lovingkindness]

...blackberry-moras? I must have eaten a tonne of the things since departing Irun...those and queso de oveja.....i feel...quite...sick....

 

[ksam]

LK...Love the fiesta and the blackberries and the hills, and the asters and everything! Some of the hills you've photographed reminded me of some I'd seen in the Pyrenees...and I thought they looked like the spines of dragons or dinosaurs or some other mythical creature, curled up and asleep for a millenium...now covered in moss or grass. Fortunately, now that it's fall, they should stay asleep untill you are well and truly past them.

Buen Camino, and enjoy the blackberries, I know I loved all the wild strawberries and cherries in the spring!

 

[lovingkindness]

wild cherries & strawberries...wouldn´t mind a change....

Day 390 Pajares to Campomanes (15.5 kms)...another glorious day. There are various ways to get from Pajares to Campomanes. On leaving the albergue in Pajares I turned left after the last house in the village then hiked down a steep gravel track to San Miguel in the valley. The rest of the day I followed Camino signs through various mountainside pueblos and hamlets climbing high onto a track which runs along the left side of the mountains....

 

[lovingkindness]

...

 

[lovingkindness]

...and when I arrived in Erias with it´s beautiful horrios and stone dwellings un hombre y su amigos said, are you hungry? Join us for La Comida. We´re eating al fresco beside the ruins of an ancient albergue in the shadow of towering mountains and trees...There his esposa amabile produced calamare and pimientos verdes, aroz delicately spiced with herbs and much more...until eventually I sank beneath the warmth of their kindness into the drowsy sweet depths of sleep...but only for a moment....because I still had to walk to Campomanes...

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 391 Campomanes to Pola de Lena (7 kms)

 

[lovingkindness]

...Santa Christina de Lena ...

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 392 Pola de Lena to Mieres (14 kms) ...tarmac all the way and a stretch beside a river....The albergue in Mieres is not habitable at present....

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 393 Mieres to Oviedo (19 kms)...a pleasant day beginning with a tarmac hike up the mountainside through wayside pueblos, then a scenic walk from Olloniego down to Oviedo which alternates between a Senda Verde and asphalt ....

 

[lovingkindness]

...and so to Oviedo where one is not permitted to photograph inside the cathedral so here´s a shot of Santiago de la parroquia Santiago Apostel, La Manjoya, Oviedo instead...

 

[lovingkindness]

Days 394-395...Oviedo moments

 

[lovingkindness]

...

 

[ksam]

Ohhhkay LK...10 days...this is a long silence! Hoping and praying all is well and your simply enjoying the road as you slowly now come towards Santiago! Thinking of you...Karin

 

[Anniesantiago]

I'm with KSAM.. where are you, little Wanderer?

As I read back through some of your posts over morning coffee, I realized you are like an angel of God, bringing out the humanity and the goodness in people.

It made me feel hopeful.

I hope you'll "check in" soon
Annie

 

[CaroleH]

I'm with Annie and Karin, wondering how you are, and urging you on for these final days of your marathon camino LK. I guess you'll have all sort of mixed feelings and emotions to deal with, as Santiago gets closer. Go well and be happy.

Buen camino
Carole

Love your mountain photos, so wild and beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

 

[lovingkindness]

(Day 407) I am paniking, Si. (¿does that have a ´c´ or is it spelt ´ck´?).... I have decided to ´hole up´ for a few revolutions in Time and reflect on every aspect of my being just in case I have ´cracked´...I am practicing ?..¿..?..¿.....Self Management! Yes, that´s the word
-LK

 

[lovingkindness]

...more Oviedo moments.....

 

[lovingkindness]

...

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 396 El Camino Primitivo Oviedo to San Juan de Villapañada (27? kms)

 

[lovingkindness]

.......God, I hope I´ve made the right choice......six peregrinos have just passed me by, that´s not too bad...when I get to the albergue I´ll lay flat and shut out the world. I´ll cover my face and drift into serenity.....I wonder what this aspect of me is called, this part of Self that bonds instantly with others or shuts them out? This part that melds into a group then socialises madly till it crashes? And when I am exhausted or mineral depleted it rises up hostile, it freaks out at the mere presence of another? .....

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 396 (Cont.) ...at the albergue........I´m trembling, holding back tears. The hospitalero is shouting furiously and a peregrino is hurling words. Violence...threats...someone says, I´ll call the polizei.........and then it´s quiet, but not for another three hours because the hospitalero loves his role. He enjoys cooking for others and giving advice to those who want it. He´s surrounded by a ravenous chatty bunch. Sixteen others are stuffed into the bunkroom but there´s no bed for me. .....last in gets the floor....

 

[lovingkindness]

Days 397-399 San Juan de Villapañada via Salas to Tineo...in Salas there is a new albergue with 16 beds and strobe lighting....just above my head....can´t switch it off...

 

[lovingkindness]

...and so to the Tineo Albergue..

Hey this is great! I´ve just passed a while, a sunny pleasant moment sloshing through cow muck and black sludge beneath a leafy tree tunnel over cart tracks and stones with a couple of peregrina sisters who started walking back in Oviedo. One sister is a Nurse. I´m not sure what the other one does. Now, here we are arrived at a converted hospital/peregrino-albergue. The Sister-sister should feel right at home. I gaze about, do a 3 second reconaisance and spy...... a padded massage table just my size....there in a corridor, in a cosy darkened space away from all the other beds.....Hallelujah! A good night´s sleep.....

....Then I take off to La Casa de Cultura, go tap-tap-tap-click and discover that some foul soul has hacked into my Email account and sent salacioius advertising to all my contacts...

 

[nellpilgrim]

Yes we are a panicky bunch but it's good to hear from you LK and not just from a selfish desire to read/view the next episode of your story. Wishing you a calm and serene arrival....and a few more massage tables :lol:
Bonne route
Nell

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 399 Tineo to Borres (18.8 kms)

....Amarosos! So amusing, una divertida! she´s beautiful and he´s intense. They can´t keep their hands off each other and the rest of us are smiling and laughing.

Couples on the Camino are curious. There are those who talk with each other and those who don´t. Those who snap and argue and boss each other about and those who take every care. Amarosos and couples walk El Camino in another dimension to the rest of us, the solitas and the individuals banded into groups. They are a Force, distinct and powerfully self sufficient. Sometimes they bond with the outsiders and groupees, sometimes they don´t. Bonding is interesting. I wonder how many peregrinos dream of walking El Camino solo. They jump on a plane, arrive at the starting point then instantly link up with a companion....

 

[lovingkindness]

....at Borres I sleep with the mice and lay awake as they ´jump hoops´inside the rubbish bin. I have become so nervy at night that I now shout in my sleep. Tonight there are three snorers in the habitacione. I remove myself and embrace el suello de la kitchen....

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 400 Borres via Hospitales to La Mesa (32 kms?)...somewhere out there, in the mist and gorze and stones lay the ruins of several ancient hospitales de Peregrinos....

 

[lovingkindness]

...and the Amaroso loves to cook. He loves his girl and everybody else and the next day at first light he boils up a huge pot of soup and invites the world to eat.....

 

[lovingkindness]

Anonymous PM: Solo or Not?....I think it happens more than many realize...that meeting of someone. You walk along with others...link up...leave...move ahead...and suddenly on a mountain top....you walking alone...happy as a clam and suddenly your walking next to someone...and your steps match and mesh...and so do your pauses, your music, your poetry...and you walk like this for days...and realize you will never ever be the same having met them. You begin to realize that all the delays and things that held up up along the way, right down to illness that slowed your pace, left you there on a mountain top to met this person. It has to be for a reason. Something that fits so perfectly cannot be chance. God sends angels to us in the most remarkable guises and times and places. The funniest was that everyone from that point on assumed we were married...which made us laugh out loud! In fact there was another perigrina they seemed to all think was our daughter!! I am learning to be grateful for these gifts...even now, back in my "real" life. It has changed me for the better, even as I struggle on alone now. It has given me courage to face difficult tasks that appear to be coming and may in fact be utterly unavoidable. But I know I'm not alone in the world anymore, so it is ok! I have been blessed.
Pax my dear...hoping you find peaceful rest on each of the days now...leading into Santiago...Remember you and all the pilgrims out there on the path right now are thought of by so many of us...prayed for and lifted up...we are a beautiful and fearsome tribe of pilgrims...deeply vested in each other...

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 401 La Mesa to Grandas de Salime (18 kms) ...a glorious descent through forrests on dirt tracks to Embalse de Salimes...then a hike uphill and over to the pueblo where, like several others I crash in a cheap pensione to revive my Self....

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 402 Grandas de Salime to Padron (Galicia)...an arduous lovely day in the company of hazy lovers then quiet solitude sweet peace....

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 403 Padrun to O Cadavo (23 kms) ....the days are lovely but getting harder and harder to hike. The peregrino Boys are a great bunch and so attentive...Guappa! Guappa! Guappa-girl! I love it.....we all swarm at a bar and devour giant bocadillos with French omellettes and tomatoes stuffed inside. We slouch outside on the benches and chatter. I am beginning to join The Herd. I´ve succumbed to marching from Albergue to Albergue ignoring distances that are now too great for my bones just to keep company with the buddies.....

 

[lovingkindness]

...but when I arrive in O Cadavo there´s no room at the Albergue. I howl and cry and make a huge amount of noise but not until I´m alone in a shower. I have been sent to a basketball stadium for the night and nobody else is here to join me. I want the others. I´ve forgotten how to be alone. I am bereft and tired of practicing detachment.

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 404 O Cadavo to Lugo (31 kms)
....a very long tiring, tiring day. Friction rubs raw the skin on my ankles and my back begins to bow. I pass by an Iglesia with a depiction of Santiago the Moorslayer victoriously astride a white horse at the altar. Blood drips grotesquely from the conquered Moor under hoof, his neck and head twisted as white cherubs gloat in attendance. Then I drift and drift and drift until late in the day I catch up with the two sisters. Somehow we stagger another 6.8 kms on tarmac to Lugo then disperse. Later peregrinos and promenaders stroll the streets listening as a Flemenco artist strums and sings to the girls at his feet. The Boys appear shouting guappa, guappa and then I am asleep. It´s a miracle. All the snorers have gravitated to the room below and twenty of us sleep peacefully in the bunkroom above.
-Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

Hi there Nellpilgrim ...sure could do with a massage....and physiotherapy and about a thousnad nights in the one bed....

y Buen Camino to Soujourner47...hey, buddy, perhaps you should take some photos of El Camino de Madrid! You might make a fortune.......

-LK

 

[ksam]

Mi Amigo!! Wow, you are doing so well!! So strong! I'm so glad you've good companions to help cheer you along this way, in person, besides those of us hovering over our keyboards! Love your newest set of pics, the cobwebs, the surfer sign etc! I think many of us are watching even more closely now as you are approaching the city we all dream about. So here's to hoping and praying the lovely crisp weather of my today will get to you asap! Blue skies, cool crisp air, sunshine in abundance! And more angels to make sure you don't dash your foot upon a stone! Love ya, Buen Camino, karin

 

[maricristina]

Lovingkindness, good to get news from you. We (one of those "couples" but, I hope, a couple who do not exclude others but rather try to include those we meet in our pilgrimage and benefit from them.) As we were on the Camino de Inverno there were not many others, only three Spanish men, for three days, who were a great joy. I thought of you often but could not get internet on that route. I hoped you might reach Santiago while we were there 26th to 29th Sept. but you chose the best way to continue on the Primitivo. We walked along there a few years ago. I find your posts so uplifting and keep you in mind. May St.James guide your steps.
Maricristina

 

[lovingkindness]

days 405-407 ...in Lugo...

...and so I decide to walk the ancient walls of Lugo and willow through sleep in a dingy room where linen grey with use shrouds my form and stark white light illumines age. For the next few days I succumb to the calming compromise of cyberspace peregrinos and familiar friends and allow Time to sift my frantic thoughts.

Then I leave....

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 408 ...on the run... Lugo to Friol (c. 24 kms)

 

[lovingkindness]

...I am the only peregrina in the world..... I am striding aloft like Britanica. My Leki poles are brandishing fire and my forehead is carved in adamant .......I am sure there is a camino through the woods from Lugo to Friol but no one in Lugo knows where.....I´ve just walked a kilometre or two along El Camino Primitivo in my safari hat and now I´ve stumbled upon a selection of arrows: green and red arrows pointing right, Camino flechas (and a sign to Melide ?) left. I stare at these for a while, feeling greatly tempted to follow the Green but in the end I ignore the impulse. For the next few kilometres I continue along El Camino Primitivo until it crosses the LU 232 where I turn right. for the rest of the day I am shackled to asphalt. I hardly notice. I am suffused in an immense feeling of calm and light headed .
-Lovingkindness

........When I was an eight year old my school teacher showed us pretty maps of the world and told us all about Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan.....

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 408 cont. ...Zumo de Naranja natural con hiello, un basso muy grande, por favor. Gracias....
...and just as I suck up the fruit pips and pulp at the bottom of the glass in walk two sun bronzed peregrinos. A third arrives by bus, his ankles swollen with tendenitis. Escapees.....All summer there has been a steady trickle of peregrinos high-tailing through the forrests to Friol. They follow a well marked trail signed in green. Apparently It´s been happening for years. The two amigo peregrinos who´ve just arrived said that they got lost once or twice. So they headed for the motorway which they could hear in the distance. Each time they stumbled back onto the trail.

That night the barman in Friol gives us a photocopied map and commentary which we use to guide us along caminos to Sobrado.
LK

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 409 ...and so to Sobrado dos Monxes (El Camino del Norte)

 

[lovingkindness]

...

 

[lovingkindness]

...I enter through PAX and feel my spirit stream. Golindrinas dive and twirl through the haze, scrapping in towers which sprout flowers and hay. I´m enthralled. A Trapist Brother appears and eventually leads me to a quiet, darkened room.. Then night descends and oddly-pitched partials spark through the air as bells twang the hours. Twenty peregrinos have drifted in for the night and a group of us dine on pasta and tinned fish salad in the glow of pot-holers lamps and a candle...

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 410 Sobrado Dos Monxes to Curtis Crossroads

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 411 Curtis-Crossroads to Betanzos (tarmac, 23 kms)
...and so to Betanzos where I have a pleasant stay and there meet one or two peregrinos en route de Ferrol...but before that happens its downhill all the way from Curtis in the climbing heat , past windfall apples and purple juicy figs to the Lavadero Gratuito (1901), Bezantos ...Gracias a los Dos Hermanos Garcia (benefactors).