Sunday 30 June 2013

Random photos from friends on the Camino

[From Kurt]

[From Kim - who gets given random presents from the Spanish men, who clearly fancy her to bits - or at least to the extent of giving her rubber gloves]

[From Kurt - Rupert in the background]

[From Brenda and Laurel - I was showing them one of my finishing school tricks. Their blog is http://doschicasonaverylongwalk.tumblr.com/]

[From Kurt]

[from Jonas]

Saturday 29 June 2013

Day 31: Tricastela - Barbadelo

Not much to report today. Beautiful weather, a gentle climb over a low hill and a leisurely 24km to Barbadelo, which is just after Sarria, where the people walking the last 100km to Santiago start. I suspect this means we'll have more albergues and cafés to choose from. The flip side is at for the first time all trip I'm beginning to look forward to the prospect of being back in London - not having people rummaging around the dormitory for their 4am start, and letting my feet recover from the daily destruction. 

Today's walking was mainly with Kim and Rupert, as Kurt had sped off full of beans with his leg finally feeling good. And the boys had spent the day talking to each other and giving us some peace and quiet! When we got to Sarria they decided that they'd stay to watch the street mountain bike competition that is being held tonight, which meant that we (Kurt, Kim, Rupert and I) had the last four kilometres to ourselves, and a quiet supper to boot. And of course tomorrow we will have a mewl-free start to the day. Walking conversation included refrigerator design differences between the US and Europe and prison reform, among other things. 

Tonight we're staying at a lovely albergue just outside Barbadelo. The owner has cleverly put his albergue at the entrance to the town, so that the people staying here can tell the tired peligrinos how good the showers are, and that the place is worth the relatively steep €9 for the night - albergues usually start at around the €5 mark. The supper here was delicious too - home made flan for pudding, rather than the slightly forlorn effort that comes in a plastic pot, which I've specialised in downing in one go. A sort of flan shot, if you like. Tae-Hyum and Sammy, the Korean and Finnish guys we've been bumping into for the last fortnight, ate with us, and we had a lesson in the etiquette of Korean bowing - right hand on the stomach, left hand on the right, then a full 90 degree bow. We practised this, much to the amusement of the other pilgrims from South Korea on the dining terrace. 

Everyone waving at my cousin Richard back in London
Finally, someone asked me where I'd stayed last night. I've lost all sense of where I've been each night, and usually have to ask one of the others, or check my pilgrim credential. I slightly got lost with the name, and ended up saying we'd been at Villabocadillo de los Templarios de la Virgen, which translates as the Sandwich Town of the Knights Templar's Virgin - which in retrospect was a) the perfect composite name for most places on the Camino de Santiago, and b) utterly befuddling. But tonight also marked the first stamp on the reverse of my pilgrim passport - one stamp a night has seen me fill up a full side since I left Lourdes.
 

Day 30: La Faba - Tricastela

Rupert and I set out a little after Team Somerholter, having agreed to meet at the summit of the morning's climb - but when I poked my head into the cafe at Laguna de Castilla (halfway up the hill from La Faba) I saw the four of them getting stuck into a rather large looking breakfast in the mistaken belief that they'd reached the summit. Rupert and I pushed on to O'Cebreiro at the top, which was a charming village, albeit a little pricey and geared up to selling Camino de Santiago trinkets rather than a really decent breakfast. We had breakfast with Jenny and Mark, and set off with Kurt, Kim and the boys when they caught up.

Walking above the clouds before breakfast
Jenny
The day really was one of the most beautiful days of walking I've had on the Camino so far. Galicia – which we entered when we got to O'Cebreiro – is meant to be the prettiest part of the Camino, and we had beautiful sunny weather that gave us huge vistas as we walked along the 1200m high ridge. Eventually the path descended into Triacastela, where we found a lovely hostel where we had a large room just for the six of us – Camino bliss. 


Kim climbing up to the second summit of the day
View from the ridge
Supper was pretty dire (undercooked chips and tough steak), although it could have been worse – I asked the waiter what one of the soup dishes was, and the waiter rubbed his stomach with enthusiasm. I thought he meant it was a delicious, tasty dish, but Kim stepped in at the last minute to warn me that it was actually tripe soup. As we had our first course a large Alsatian dog walked over to us, and Rupert gave it a friendly neck scratch. The dog repaid the favour by engaging in vigorous sex with another large Alsatian next to our table and then carried on with her new friend all the way down the street. I told Rupert that under no terms was he to give any of us neck rubs lest his magic rub off on us as well – we still have 130km to walk to Santiago together, and I want to be able to look everyone in the eye between now and then!

Day 29: Villafranca - La Faba

We had a fairly late start to the day, as we stopped for breakfast - bacon and eggs, coffee and orange juice, and all for just over €5. I generally hate eating before doing a few kilometres, but there was a long stretch over a fairly decent hill early on, and Connor and Jonas tend to mewl fairly loudly if they haven't been fed. 


Anyway the walk over the hill was great. A long climb up to the ridge that gave a great view over the bush fire raging on the hillside ahead of us, and then a descent through some old tracks that weren't particularly well signed - we did get a little lost for about ten minutes. Fortunately Rupert had bought his old Nokia which had a basic GPS and some Spanish maps, and we were soon back on track. We avoided the fires, and second breakfast / lunch in Trabadelo consisted of a large beer, ham and cheese bocadillo (baguette) and my new Camino discovery, something that is half-Magnum, half ice-cream sandwich (and made by Nestlé - not my client Unilever - oops). 

Jonas and Kim

Rupert, his old Nokia and an icecream
The walk to La Faba took us up the first part of the last large hill of my 1000km walk. As we climbed the ancient flagstones that took us steeply upwards, we discussed what the accommodation at La Faba would be like. On the map it appeared to have a spectacular setting, and we knew it was run by the German Cofraternity who had recently renovated the place.

Blurry photo of Rupert climbing up to La Faba
Our expectations were running high - and we weren't disappointed. The view over the valley was spectacular, and the albergue was immaculate: the shower heads were attached to the wall (a Camino rarity) and functioning without one of the dreaded push button taps. And the water pressure was excellent! Christophe (one of the German volunteers) was very excited about my camera, a Leica M6 ('ahh, ze M6 was the best of ze film cameras!') and we drank wine in the late afternoon sun as our laundry dried on the neatly arranged washing lines. In finest Teutonic fashion Christophe had asked us for all our laundry, warning us not to touch the machines ourselves. We dared not ask him what the consequences would be, partly because I'd exhausted all my non-WW2 German in my earlier conversation with him, and was down to phrases like 'for you the war is over' and 'you will be shot'. Not exactly the multicultural Europhile traveller image I wanted to project. We had a delicious supper with Jenny and Mark from Colorado, a couple we've been bumping into for the last few days, who have enjoyed / tolerated our high spirits and general mischief.

Oh yes - I almost forgot to mention that La Faba is exactly 100 miles out from Santiago, although I'm doing the extra 120km (75 miles) to Muxía via Finisterre. Phew!

Evening sun at La Faba

Friday 28 June 2013

Day 28: Ponferrada - Villafranca

Today was just a long drag in the sun. I'd love to try and say something interesting about the day, but really it was just lots of conversation and plodding along in some fairly hot weather, fuelled by another half kilo of cherries. 

After supper Rupert and I decided that we'd have an extra icecream course. I liked the look of the Nestlé 'Tres Chocolate' Magnum-clone, but Rupert's Spanish didn't quite deliver the expected result, and the waitress ended up bringing me three chocolate trumpet cones. Clearly she thought I had a big appetite, but she did look a little relieved when I said I could only handle one of them. 

Here are some photos...

Connor and Kurt, the Somerholter boys

Walking through the outskirts of Ponferrada

Connor with his 'I Need Food' face on just before supper

Day 27: Foncebadón - Ponferrada

An 11km walk (or so we thought) until the next eating opportunity meant we had to have breakfast before leaving our albergue to finish the climb to the Spanish Camino's summit, which at 1504 metres is higher than the pass in the Pyrenees. The point is marked by a large mound with a cross on top - a period to reflect on the journey so far, and everyone passing climbed to the foot of the cross and spent a few moments in silence. 


After that Rupert and I had a few glorious kilometres of walking along the high road, helped on our way by a cherry seller - as we progressed down the path we could see the stones spat out by her previous customers. We stopped for breakfast #2 at Acebo, where the cafe had immaculate lavatories - a bit of a treat really, given that many of the Albergues and cafés have facilities that are bearable at best. 


Acebo cafe lavatory
And so the long drag into Ponferrada. It was hot, hard graft, but the municipal albergue was modern with welcoming staff and a vending machine that sold 'Kaz', the lemon drink that seems to hit the spot when waiting in line to have my credential stamped. We staggered down to the cool dormitory, and unpacked, washed clothes, showered and put our feet up.  

Dear reader, so far I've tried to shield you from some of the more basic elements of life on the Camino. But last night, as I lay in my bed in Foncebadón, I was in particularly flatulent form - something that we've all experienced so far. As soon as the lights were off I let a fairly decent one rip, to immediate howls of protest from the grumpy Italian women at the other end of the dormitory, and with sniggers coming from Kim, Kurt et al. 20 minutes later and I posted an encore (a double hit to ensure the bedbugs were kept at bay), and this prompted one of the women to storm out of bed and start manning the door in a ridiculously over-dramatic manner. 

I mention this merely because as I was laid out in my bed in Ponferrada tonight, feeling the effects of half a kilo of cherries and a large bowl of lentil soup, who should walk in and claim the bunk next to me, but the same two Italian women. Clearly they didn't recognise me from last night, but something tells me that by tomorrow morning I'll be one of their vivid Camino memories!

Tuesday 25 June 2013

Day 26: Astorga - Foncebadón

My cousin Rupert's snoring has actually been pretty good - i.e. bearable, rather than useful for scaring away imaginary monsters. We spent most of today walking with Kurt, with Kim and the boys somewhat ahead of us. We've been walking to roughly the same schedule as a group of sixth firm students from Washington DC. Kurt and I have been doing our best to encourage poor Jonas and Connor to get stuck into them, but alas the three year age difference seems insurmountable when you're a teenager. Or maybe girls from Washington DC don't have quite the cachet when you're from Tampa or Austin. 


Connor striding out
Rupert has been doing really well to keep up with us, given that he's been away from Spain for a month. He's actually promised to return to walk with a guy he knows, who sounds like a total nightmare - this chap is insisting on walking in early September (very hot!) and doesn't seem to have the flexibility needed to be an enjoyable walking partner. He's been regaling us with stories from the training walks he's done with the guy, who's pack weighed in excess of 20kg - GPS manual (in five different languages) included. 

Tonight we're at Foncebadón, which is just below the summit of the Camino - around 1450 metres high. As we finished the climb up to the village Rupert and I could feel our heads suffering from the height, with a gentle throbbing that only eased after a couple of beers and the excellent pilgrims' menu. Fears of bedbugs in the albergue seem mercifully ill-founded. 

The view from the bar in Foncebadón

Day 25: Villar de Mazarife - Astorga

Having had a couple of easier days, today we did 32km under the roasting sun. It really was a rather long day, broken up by Kim finding a bakery that did breakfast pastries filled with sweet Spanish cream. The spring-shaped thing was particularly tasty!


Afterwards Kurt's (14yo) son Connor decided he was going to walk the slightly shorter alternative route that followed the back roads on his own, and we waved him off, hoping to see him again in a dozen or so kilometres. We took the slightly longer route through the back country - at one point we stopped to put in sunscreen and drink water under some trees, and we could hear a swarm of bees not too far away. 

[Connor - the dot on the left - disappearing into the distance]

I've had to patch up my right shoe, as the sole is coming away from the upper. Kurt's gaffer tape is holding things together, and I might be able to make it to Santiago without having to buy replacement shoes... 



Astorga is a lovely little town, with a huge number of sweetshops that I managed to resist. We had a delicious supper (€10 pilgrims' menu) at a modern restaurant, and crashed to sleep in the albergue opposite the town's cathedral. 


Monday 24 June 2013

Day 24: León - Villar de Mazarife

Today's walking was only 24km, and after the 12 or so kilometres yesterday it constituted something of rest period since leaving Lourdes. And it was a good first day for Rupert, who is back on the Camino after a month away - he's been emailing me with concern that after three weeks of solid walking I'll simply stride off into the distance and do lots of 30-40km days.

The walking was pretty straightforward. We started early, and stopped on the outskirts of León at a suburb enticingly named 'Virgin of the Camino' where the local greasy-spoon equivalent did a deep fried twisty thing that apparently you have for breakfast. It was extruded straight into the deep fat fryer, and tasted surprisingly good. 


[Making churros]

The walk through the outskirts of León saw us pass over the local motorway network, which was both brand new and completely deserted - confirming my suspicion that Spain has blown an awfully large amount of money on poorly conceived infrastructure works. 

[More empty Spanish infrastructure]

The hostel we ended up at was lovely. I decided that despite Rupert's infamous 'I'm dreaming about a scary monster, but if I do a special extra-loud snore I'll scare it away' episodes, I ought to sleep next to him on the bottom bunks that had been pushed together. Actually I told him that I'd slipped the albergue manageress that a couple of extra Euros to put us in closely adjoining bunks. 


Rupert had a snooze while I did our laundry, and I promptly managed to lose his underpants. My explanation that he'd made such an impression on the fellow walkers that one of them had run off with his undercrackers fell short the next day when he discovered them casually drying in an apple tree in the adjacent field, and retrieved them with one of his walking poles. 

Saturday 22 June 2013

Day 23: Villarente - León

Today was really the first rest day I've had since starting out from Lourdes over three weeks ago. We'd done over 30km yesterday to make sure that León was a very gentle stroll, and as a result we had a lie in, coupled with a lazy breakfast at the first cafe we came to at Arcahueja - the coffee was excellent, and came with home made cake that made for an excellent start to the day. Two hours later and we were checking into the covent in León.

The Santa María convent is located right in the centre of town, and Rupert mentioned it as the place he'd stayed at when he reached León. We were met by friendly Italian volunteers, before being pointed in the direction of the dormitories. Perhaps the biggest hint that this wasn't going to be the laid back sort of experience I've enjoyed with almost all the Camino's albergues came when Kim was ushered off into the women's dormitory - this was a strictly segregated place, with the front door locked at 9.30pm, and lights out an hour later. As I'm writing, a nun has just walked through the men's dormitory muttering something about the peligrinos - Rupert (my cousin from London, who arrived tonight to join me for the last 400km having already done the walk to Leon last month) and I have been discussing whether she was secretly hoping to see some exposed flesh / male beastliness. To add insult to injury, the square outside the convent is being used for the inaugural concert for León's summer festival - and yes, the windows have grilles over them to prevent any sneaking out to enjoy the festivities. What Rupert failed to mention was that when he stayed here it was an act of self-punishment, and we ended up dubbing the convent SS Experimental Love Camp, in honour of the Z-grade film of the same name. 

León is lovely. Much better than Burgos. I wandered into town with the Americans and we found a nice bar where we drank beer served by the most extraordinarily beautiful bargirl, and being accosted by African trinket hawkers. Connor had accidentally caught the eye of one of them, who gave up when Kurt failed to get excited by the small carved elephant he'd had thrust into his face - Kurt was similarly unexcited by the five pound hardwood carving of a baby being thrown into the air by a heavily breasted woman (or the small carved elephant that she also had in her palm...). Clearly these people don't realise that most pilgrims walking to Santiago carefully weigh everything that goes into their backpack!

['House of Jesus' lingerie store]

We had a delicious lunch in a bar off the beaten track, where I had a fantastic salad with goat's cheese croquettes, followed up by gelato - León has an awful lot of ice cream and gelato parlours. 



We walked around the cathedral, which has magnificent windows, and cloisters with an intricately detailed vaulted roof. 



After that I left my adopted Somerholter family to finish off my blog, write postcards and rendezvous with Rupert. The bar next to the convent had lovely beer on tap, and gave me a delicious slice of ham on bread with every glass bought. Rupert arrived on the dot at eight o'clock - it was so lovely to see him, and really exciting to think we've got the next three weeks of walking together!


Friday 21 June 2013

Day 22: Calzadilla de Los Fermanillos - Villarente

You'll see from the start and end points today that keeping track of the names of the places I've walked through is becoming rather difficult, mainly thanks to the ridiculous names the Spanish insist on giving to their settlements (lots of 'XXX de los XXX' and 'villa' based names. Or more probably my complete inability to get to grips with the Spanish language...

Anyway I did actually manage to wake up, which was a bit of a miracle given that hangover + walking twenty-odd kilometres isn't exactly a great prospect. I spent a long time getting my sheet sleeping bag back into its stuff sack. Breakfast helped kick things into life, but ultimately today was a long grind down the rest of the roman road we'd started on yesterday - an infinitely preferable option to the dirt track next to the main road that most other people seemed to have opted for. And the roman road really did take us into a rather remote part of the region, with rough scrubland around us, rather than the usual wheat fields. 


After about four hours of walking we came to the first settlement of the day. Reliegos is home to La Torre, the maddest bar I've experienced on the Camino so far. It is run by a guy called Sigín, who was clearly something of a herbalist. The place had messages from pilgrims written on the walls, and Sigín was a wonderful character who did excellent food. As he prepared it he explained that he was born in the kitchen behind the bar. Exactly what Connor and Jonas made of him I don't entirely know! 

[Sigín]


[Connor outside La Torre]

The albergue at Villarente is lovely - it is a little off the main road, and I suspect many people bypass it in the hurry to get to León. My room was half empty, and mercifully the table wine wasn't great - a repeat of last night definitely wasn't on the cards. 

[Kurt's feet]

Wednesday 19 June 2013

Day 21: Terradillos de los Templarios - Calzadilla de Los Fermanillos

The joy of having a small room - Nicole, and guys from Belgium and Ireland - is that you don't have people waking you up at five in the morning. Having avoided supper last night  breakfast couldn't come too quickly, and after six kilometres we stopped for an omelette sandwich, coffee, orange juice, etc. I've probably mentioned this ritual already, but it is the highlight of the morning, as by the time you've finished breakfast you've already done a quarter of the day's walking. Just after breakfast we passed the official halfway point between St. Jean Pied-de-Port and Santiago - although I've done an extra 160km on top of that. 


The route today followed a departmental road until Sahagún (which we dubbed Sha'ggun), after which we departed from the main Camino Frances and followed a Roman road to Calzadilla de Los Fermanillos - much better than walking next to the road for the next 30km. We arrived at Calzadilla de Los Fermanillos just before two in the afternoon, and have spent the last five hours finishing off seven bottles of the local wine between Kim, Kurt and me. Which I suppose means I'm somewhat drunk. We're watching Spanish daytime TV (which is terrible - mainly from Venezuela, according to our waitress) and generally being very lazy. But this is what the Camino is about - friends, €4 bottles of wine, yelling at the terrible Spanish television and the overbearing woman in charge of the municipal albergue!

[Spanish daytime television]

Day 20: Carrion - Terradillos de los Templarios

One of the things about the Camino is that everyone seems to love wishing each other 'Buen Camino' - usually as they're speeding past me on a mountain bike. I really haven't got to grips with Spanish in the past fortnight of walking in Spain, and for some reason the whole 'Buen Camino' thing from other pilgrims really gets on my tits. Call me a grumpy old man, but I haven't said it to anyone yet, and I don't plan to change that - unlike the Spanish guy in St. Jean Pied-de-Port who managed to say it in a manner that was rather menacing. Anyway Nicole and I were walking along this morning, deep in conversation about cricket, and an adorable-looking old Spanish woman passed us with a large shopping bag, and a cheery 'Buen Camino'. I was so wrapped up in the world of cricketing greats I gave the woman a cheery 'hey - thanks!' and then got a fair amount of abuse from Nicole for my failure to blend in with the local culture. 

The walking today was along a 20km stretch of of roman road, during which Kurt, Nicole and I spent most of the time discussing sporting traditions - the haka, and the build up to the annual Texas A&M vs University of Texas football game, which has bonfires the size of large houses, wild festivities and days of build up. Definitely something I want to go and see some day soon. 

[Connor and Kurt]

My feet finally feel semi-normal. They've had a dull pain for the past few weeks - a bit like they've been through a mincer. This is good news as usually I've spent about half an hour rolling around at night trying to make myself comfortable before giving up. Which was good as I decided against having the pilgrims' supper, and had an early night - in my slightly cold room, where I was grateful for bringing my warm sleeping bag. To be honest the albergue I'm at isn't great - the hot water seems to run out at will, and there's no wifi. Double boo.