Old Friends
Two nights in the same hotel felt very strange. It broke up the system of packing and unpacking the bag on a daily basis. But soon the second night was over and it was time to move on. When I started out it was not quite 40 degrees, so I layered up and headed out the door. Spence was already 45 minutes ahead.
The way out of the city leads past the large cathedral in the Gaudi Museum. Traffic was light. Still, you knew you were in a city. The trail went along the road for about three miles before cutting back to a dirt path.
At the first village I ran into the doctors from Copenhagen and Joseph from Belgium. We would see each other several times on and off for the remainder of the day.
One of the conversations I had with Annetta went back to the discussion of organ donation, or being a body donor for medical students. She made an excellent point. Organs are not rated by the age of the individual, but rather by the condition of the organs. So if I were to have no use for my parts in the near future, they would have lots of value to other people. Looks like the medical students will have to wait until I run these parts down a little bit more.
On the topic of running things down, the tread of my shoes is getting thinner and thinner. I really like these shoes. I appreciated them even more today as I climbed the last mile and stubbed my toe twice on outcroppings of rock.
I contacted Altra customer service to see if I could expect my Peak 6 shoes to last the final 150 miles of this journey. They responded pretty quickly after I sent along pictures of the shoe condition. I give credit to the customer service rep who actually made a call. It looks like these shoes will go from beginning to end with me. At this point they're like old friends. Admittedly, like old friends that are getting stinkier.
Along the way I ran into Leo (exit 70) with the young lady from Japan named Saori. Joseph joined us a few minutes later. It seems that once we greet each other, the follow-up conversation is usually about blisters and aches. Leo is still in sandals because he is nursing some sore feet. He hopes that his blisters will be sufficiently healed soon so he can make the next leg, which is about 20 miles with lots of up and downhill.
After a coffee break with the Copenhagen doctors, I set out for the second half of the day’s 13 miles. About three miles down the road. I ran into a young lady named Alexandra. She's 26, originally from Romania, a citizen of Italy, and recently back from Australia on a tourist visa. I was amazed by the size of the pack she was carrying and the fact that she was doing the walk in sandals. More amazing than that, she is a vegan. That is a huge challenge on the Camino. Even when she orders vegetable soup, she often finds it filled with sausage or chorizo. She is struggling a little bit to find things to eat along the way.
Word travels up and down the trail like jungle drums. When I introduced myself, she immediately responded that she had heard of “The Two Marks.” During the hour that we walked along the trail together, we covered any number of topics. Her hope is to return to Australia and study veterinary science, spending six months Down Under and the other six months back in Romania trying to save dogs that would otherwise be euthanized.
Even with a full pack, she darted up the last rocky trail on the way into town. There's a fence running along the right side of that trail, where people have improvised small crosses they've inserted into the chain link.
Rabanal del Camino is a very small village. Anyone and everyone that we would have seen on the trail wound up here today. There are albergues, hotels, and even tents set up in a garden environment across from one of the eateries. Leo (exit 70) is spending the night in one of those tents. In the adjacent garden, Spence and I ran into Angela and Carolyn, back on the trail today. It appeared mother and daughter might have gotten a little too much sun.
Spence found a small church while exploring. Pictures from the outside do not do the interior justice.
While the building is in some state of disrepair, the interior is well preserved and very ornate.
Early dinner tonight, and an earlier wake-up tomorrow. The plan among those we've met is to get out the door by 5 a.m. in order to be at the Iron Cross in time for sunrise. This particular site is featured in the Martin Sheen movie, The Way. People bring a stone to place at the site in memory of people lost, or of things they want to leave behind. For many pilgrims on the trail, this is a key feature of their journey.
It will be an interesting dawn parade of our little group, with headlamps blazing into the darkness. Spence will blaze the brightest with his rechargeable headlamp (bought on sale for only $120, at half the original price). The rest of us, me included, will have headlamps that cost about $6 retail. We’ll put the bright guy up in the front of the line.