Gratitude Ahead

Today was another day of beautiful skies and an opportunity to be grateful. We left the hotel and the first stop was at a pharmacy. It’s nothing tragic. I've just been trying to wean myself off Nexium and it wasn't working, especially when most evening meals come with red wine. It was a great relief when the pharmacist put a box of purple pills on the counter in front of me.

Spence and I are traveling with hydration packs and a few items on our back. Many of the other pilgrims are using full backpacks between towns. As challenging as some of the terrain is for us, it must be even more difficult for people who are carrying substantially more weight on their backs. Not simply for how heavy that might be, but for the way it would disrupt a hiker's sense of balance.

Each person travels the Camino at their own pace. So we see others that we have met before at different locations along the route, as they either pass us or we pass them. It was delightful to see the French cousins who we met the first night. We also ran into our friend Debbie again. Her feet are blistered and there was actually blood seeping through her left shoe. She showed incredible perseverance and dedication. I'm sure we will run into her again along the way, and we are looking forward to seeing her.

Then there were two women from Norway who we had a fun discussion with at a coffee shop during our next break – Elise and her friend, who was known only as “Mother Teresa” for reasons not revealed to me. It amazes me how witty people can be in languages that are not their own.

In that town there was also a local jai alai club.  This is, after all, the Basque Region. For the uninitiated, this game (whose name means "merry festival" in Basque) is a fast-paced court sport played with a ball and a one-handed basket, against a wall.

We crossed several streams and two major rivers today, including a pretty fast running stream of mountain melt-off. Most everybody stepped across very gingerly, as opposed to detouring up over the bridge to the road.

Shortly after that we took a quick break to change our socks, and 40 young men from Ukraine passed us by. They were refugees who were being supported by a priest from Scotland, and they will be attending a school in France. It was difficult to process that they are refugees and their home is being threatened. Once again, an opportunity for gratitude.

The final 90 minutes of the hike, we ran into the husband-and-wife doctor team from Copenhagen, Anders and Anette, who we met during the first overnight. This was a great opportunity to engage in conversation and it made the last 7 km of a 14-mile walk (see what I did there?) pass quickly. 

This was also the most treacherous part of the day. The descent was very rapid and the terrain was either shell or slate, with lots of outcroppings that could easily snag a toe. I can't imagine how difficult it would have been to transit this portion of the Camino if it had been raining. Torrents of water and mud would have covered all the obstacles and made footing very unsure. Here again, we felt great gratitude for the weather we got to enjoy.

We entered the town of Zubiri, crossing the bridge featured in the 2011 Martin Sheen film, The Way. For anybody who recalls the movie, this was the bridge where Sheen’s backpack tumbled into the river. We chose not to re-enact that scene.

The hotel was 100 yards further along. It was originally built in 1677 – very rustic, but luckily the plumbing has been updated since then. At one point Spence said he was going out for a walk, and surprised me later with a picture of him in a hot tub. It was a good way to finish an arduous day.