Thursday, June 14
I thought I´d be coming through fire (or at least heat) to get to Santiago. It turns out that the element I´m fighting these last days is water.
Galicia is so green because it is so very wet.
It rained all night, and then, unlike other days, the rain didn´t let up in the morning. Got help fastening my poncho and set out into the downpour at 7 am. There´s no choice--the albergue kicks you out at 8, and there was no accommodation of any kind for at least 16 km.
The rain poured down but people were speeding along the trail, horses getting near the barn, since we´re so close to Santiago now (tomorrow I´ll arrive). In our ponchos we looked like monks in muddy robes, army green, safety yellow, navy blue. My poncho is short and soon my legs were soaked, as were, eventually, my shoes and socks.
Next time: waterproof boots.
Next time: better rain gear.
You shut off part of yourself when you hike in the rain. The part that minds your feet feeling like bags of goldfish won at the county fair. Squish, squish, squish. The trail was a rocky dirt road, with streams running down the tire tracks. I sang Springsteen and Beatles songs as marching music.
I can show you
that when it rains and shines
it´s just a state of mind.
I didn´t stop for 4 and a half hours.
It cleared up about 3 hours in. Passed through eucalyptus groves, stands of pines, big oak trees. Past old women hoeing their rows of chard and onions. Past a miniature pony who pawed the mud and then rolled in it. Foxglove, dandylions, and queen anne´s lace along the path. A cool wet breeze.
The albergue in Arca is big but I got a good bed (no bunk) by the window, next to a 56-year old Chinese-American women from L.A. named Mei.
It feels like I just got started and tomorrow I walk into Santiago de Compostela.
I need to come back, do the entire Camino. Then do the other Caminos.
4 comments:
- from a book you gave me, ' A Field Guide to Getting Lost' by Rebecca Solnit:
'Even in the everyday world of the present, an anxiety to survive manifests itself in cars and clothes for far more rugged occasions than those at hand, as though to express some sense of the toughness of things and of readiness to face them. But the real difficulties, the real arts of survival, seem to lie in more subtle realms. There, what's called for is a kind of resilience of the psyche, a readiness to deal with what comes next'.
have a great final day's walk
you're our hero
Buenos dias Erin!
This is Daniel, "the Dutch guy of day one".
It is fantastic to read your blog and I notice that you realy walk your Camino intensively! It also makes me revive my own Camino, back here in Amsterdam.
I recognize so many things you write and even some people. For example the woman with the broken arm and the beaten up face (by the way the only person during my Camino I had an argument with....about she being judgemental). Or the grafitti on the wall of the Mexican (towards Portomarin I was thinking about the fact that I am so grateful for all the things in my live, including the love I got from my girlfriend and the personal growth process I am going through, when I read "grateful dead" on the wall...). The two nice men and the fantastic diner in the albergue in Ruitelan etc etc.
You have to know that my encounter with you was one of the nicest during my Camino. And also "my biggest mistake", as in: I regretted very much that I walked on from Rabanal. Our paces were clearly different, but I said many times to myself that I should have slowed down for a day or two to get to know you better. Reading your blog, I feel that even more.
However, it wouldn´t surprise me that we would meet again, somewhere in life. Like Maria Dolores Pradera sings: "Caminemos...y tal vez la vida nos vuelva a juntar".
Enjoy your finish and drink a lot of the great Galician Albariño white wine in Santiago!
Un beso fuerte
(see: http://danieltosantiago.blogspot.com if you want to read my experiences)
wm, a great quote from a great book, and what I need to hear.
shortribs,
Can´t wait to see you!
daniel,
great to hear from you--how did you find my blog? Can´t wait to look at yours. As for the woman with the broken arm, funny, I felt her to be very judgemental too, and very demanding. I respect that she keeps going after her injury but she asks a lot (too much?) of those around her. Met other pilgrims who encountered her and felt the same.
Hope to see you one day!
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