Time is against me so I will come back and add photos but as this is the first internet for some days wanted to capture what I could.
In Ventosa my experience of the albergue was different as I was on my own. And different things happen when you are simply following your own rhythm.
I wandered through the kitchen on the way back from completing my laundry and two Korean girls I had shared a bunk room with a few stops back had bought a bottle of the ¨Rioja Pilgrim wine¨
The Spanish drink wine at every opportunity but Rioja is THE wine of Spain. Being diminutive Koreans they needed some help and insisted I stayed and ´got happy´with them. Always glad to make people happy I thoroughly enjoyed their company. Some Korean guy walked the Camino and wrote a book which is selling very well in Korea. It is the new craze for Koreans. These were well travelled Koreans with excellent English and we had a great hour together watching the laundry dry - doesn´t take long in the heat. I should say that other than disaster day en route to Logrono when I put a jacket on against the wind we have had excellent weather all the way and I haven´t worn even a jersey since I got here.
I then met up again with a French couple, Anita and Maurice. But more of them tomorrow
Monday, May 31, 2010
Logrono to Ventosa
Today we definitely wanted a short day and agreed to just walk to Ventosa.
We set off and hadn´t gone far before Leonie burst into tears having discovered she had lost her camera and then launched into me because she hadn´t eaten the previous night. That lifted the lid on a pile of stuff.
She was angry about the water incident from 5days ago and said the feeling was bad between us. I honestly was not feeling badly towards Leonie. (What I didn´t say in the earlier post was that Leonie had 2 fresh bottles of water and, knowing that I had none, had not shared hers. I felt hurt and angry and later that evening told her so. She was unapologetic and angry that I was angry. There really didn´t seem anything to be gained by a futile conversation and I said I wasn´t willing to discuss it anymore. I was over it. She said she would drop it too. But obviously by the resentment that blew up in my face 5 days later and her saying the feeling had been bad, she had been feeling bad towards me all that time)
We each have our version of events. The upshot of it is Leonie decided as we left Logrono that she wanted to walk by herself, at least for today and maybe for the Camino. That was more than fine by me.
My mind was quite pre-occupied by Leonie all day and I had decided by the end that even if she hadn´t made a decision, my decision was that I would prefer to walk alone. It is the trip of a lifetime, something I have wanted to do for ten years. I don´t need to be trying to second guess Leonie.
When I got to the refugio there was no sign of Leonie, yet she was definitely ahead of me as we left Navarette (a town just prior to it along the way).
I have not seen Loenie since. This is the first day since, (writing this 3nights later) that I have had access to internet and there is no comunication from her.
We set off and hadn´t gone far before Leonie burst into tears having discovered she had lost her camera and then launched into me because she hadn´t eaten the previous night. That lifted the lid on a pile of stuff.
She was angry about the water incident from 5days ago and said the feeling was bad between us. I honestly was not feeling badly towards Leonie. (What I didn´t say in the earlier post was that Leonie had 2 fresh bottles of water and, knowing that I had none, had not shared hers. I felt hurt and angry and later that evening told her so. She was unapologetic and angry that I was angry. There really didn´t seem anything to be gained by a futile conversation and I said I wasn´t willing to discuss it anymore. I was over it. She said she would drop it too. But obviously by the resentment that blew up in my face 5 days later and her saying the feeling had been bad, she had been feeling bad towards me all that time)
We each have our version of events. The upshot of it is Leonie decided as we left Logrono that she wanted to walk by herself, at least for today and maybe for the Camino. That was more than fine by me.
My mind was quite pre-occupied by Leonie all day and I had decided by the end that even if she hadn´t made a decision, my decision was that I would prefer to walk alone. It is the trip of a lifetime, something I have wanted to do for ten years. I don´t need to be trying to second guess Leonie.
When I got to the refugio there was no sign of Leonie, yet she was definitely ahead of me as we left Navarette (a town just prior to it along the way).
I have not seen Loenie since. This is the first day since, (writing this 3nights later) that I have had access to internet and there is no comunication from her.
Los Arcos to Logrono
I was in pretty bad shape by the tmie we set off this morning. Leonie was still limping along with blisters and I was going super slowly because of feeling under the weather with puffy oozy bed bug sores everywhere. We had agreed a day or two ago that we would go only to Viana, then found out last night that the albergue had three tier bunks and got extremely crowded. Neither of us could stand the thought of that but someone assured us that there were other accommodation options in Viana. So off we limped.
We arrived at around 11.45 and went to the tourist information centre. They advised of three other options.
option 1 was full, option 2 was a small smokey room. That left option three which was on the way out of town. I was pretty clear we had to decide now to take option three regardless, or else stop now and have a good long lunch break before limping on another 9km to Logrono.
So option three it was. And I guess in hindsight that was the start of the end for Leonie and me walking together. When we got to the place on the way out of town Leonie refused to look at the place and said she just wanted to walk on. I simply had to stop. On top of the unwell bed bug thing an extremely cold wind blew up and my period arrived out of the blue. I stopped on the side of the road and Leonie walked on.
When I finally met up with her 9km later we went to the refugio only to find it full. Fortunately there was another private place (just aother 2km walk!). So by the time we got there, I needed a pharmacy and tampons, dressings and stuff to tend to myself. Leonie lay down on her bed right away. I had a shower and left again in search of supplies. When I returned Leonie was asleep and remained so for the remainder of the night.
The next morning we set off and hadn´t gone far before Leonie burst into tears having discovered she had lost her camera and then launched into me because she hadn´t eaten the previous night. That lifted the lid on a pile of stuff. She was angry about the water incident from 5days ago and said the feeling was bad between us. I honestly was not feeling badly towards Leonie. (What I didn´t say in the earlier post was that Leonie had 2 fresh bottles of water and, knowing that I had none, had not shared hers. I felt hurt and angry and later that evening told her so. She was unapologetic and angry that I was angry. There really didn´t seem anything to be gained by a futile conversation and I said I wasn´t willing to discuss it anymore. I was over it. She said she would drop it too. But obviously by the resentment that blew up in my face 5 days later and her saying the feeling had been bad, she had been feeling bad towards me all that time)
We each have our version of events. The upshot of it is Leonie decided as we left Logrono that she wanted to walk by herself, at least for a day and maybe for the Camino. But I am getting ahead of myself because all this is relaly happening as we are leaving Logrono.
We arrived at around 11.45 and went to the tourist information centre. They advised of three other options.
option 1 was full, option 2 was a small smokey room. That left option three which was on the way out of town. I was pretty clear we had to decide now to take option three regardless, or else stop now and have a good long lunch break before limping on another 9km to Logrono.
So option three it was. And I guess in hindsight that was the start of the end for Leonie and me walking together. When we got to the place on the way out of town Leonie refused to look at the place and said she just wanted to walk on. I simply had to stop. On top of the unwell bed bug thing an extremely cold wind blew up and my period arrived out of the blue. I stopped on the side of the road and Leonie walked on.
When I finally met up with her 9km later we went to the refugio only to find it full. Fortunately there was another private place (just aother 2km walk!). So by the time we got there, I needed a pharmacy and tampons, dressings and stuff to tend to myself. Leonie lay down on her bed right away. I had a shower and left again in search of supplies. When I returned Leonie was asleep and remained so for the remainder of the night.
The next morning we set off and hadn´t gone far before Leonie burst into tears having discovered she had lost her camera and then launched into me because she hadn´t eaten the previous night. That lifted the lid on a pile of stuff. She was angry about the water incident from 5days ago and said the feeling was bad between us. I honestly was not feeling badly towards Leonie. (What I didn´t say in the earlier post was that Leonie had 2 fresh bottles of water and, knowing that I had none, had not shared hers. I felt hurt and angry and later that evening told her so. She was unapologetic and angry that I was angry. There really didn´t seem anything to be gained by a futile conversation and I said I wasn´t willing to discuss it anymore. I was over it. She said she would drop it too. But obviously by the resentment that blew up in my face 5 days later and her saying the feeling had been bad, she had been feeling bad towards me all that time)
We each have our version of events. The upshot of it is Leonie decided as we left Logrono that she wanted to walk by herself, at least for a day and maybe for the Camino. But I am getting ahead of myself because all this is relaly happening as we are leaving Logrono.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Estella to Los Arcos
This morning at breakfast the room was so crowded that I took my breakfast (supplied by the Estella refugio) out into the cool morning and lo and behold found some English speakers. Three Aussies, only one called Barry but all from Canberra. Unfortunately, English aside, there was not much in the way of interesting conversation - despite no lack of verbage from each of them.
As I set off I felt ´today is easy´; the walking not too strenous and the backpack starting to feel lighter. I wandered along thinking that in a few more days when L´s feet are better it will be time to start taking a long lunch break and then walking a bit longer. We would both like to up the kms in due course so that we can take the odd day off to look around interesting cities that are coming up.
The first stop was the Irache monsatery- Only 2km into the walk so very early in the morning _ but never too early to fill one´s water bottle from the eternal wine fountain- One bottle each that is, so thank goodness for the hydration bladder for the days proper fluids.
As I walked on from there I thought it would be great to find a pair of scales somewhere as this is day 7 walking and surely I must be losing some weight (though shorts not providing encouraging feedback).
So it was with quite a pop that my balloon deflated on arrival in Los Arcos. First thing at the refugio is washing and showering and foot inspection. Imagine my horror to find a bed bug sore on my foot, already up into a blister from the rub of my boot. Scouring my body I found all the tell tale marks and knew that by tomorrow morning I would be well on my way to looking a right royal mess. It was particularly disheartening when I had gone to such lengths to prevent them and very hard not to feel resentful of Leonie, carrying but not using or sharing, a bed bug mattress protector weighing 100gms. She had bought it online but not thought to tell me about until too late. (and not to mention not getting bed bugs herself when I had been using all manner of sprays and cover protectors)
My balloon furtherdeflated on going to the chemist to look for some spray the refugio told me about (which they didn´t have) I got on their scales and found I had put on 1/2 kilo. I might have to just resign myself to it being my´time of life´ because you could hardly have more exercise or eat more healthily than I have been doing for the last week.
But all was not lost. I went to the alimentacion and got some tinned lentils, courgette, garlic and a tin of mussels and used olive oil and a pan from the refugio to make a delicous meal washed down with a full water bottle of very delicious monatery wine.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Puenta la Reina to Estella
Leonie has been getting up earlier and earlier. I sleep with ear plugs and eye mask until the get up and out of here music begins at 6am.
On waking in Puenta la Reina I found it was 6.10am. I also considered the relatively easy day ahead of us and the fact that I should contribute to local funds by buying a cafe con leche. So at 6.15, dressed but not packed I stumbled into the egg man from the night before and pàssed acrossed my euros in exchange for a very welcome coffee. While he was still making it Leonie appeared, bag on back and ready to walk on.
We have had it reinforced to us time and again that it is absolutely imperative to walk at your own pace and stop when you need to. With Leonie´s feet still in a delicate state it was good she got a decent head start. But we had also been speaking the last couple of nights to a Frenchman who had started in le Puy and he was now definitely óne with the camino´. I was inspired. Foreget about trying to pre-plan my heuvos so to speak and just take my time. So I lolly-gagged over my coffee, packed my things and started walking in my own sweet time (around 6.50!)
After 3hours or so I ate food I had bought for lunch by a lovely river and then an hour later saw some English speaking dutch guys and sat and had a drink with them. So it was only when I finally got to Estella that I caught up with Leonie. She had done very well but had extremely sore feet. so we checked in at the first albergue that we saw. The downstairs and courtyard were gorgeous. But when we got upstairs it was a bit mouldy and quite crowded. Never mind we were here now. So after going through our arrival routine of washing clothes and hanging out to dry, setting up bed space and having a shower, siesta was over and we hit the town. First stop a pharmacy for more foot stuff for Leonie (extra sanitary pads as she had now done two days in the one the lady had given her as a starter pair, plus antiseptic and a few more bandaids)
Then we wandered around what is a decent sized town and then found ourselves a nice bottle of vino and a seafood paella.
We got back to bed, borrowed ladders to access the very high bunks and went to bed.
Next thing I know it is four hours later and someone is poking me. I take off eye mask and ear plugs and am confronted by a (very nice) woman handing me up my back pack. Apparently after putting my phone on the charger I had left it on and some clot in NZ had been calling me and waking the whole dorm. Still don´t know who it was as they didnn´t leave a message but whoever you are....grrrrrrr!
I praticed sorry in as many languages as I could the next morning :(
On waking in Puenta la Reina I found it was 6.10am. I also considered the relatively easy day ahead of us and the fact that I should contribute to local funds by buying a cafe con leche. So at 6.15, dressed but not packed I stumbled into the egg man from the night before and pàssed acrossed my euros in exchange for a very welcome coffee. While he was still making it Leonie appeared, bag on back and ready to walk on.
We have had it reinforced to us time and again that it is absolutely imperative to walk at your own pace and stop when you need to. With Leonie´s feet still in a delicate state it was good she got a decent head start. But we had also been speaking the last couple of nights to a Frenchman who had started in le Puy and he was now definitely óne with the camino´. I was inspired. Foreget about trying to pre-plan my heuvos so to speak and just take my time. So I lolly-gagged over my coffee, packed my things and started walking in my own sweet time (around 6.50!)
After 3hours or so I ate food I had bought for lunch by a lovely river and then an hour later saw some English speaking dutch guys and sat and had a drink with them. So it was only when I finally got to Estella that I caught up with Leonie. She had done very well but had extremely sore feet. so we checked in at the first albergue that we saw. The downstairs and courtyard were gorgeous. But when we got upstairs it was a bit mouldy and quite crowded. Never mind we were here now. So after going through our arrival routine of washing clothes and hanging out to dry, setting up bed space and having a shower, siesta was over and we hit the town. First stop a pharmacy for more foot stuff for Leonie (extra sanitary pads as she had now done two days in the one the lady had given her as a starter pair, plus antiseptic and a few more bandaids)
Then we wandered around what is a decent sized town and then found ourselves a nice bottle of vino and a seafood paella.
We got back to bed, borrowed ladders to access the very high bunks and went to bed.
Next thing I know it is four hours later and someone is poking me. I take off eye mask and ear plugs and am confronted by a (very nice) woman handing me up my back pack. Apparently after putting my phone on the charger I had left it on and some clot in NZ had been calling me and waking the whole dorm. Still don´t know who it was as they didnn´t leave a message but whoever you are....grrrrrrr!
I praticed sorry in as many languages as I could the next morning :(
Cizur Menor to Puenta la Reina
It was such a treat to walk with a lighter backpack. Alas it was extremely windy when we got to the albergue and the swimming didn´t open until summer, never mind that it had been 29 degrees en route. Also after such a lack of veges in the pilgrim menus I had decided to buy eggs and vegetables in the village just a few metres before the albergue, and make myself a healthy dinner. However this place turned out to be a private albergue with a profit centre around food and drink!
The man on reception, who had spoken excellent English when checking in, telling us what was on the menu and what time we had to leave in the morning, suddenly couldn´t speak a word of English when it came to the issue of my eggs. Not sure if he had simply learned his welcoming patter and genuinely couldn´t speak and more English than that, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. I managed to find someone who spoke French and Spanish, explain my egg dillema to him in French (how bad it would be to try to carry eggs and could they possibly see their way clear to boil them for me in their kitchen). The Frenchman managed to catch my limited French well enough to lob the ball to the Spanish man and, hey presto my huevos were delivered to me, hard-boiled and back in their carton 15minutes later. I expressed my gratitude in as many mucos and gracias as I felt befitted this act of kindness and enjoyed a healthy dinner (outside inthe wind!)
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Camino WTF?
Camino means “way” or "road" in Spanish. It also confusingly (according to google translate) means robber, tenor, lift, cumin, juice, and instant.
I am thinking it might be fun to see which of these meanings reveals itself along the way.
So far I have found
Robber - internet that charges you 1euro for 15mins and is down most of that time but won´t reimburse you.
Juice - fantastic oranges that are the juiciest you can ever imagine
to be continued.....
I am thinking it might be fun to see which of these meanings reveals itself along the way.
So far I have found
Robber - internet that charges you 1euro for 15mins and is down most of that time but won´t reimburse you.
Juice - fantastic oranges that are the juiciest you can ever imagine
to be continued.....
Larrasoana to Cizur Menor
We left again at 6.45 after a cafe con leche from the street machine, determined to clock up a good few kms while it was still relatively cool.
It was not until we reached Trinidad that we stopped, found a supermercado and our first veg of the trip. I bought a full bags of baby spinach, tomatoes, avocado, cucumber etc and made a monostrous baguette thinking it would do me for breakfast and lunch. However by the time lunch time, even Spanish lunch time arrived I was no where near hungry. My feet were sore and I had walked the last hour in sandals when I saw a cold beer sign winking at me as we entered Pamplona.
So I had the pleasure of using my dos cervezas por favor line (my only one piece of perfect Spanish) and sank gratefully onto a hard wooden seat to talk feet and drink beer.
It had been recommended that we carry on to Cizue Menor for the night and once we arrived at the albergue to shower eat and then go into Pamplona on the bus. So we carried on walking through Pamplona which is really a rather lovely place. We had good intentions of heading back in sans packs but the albergue was so nice we just stayed put.
One of the really good things about it was the woman who ran the place knew exactly and precisely what to do with blisters, how to stop your feet moving at all inthe boots - use sanitary pads ontop of the boot liners to absorb sweat and create better grip. I didn´t need that doing but Leonie had blister treatment par excellence and was given the syringe for ongoing use, plus sanitary pad and we were both taught how to tie about boots differently to create maximum toe space but minimum amount of foot movement forward on the steep down hill parts. I am only glad we found that woman so early in the trip as Leonie was pretty miserable by the time we limped in there.
It had been recommended that we carry on to Cizue Menor for the night and once we arrived at the albergue to shower eat and then go into Pamplona on the bus. So we carried on walking through Pamplona which is really a rather lovely place. We had good intentions of heading back in sans packs but the albergue was so nice we just stayed put.
One of the really good things about it was the woman who ran the place knew exactly and precisely what to do with blisters, how to stop your feet moving at all inthe boots - use sanitary pads ontop of the boot liners to absorb sweat and create better grip. I didn´t need that doing but Leonie had blister treatment par excellence and was given the syringe for ongoing use, plus sanitary pad and we were both taught how to tie about boots differently to create maximum toe space but minimum amount of foot movement forward on the steep down hill parts. I am only glad we found that woman so early in the trip as Leonie was pretty miserable by the time we limped in there.
Roncesvalles to Larrasoana
Roncesvalles is also called Orreaga which assumed was because one name was French and the other Spanish. But no, it turns out Orreaga is the Basque name for the place. Jean at the bar in Orisson told us that the celts had come through the area a few times and in his own experience spending a lot if time in Scotland and Ireland, he realises that while there are NO words common to Basque and French, there are quite a few in common with celtic languages. Änd, ´that is good to know as Aunty Frances would say.´
Here´s a Basque road sign
Today was quite a long day, 28.5 km so we set out at 6.45am and walked to Burguete for breakfast of cafe con leche, and a croissant with ham and tomato at 7.30am.
A few villages later things were starting to open and we found a tiny supermarket that sold fruit. This was a god send. The food had been delicious but we had had no fruit or veg and between jet lag and meat and potatoes we were starting to feel the lack. We stocked up on figs plus fruit and yogurt.
What I missed completely was one of the top up fountains along the way and ran out of water. So I was not in good shape when we arrived at 4.30pm to Larrasoana. I have now figured out how to get a full 2L in my hydration bladder and of course I have a water bottle as well.
Today I also had to walk about three hours in my teva sandals after my toes became excruciatingly sore on an extended downhill section.
The good things about Larrasoana was the river. Instead of a shower (turns out they were cold anyway) I just lay down in the flowing river for a good long time. So delicious.
Here´s a Basque road sign
Today was quite a long day, 28.5 km so we set out at 6.45am and walked to Burguete for breakfast of cafe con leche, and a croissant with ham and tomato at 7.30am.
What I missed completely was one of the top up fountains along the way and ran out of water. So I was not in good shape when we arrived at 4.30pm to Larrasoana. I have now figured out how to get a full 2L in my hydration bladder and of course I have a water bottle as well.
Today I also had to walk about three hours in my teva sandals after my toes became excruciatingly sore on an extended downhill section.
The good things about Larrasoana was the river. Instead of a shower (turns out they were cold anyway) I just lay down in the flowing river for a good long time. So delicious.
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