Three days of walking left in our Camino
By: Ken B
Published: 9/21/2015
We only have 66 kilometers to Santiago
We have walked for 30 days with only 3 days till we reach our destination of Santiago de Compostela. It has been an amazing journey. We are in the Galicia region of Spain known for the rain it receives. Well we are extremely lucky because the weather has been beautiful for walking. It starts out cool in the high 40s but then warms up to the low to mid 70s. With plenty of sunshine.
The weather report actually is showing only a little chance of rain tomorrow. Excellent. The rest of our walking days limited chance of rain.
Yesterday we started late because we went to church with two priests visiting from the states. They stayed in the same albergue as we did. They helped to celebrate the Mass the previous day, but since it was Sunday morning now they still wanted to do a Mass. They didn't want to wait for the 11 am Mass at the church, that would make it difficult to do the Camino. Like us they didn't want to chance finding a church having Mass at exactly the right time in their journey pass a small village along the way. So they were able to get the monastery to allow them to offer Mass at 8am.
They invited Mary and I to Mass with them. This truly was one of the best spiritual treats of my Camino. They invited us to the altar. The Mass was in English in an old monastery that had been around for centuries with just the four of us. Wow.
It was with great joy that we saw our friend from Australia, Chloe. She has been on the Camino for a number of days like us. She is walking by herself though she has been with a couple of women she has met. Chloe has had some health issues with her foot and over the last 6 days or so an on going issue with diarrhea. She has tried to solve the stomach issue herself with no success. Well her friends convinced her to see a doctor. The doc told her to quit eating for a day and to sip Gatorade for 24 hours. We think this will help. At the very least her spirits had improved.
The path was very crowded with people that had started in Sarria. That is the shortest distance you can walk for religious credit. We were amazed at the number of people on the path. At the food stop for us a couple of other peregrinos expressed displeasure at the clean shoes, nice smelling clothes and perfectly done hair. But we don't own the Camino anybody with desire and a backpack is welcomed.
But with that many walkers we are having trouble finding a place to sleep at night. In last night's city we found many albergues are full. We did find a place with room for us. Blessing? Not. We slept well despite the snorer. But at 5 am a young man went to the bathroom. Something happened when he got back in the top bunk of the bunkbed. The guy on the lower bunk went ballistic. A fight ensued between the two. Nobody was harmed but Mary said she couldn't get back to sleep.
We were on the path by 6am in the dark with our little headlamps on. The path was easy to follow thankfully. The night sky was awesome. The sun doesn't come up till 8am with only a little sliber of a moon. I hadn't seen a night sky like that since we were in Montana. We were able to see the milky way really clear because of the limited light pollution.
So we got an early start. We had breakfast by 8 am instead of our normal 9 or 10. We had a long walk of 25 KM. Our feet are tired but we got to the albergue first. We are showered, our clothes are clean and dry and we had a good lunch. Three days to go!