George and Deborah's Great Adventures: 09/10/14

There have been "no posts" in the last five days due to no internet, poor internet, exhaustion, or over exuberance in "end of day beers". We received a message asking us what we have been doing and my answer was walking, walking, walking, walking and oh ya … some more walking.

We cannot possibly put into words all that we have seen and done in the last five days. Our intent in this post is to make some general statements that will help us remember these days in case we ever consider doing something like this again.

Firstly, the parts of Portugal we walked were very green. Forests of pine, arbutus, and eucalyptus covered the hilly terrain. Cities and villages were interspersed with farms of corn and grapes. The folks we met were friendly and eager to please the tourists. The same can be said for the folks in this part of Spain except that English does not seem as prevalent.

Secondly, travel costs have been less expensive than home in Canada. Hotels, wine, beer and restaurant dinners are significantly less than home. Cold beers are about 1.20 E ($1.90 CDN) and good wine is about 10 E on average. We have paid anywhere from 40 to 70 E for hotels outside of Lisbon (including breakfast). Dinner with dessert and wine - 20 E.

Thirdly, the number of pilgrims increases, as you get closer to Santiago. A few have joined us from other trails but mostly we have been joined by fresh faces just starting their journeys’. Apparently it only takes 100 km to qualify as an official “pilgrim” and get the certificate. Some are even stretching the interpretation of what 100 km really is. We see some faces that have clearly stepped out of taxi's, cutting off many km of the Camino.

Fourthly, we discovered that there is a luggage service for pilgrims. A company will carry your bags to the next hotel for a 5 E charge. Deborah is still shooting me with eye darts for missing that one. Needless to say, she is adamant if something like this were to happen again, she would have her own bag-boy.

Fifthly, we can safely say that walk touring may not be for everyone. There are all types of “bodies” out here, with varying levels of fitness, and to say it is all “fun and games” for all would be misleading. Much of long distance hiking is hard work. There is much enjoyment everyday, meeting new people and seeing new things at a walking pace but to say every minute is a “joy” is simply not true for many of us. There is, however a great deal of satisfaction in getting through a very long day of km but the last quarter of those long days is physically challenging. It is more about picking up feet, putting them down, and blocking out the discomfort of tender nerve endings on the bottom of your feet. There isn’t much sightseeing around the 30 km mark and after, it is more about keeping the head down and focused on the individual steps in front of you.

Sixthly, the most inspiring story of the trip came from a Canadian woman we met along the way. I think we will read her story one day in a novel. She was a successful businesswoman in Halifax when she lost her husband at a relatively young age. It was suggested that she walk the Camino to help deal with her grief. She reconnected with a man she had met forty years earlier as a girl in Montreal. They walked the Camino together. He was dealing with the loss of his wife. They stopped at a derelict stone ruin of a house along the trail. They saw something in it that others did not. They returned home, married, bought the land, sold their Canadian possessions, and built a pilgrim Inn. They had only been open for four months when we arrived for lunch and she had peanut butter (not found in Europe.)

Seventhly, we are amazed at the confidence we place in a small yellow arrow painted on rocks, fence posts, power poles and the ground in front of us. The Friends of the Camino maintain the trail and the markers. We had maps but the scale necessary to follow a trail through someone's back yard requires more than a map but rarely have we felt lost. Every 50 meters or so there is a guiding yellow arrow. Not everyone likes the "arrow". As we approached a small village we saw on old man with a spray can of paint marking new yellow arrows away from the trail and he had blanked out the original arrow. We found out from others that he owned a restaurant up the road and wanted the walkers to stroll by and eat at his place.

Eighthly, we love dirt trails. We hate cobblestones. We don't mind asphalt but would rather avoid concrete. It is amazing what you consider after a 30 km day. According to architect Phil, we do about 15000 steps each day and the track surface makes a difference.

Lastly, Deborah and I consider ourselves lucky to be out here at all. We both suffered minor injuries in the training leading up to this challenge. I partially dislocated one of those long skinny bones leading to my toe and Deborah tweaked her back carrying a pack that was too heavy. We both attended half dozen physiotherapy appointments up to the day of our leaving. Some days have been a real struggle but with day eight of ten complete, we can see the end and think we are going to make it.

Deborah's camera is broken so don't know about the coming days but here are a few pics to tell more of the story:

Leaving Ponte de Lima to Rubiaes – 18 km. We don’t know if it was the day of rest or just getting used to hiking but on this day we rolled.