OK i just spent a billion years uploading the photos so ive only a few minutes, but before i forget, a few random thoughts:HOPE--what section of the camino did you guys rent the horses for? i remember you telling me about you and the other girl renting horses and i keep wondering which section it was..... and hope and jessica--are my feet ever going to stop hurting? every day i think im done getting blisters and then i get some more....
so a few comments about the last few days. i wish i had time to label all the pics but idont tonite. we got very lucky with a warm place to stay and internet and washer dryer etc tonite. YESTERDAY was yuck. by far the worst was the night 2 nights before when we ended up in a tool shed... (see previous post) but yesterday was tough. first 10k was ok but it was snowing rain on and off. we stopped to go to church thinking the church would be warm but it was unheated and you could see your breath. gro was shivering and i sat on the floor trying to warm her up. after mass this man came up to me and said his sister would like to invite me for breakfast. really sweet. we ended up staying at her house for a few hours to see if the rain would let up, then she insisted on giving us a car ride to fromista.... albergue at fromista was closed even though my book said it would be open. it was still rainy, and so we trekked 13 more k to some village that starts with a v. albergue there was also supposed to be open, according to my guidebook. im starting to think my guidebook SUCKS :p ....other problem is that shops arent open on sunday so there was nowhere to buy food since the previous afternoon, even bread. this village had an open bakery but all they had were these awful expensive cookies which we ended up inhaling a bag of and using the rest as "bait" to get gro to walk another 5 k to the next town which was supposed to have an open albergue. 5k might not sound like much but its ALOT when your cold, tired, its been rainiong all day and youre carrying like 35 lbs on your back. i limped, trudged and stumbled to the next village, at dark. i almost hitched but there wasnt enuff traffic and i dont speak the langugage. the albergue there was closed as well but they told us where we could stay. at least we were inside and the people were really sweet, but there was NO heat. there were alot of extra blankets but it was as cold inside as outside and the hot showers lasted only about 3 minutes. i spent the night trying to decide whether to put my head inside my sleeping bag and not be able to breathe...or to not put my head inside my sleeping bag and STILL not be able to breathe because the air was so cold.... oh yeah and though it sounds crazy, when we were in burgos, i bought grainne a sleeping bag cuz mines not big enuff for both of us and she gets cold easily. good thing cuz that night was when we ended up in the tool shed. so now im carrying 2 sleeping bags. sucks cuz extra weight but at least im not fighting her for sleeping bag at night....
anyway, usually once we have a couple rough nights we seem to have a good night..and tonight we hit a great place, so it sort of makes up for it. today was really tough though; it was the toughest 16k i have felt. it shouldnt have been cuz it was all flat, but my bag had added weight cuz i was carrying extra food cuz alot of villages seem to not have shops, and also my body seems to be not functioning as well on the sub-optimal food i am giving it. i HATE that. im out of the healthy stuff i brought, except for supplements, and havent found anywhere to replenish them. i could do this whole hike, and well, on dried fruit, dates, nuts, greens and fruit, but most of these thigns are not easily gotten here, so i feel like im asking my body to function on a sub-optimal diet of bread, oranges, olive oil, chocolate, etc and i HATE that..... also, we havent had access to a kitchen in about a week, alot of the albergues dont have them, and im finding this a bit difficult. i was so tired today i lay down in the sun on the side of the path and took a nap even though it was cold. just really tired. and weve having to be doing more mileage than expectedbecasue of closed albergues and also not sleeping the best becasue of cold, etc.
ok off for the night. we decided not to rent car in burgos, might rent one in leon to ponferrada if absolutely necessary to be back in ireland for beg of march, but we ll just see how our progress is. we shoudl be in leon within the next few days. gro is really happy when we see people, and also on the days that are sunny and warm, not so much on windy, cold, rainy, etc.
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Hang in there!!! Your feet will never stop hurting until you get to Santiago. :( BUT - you DO NEED TO EAT!!! This was the time that I had started to really lose weight and food was KEY!!!
ReplyDeleteFor feet: cold running water at the end of the day - cruel, but good idea. Also, vaseline at the beginning and end of the day.
For pack: you really can't mail anymore stuff to you?
For diet: How about some peanut butter?
Guidebook: It does stink. I have the same one - and it's heavy. I threw out the maps that came with it.
Feet: Vaseline day and night on your feet really helps. We did start living on ibuprofen though - from the farmacia!
Your soul: Really start thinking about why you are doing this. A priest in San Juan de Ortega told us to remember that is in the silenzio and the solitidad that you will really grow along the Camino.
The monastery in Samos is worth the extra miles. My favorite stop.
So proud of you!! You're doing great :)
Buon Camino!
you are almost to my house.
ReplyDeleteWhen you get to Moratinos, a tiny town with hobbit-houses in a hillside, find the yellow house near the N120. You need a break. Stop in.
Do stop into Reb's... she knows all about dogs!!! And her house will be heated and her shower water will be warm..... and her welcome will be warm as well.
ReplyDeleteMargaret
after a little bit of research I think the name of the town where I rented the horse was Rabanal. The Alberge in Rabanal is run by the English speaking pilgrims group- Confraternity of St. James in England. There is also a beautiful little humble chapel in town and the Benedictines invite the pilgrims to pray evening prayer with them, which was one of my favorite memories of the camino. Rabanal is about 19km past Astorga, which is a beautiful town. By the way, I don't know if they allow dogs there, but there's a good privately run alberge in Astorga. One thing that helped me with my blisters was taking a needle and thread and threading the string through my blisters and tieing it in the blister. Sounds really gross and unsanitary eh? But it really helped me. That way the blister doesn't close up and it drains instead of getting bigger with each step. Hope this info helps. You are quite the trooper Kristen!
ReplyDeletegosh--thanks so much for the offer to stop in...but i passed moratinos in between my internet opportunities--just got these comments and im in villar de mazarife now. i did notice moratinos though and those funny houses :) we are having a bit of a break now though i will post about that. i ended up getting a lift in a car from sahagun to calzada de coto , then the next day from bercianos to leon...all the albergues in sahagun were closed, despite my having been told one was open, and these kind women who insisted on carrying my bag between the two of them the last k into sahagun put me in the hands of a city worker who drove me to calzada de coto... the next morning it was icy snowing raining etc and this man had driven by us doing some work and then was going the other way and stopped as we were approaching bercianos and offered a ride into the village, then to burgos ?ranero when i said the albergue there was supposed to be open and that was our goal for the day.... the albergues there were CLOSED as well and he told me that if i could find a place to hole up there for the day, he lived in leon and would take us to leon in the evening. because religios albergue was closed as well. i guess there was one right after religios that was open, but at that point getting further sounded good. he ended up going to leon in the early afternoon instead so we got to leon that day, walked the 20 k to mazarife in the wind and cold yesterday, and now are having a rest day here today and maybe tomorrow if poss too.
ReplyDeletejessica''yeah i thought about ditching those maps too..maybe i wll. i also thought about ditching the pages as i use them. seems like a waste of a good book --that cost 25 euro..but it IS heavy.... no i cant mail anything else. every time i try to throw stuff away i find that i am more or less using everything. part of the weight is we are carrying some food all the time because several times now i have gotten stuck in villages with no shops, and then no shops half the next day either and was starving. so i carry bread and olive oil and a few oranges and chocolate and some cheese for the dog because we seem to be needing to eat alot. i wish could get more nutrient dense stuff like nuts and dates but i even tried in leon and was unsuccessful... im going to go thruogh my bag again before i leave here and see if i can get rid of anything. AGAIN.
hope dont worry i wasnt thinking of renting the horses, just curious. and ill check out that monastery, but alot of albergues are SO CLOSED. yeah ive been doing the thing with the needle and blisters, dipping it in antibacterial tea tree oil first. i think the blisters are about done but now my feet just hurt. tendonitis i think. im putting stuff on it but i think we need rest.