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.
Monday, February 2, 2009
PICS....bad nights, cold, and... im tired.
OK SO i finally got some pics uploaded...but it seems they upload from last to first...which means you really need to start at the bottom of this post and scroll upwards....oops. just realized this is the SECOND set of pics... to the left is view of castrojeriz(sp i think) and then below is when you get to the top of the mountain outside it.
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to left is coming into castrojeriz. below is coming into i forget where but its where the hostel was closed and i got sent on to spend my WORST night....i was approaching the town near dark, had to wait for a guy to bring his sheep in with a donkey with bells on it; didnt really care cuz i was gonna spend the night there. approached the hostel which was supposed to be open, and there were construction guys working on it. they told me i couldnt stay there and that i had to go another 5 kilometers IN THE DARK. to some place that was "open". i asked them TWICE were they sure it was open...my book said it was only open "in season"...they assured me it "was". they drew me a map and we proceeded to trudge 5 more km in the dark. i remember thinking that it could have been worse;that at least the weather was fairly warm, we still had enuff energy to go further, etc etc etc.... but as it darkened it got really really frightening. there was nothing anywhere. no houses, no lights, a clouded moon. i had my tiny wind up flashlight and that was it. probably fairly safe actually in terms of that there was LITERALLY nothing out there. no people no animals no nothing. but it was really scary. i felt a bit better when we got up on a plateau and could see lights far off in all directions... i kept focused on the radiotower lights miles in front of us. and i started keeping an eye out for the light that would be on at this hostel....when we got to the turn off sign...there was no light. no nothing. no village. only some ruins on a hill. we found the place we were supposed to find and of course it was closed and shut up tight. i was terrified, totally alone and at least 5 k in any direction to get anywhere, and it was way dark and getting late... i wished at that point that i had had a lesson in lock-picking...specifically that i had been at the hostel that my cousin megan stayed at in ireland where the other guy staying there taught them how to pick locks.....i tried to find a way in, hoping there was a key hidden somewhere for stranded pilgrims or whatever, but failed. we ended up spending the night in the tool shed, which had a roof but the roof wasnt connected in to the walls, and spent the night listening to the mice chew stuff up..i kept kicking my bag to try to make sure they werent chewing stuff in my bag up... yeah, that was by far our worst night... if we had ONLY been able to get inside. argh. if i had arrived in daylight at least i could have gotten the lay of the place but in the dark it was terrifying.
to the left, vineyards. i think this was between najera and azofra but not sure. pamplona to somewhere around ? santo domingo? was alot of olive trees and vineyards and the first day we passed some almond trees too. but later on, no vineyards or olive groves.
to left is path on the way to the 12 k of forest on the way to i forget the name of the own but it was the day i reached the village of Ages in the evening.
najera. noone around to take our pic so i used a mirror-doorway. the walk from najera to azofra was pretty nice. through forest then vineyards. it got long though. what i remember most is it seemed to be starting to rain, and i was again having my eye out for places i could put my tent. this was so crazy because i was always headed to an albergue and never wanted to actually have to pitch my tent in between villages, but i nonetheless frequently found myself looking for rock overhangs, sheltered places, etc that would be good for pitching a tent. the most tempting, were i to get caught out in the middle of nowhere,was the gaps in the huge stacks of haybales outin the fields. more than once i thought that these would makea good, well-insulated sleeping spot. except the thought kept occurring to me thatthere probably would be rats. ACK. any of you who know of my previous bad experiences with rodents in living spaces will understand why im so opposed to sleeping--or even being--anywhere there are rodents and thus also why the night spent in the toolshed was made so much further awful by these critters.
This was my first "bad night" on the church steps in vendosa, after arriving so tired and with feet so aching that i literally felt sick to my stomach, only to find the albergue closed and the town shut up tight. putting the tent in the covered entryway of the church seemed most advantageous, as at least it had a roof...but trying to pitch it on concrete was a nightmare. i ended up tying it to the railing and the doorway but couldnt get it to keep proper shape; it really needed all the peggings. i hate how it ended up looking like a body bag.and it was so uncomfortable to sleep in, not properly pitched, because the whole thing kept collapsing on us. im not a huge fan of this tent its so tiny. BUT it is lightweight. i just remember it took AGES to try to jury-rig the blasted thing and my hands were freezing, and in the end i kept wondering if i should have just given up and pitched it in the grass, we probably would have slept better. but when it was raining the next morning i was glad to not have to pack up in the rain.
to left is coming into castrojeriz. below is coming into i forget where but its where the hostel was closed and i got sent on to spend my WORST night....i was approaching the town near dark, had to wait for a guy to bring his sheep in with a donkey with bells on it; didnt really care cuz i was gonna spend the night there. approached the hostel which was supposed to be open, and there were construction guys working on it. they told me i couldnt stay there and that i had to go another 5 kilometers IN THE DARK. to some place that was "open". i asked them TWICE were they sure it was open...my book said it was only open "in season"...they assured me it "was". they drew me a map and we proceeded to trudge 5 more km in the dark. i remember thinking that it could have been worse;that at least the weather was fairly warm, we still had enuff energy to go further, etc etc etc.... but as it darkened it got really really frightening. there was nothing anywhere. no houses, no lights, a clouded moon. i had my tiny wind up flashlight and that was it. probably fairly safe actually in terms of that there was LITERALLY nothing out there. no people no animals no nothing. but it was really scary. i felt a bit better when we got up on a plateau and could see lights far off in all directions... i kept focused on the radiotower lights miles in front of us. and i started keeping an eye out for the light that would be on at this hostel....when we got to the turn off sign...there was no light. no nothing. no village. only some ruins on a hill. we found the place we were supposed to find and of course it was closed and shut up tight. i was terrified, totally alone and at least 5 k in any direction to get anywhere, and it was way dark and getting late... i wished at that point that i had had a lesson in lock-picking...specifically that i had been at the hostel that my cousin megan stayed at in ireland where the other guy staying there taught them how to pick locks.....i tried to find a way in, hoping there was a key hidden somewhere for stranded pilgrims or whatever, but failed. we ended up spending the night in the tool shed, which had a roof but the roof wasnt connected in to the walls, and spent the night listening to the mice chew stuff up..i kept kicking my bag to try to make sure they werent chewing stuff in my bag up... yeah, that was by far our worst night... if we had ONLY been able to get inside. argh. if i had arrived in daylight at least i could have gotten the lay of the place but in the dark it was terrifying.
to the left, vineyards. i think this was between najera and azofra but not sure. pamplona to somewhere around ? santo domingo? was alot of olive trees and vineyards and the first day we passed some almond trees too. but later on, no vineyards or olive groves.
to left is path on the way to the 12 k of forest on the way to i forget the name of the own but it was the day i reached the village of Ages in the evening.
najera. noone around to take our pic so i used a mirror-doorway. the walk from najera to azofra was pretty nice. through forest then vineyards. it got long though. what i remember most is it seemed to be starting to rain, and i was again having my eye out for places i could put my tent. this was so crazy because i was always headed to an albergue and never wanted to actually have to pitch my tent in between villages, but i nonetheless frequently found myself looking for rock overhangs, sheltered places, etc that would be good for pitching a tent. the most tempting, were i to get caught out in the middle of nowhere,was the gaps in the huge stacks of haybales outin the fields. more than once i thought that these would makea good, well-insulated sleeping spot. except the thought kept occurring to me thatthere probably would be rats. ACK. any of you who know of my previous bad experiences with rodents in living spaces will understand why im so opposed to sleeping--or even being--anywhere there are rodents and thus also why the night spent in the toolshed was made so much further awful by these critters.
This was my first "bad night" on the church steps in vendosa, after arriving so tired and with feet so aching that i literally felt sick to my stomach, only to find the albergue closed and the town shut up tight. putting the tent in the covered entryway of the church seemed most advantageous, as at least it had a roof...but trying to pitch it on concrete was a nightmare. i ended up tying it to the railing and the doorway but couldnt get it to keep proper shape; it really needed all the peggings. i hate how it ended up looking like a body bag.and it was so uncomfortable to sleep in, not properly pitched, because the whole thing kept collapsing on us. im not a huge fan of this tent its so tiny. BUT it is lightweight. i just remember it took AGES to try to jury-rig the blasted thing and my hands were freezing, and in the end i kept wondering if i should have just given up and pitched it in the grass, we probably would have slept better. but when it was raining the next morning i was glad to not have to pack up in the rain.
more pics
vitamineral green goes bye bye...well, the jar anyway. about 4 days in, in lorca VMG went into plastic bags and the lovely amber jar got donated to the guy at the coffee bar. at least i didnt have to pitch the jar. i liked the vmg better in the jar cuz it kept it fresher, but this baby just had to go.
below and to the left is churchyard in lorca where we spent our 4th? or 5th night. turns out if i had gone up to the bar, we could have unofficially stayed inside at a closed albergue. ah well. the spot wasnt too bad. but i DO hate sleeping in the tent. i really actually hate camping. i love outdoor "stuff" but i hate and generally have hated for a while, sleeping in tents. i hate how everything is damp when you wake up. hate that. i dont mind roughing it a bit but i really need a real bed, a hot shower, and to be inside....and, as i have learned on this trip, preferably in a HEATED structure if it is winter/cold! i dont need lectricity but gosh i hate sleeping on the ground in a tent. ... anyway, it was a nice churchyard and it felt safe. generally if i have had to pitch the tent in villages where there is no albergue, i aim for churchyards. they usually feel safe. vendosa did feel dodgey though it was so isolated. but this one was nice and with beautifulviews and the sun was out though chilly.
left and left below drinking from the free wine faucets that are there particularly for peop.le on the camino. i guess most people fill their waterbottles but i knew that amount of alcohol wouldnt do me any good. but i had to at least have a sip. interestingly enough though, i have foudn that while i usually cant drink anything at all, even a half of glass of anything, without a hangover the next day, on the camino i seem to be able to handle some alcohol without a problem. must be that its all getting burned off or used up or something with all the hiking.
where i pitched my tent after the second day. yep these pics uploaded backwards in order. it was easy enough to peg the tent here despite the cement cuz the cement had cracks and the mortar in the walls was crumbling. my tent was invisible from the road. pretty cool. but i STILL prefer INSIDE, in a REAL BED
gro was totally ready for bed at the end of our first few days. now, not so much. although if its a windy day she tries to hunker down in the tall grass and make "beds" on the side of the road...she thinks she will sleep there till the weather gets better....
below. first night.puente la reina we had to sleep outside cuz no dogs. i had nevr even put the tentup before. it was suprisingly easy but i couldnt believe i was going to sleep in this tiny thing!
below. this mud-thing began first day but continued through much of first week and i still encounter it on occassion. sticky mud that resticks with the next step when you knock it off and LITERALLY adds 1-2 pounds of weight to each boot. makes you stronger i guess and ive pretty much given up on trying to knock it off now when i do encounter it, but it made the first few days VERYdifficult. the second day i trudged through several km of the stuff and it took hours. i couldnt believe when i had been walking for like 5 hours and thought i was near our destination and i came across a marker that said we still had 15k left....we´'d only gone 5 k in 5 hours...all through the sticky mud. i knew we could no way make it to the next albergue so we had to pitch the tent along the way.
Below:SUN!! near pamplona and companion for first week or so, ALONG with WARMTH. now we get sun some days but no warmth. i was SO craving the sun when i took this pic. think i was vit D deficient from being in ireland, seattle, ireland. no sun in either when we had the bad summers in ire.
to left path out of pamplona. first day.
me and gro at end of firstday. feeling good but tired.hmmm therewas a LOVELY pick here of the path through a stone bridge or something, one of best pics. but i just deleted it by accident and cant seem to get it back. will have totry next time i have access to upload again. darn.
OK im finally at a computer that is recent enough to upload photos. i wanted to try to edit previous posts to put photos where they belong, but the hospitalero is being kind enuff to let me use his computer and i dont want to stay on it all night. so i guess theyll all go here for now. 
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
saturday...the ?17th
i dont remember much about this walk except that we got to estrella and got the neighbors mad and calling the cops because grainne was barking. but she just wanted to be inside. she is such a pain cuz she has NO patience for not getting what she wants. even now, every time i tie her outside to go in a shop she barks CONSTANTLY. shes like a bad, evil teenage girl. anyway, we were so glad to be allowed to be inside this night , and there were just 2 other spanish guys staying there. after i got in trouble for her barking with the guy in charge he asked if she came in would she be silencio. i said yeah yeah of course. thats all she wanted. i dragged her into bed and kept an arm on her all night so she wouldnt cause anyh more trouble. she was snoring though.... :p lol the next morning we wanted to go to mass but i didtn think they would let me in with a dog so we didnt get to go. we PLANNED to camp this next night in lorca becasue the albergues there were closed and after lorca there was a stretch of 12 k or something with no villages. i knew we couldnt do the 20 k so we just planned to do the 7. when we got to lorca i asked the priest as mass was coming out could we put our tent there. he said yeah, but its gonna be cold. again, wish i had pics. we chilled for the afternoon, the sun was kind of warm, and i let my clothes dry. the priest had told me there was a bar if i wanted something to eat... and i meant to go up there and get water before it closed at 3 but when i went up at 245 it looked closing up so i didnt bother. i should have. the next morning as i was brushing my teeth at the public fountain this guy came out of the bar saying to me "peregrino?" i.e. pilgrim in spanish. i said yeah, no hablo espanol. and he started speaking english. he said we could have stayed there the night befofe. ok i was hoping to finish this but this little kid whos parents own the bar im in just asked me in spanish to use the comptuer soi i gotta go. who can resist a 3 year old little kid?
Friday the 16th....albergue closed, camp in churchyard
this was our second day. we were trying to get to estrella....i thought we must be almost there when i saw a sign that said estrella:15k. this was at like 2 in the afternoon. we had been hiking or like 5 hours...all through mud and clay and hilly terrain..and apparently had only gone 5k..i knew at this point that there was NO WAY we could make it to the next place there was an albergue and that we would have to camp. we kept going but finally i knew we werent going any further than the next village or so... i thought probably we could just ask to sleep in a church or something. no such luck. we got to whatever this village was i forget, and the albergue said closed except to groups. an old man indicated to me to ring the bell across the street since they were the ones who ran it but they didnt answer. so i thought maybe i could sleep in the church. i had been figuring hey, im a pilgrim right, so they should let me sleep in churches, right ? i somehow communicated to a guy washing his motorcycle at the public fountain that was there anywhere for me to put my tent and/or was there a priest i could ask if i could sleep in the church. he said there was no priest in the village but that noone would really care if i put my tent there. darn. i wish i could upload my pictures... anyway i managed to peg the tent in the mostly-stone courtyard, since the mortar was crumbling enuff that i could peg it into the stonewalls and benches. lol. and jury-rig it. gro was not real thrilled with the tent because it is so so tiny she cant stand up in it. also, there was no shop in this village so we had very little food. i had a little of her dogfood left...which she had to eat out of my shoe for lack of a bowl. lol. anyway, I felt pretty safe in the chruchyard in this little village and my tent was hidden by the stonewall anyway. i heard someone go into teh church and banged on the door to ask if i could stay in it but they didnt answer. later, a nun came out and i asked her was my tent ok there. she indicated it was fine. but really i was hoping she woudl feel bad for me and offer me somewhere better to stay. but no luck. we crawled in for a long night. the tent isnt really big enuff for me and gro and my stuff... she cant stand up in teh bottom end of it and i cant sit up in it even in the top end of it. but it only weighs less than a kilo. but jeez they could have made it a foot by a foot bigger so you could at least sit up in it. anyway, we went "to bed" and it was actually pretty warm in the tent. then a barking dog came outside it and gro started growling etc... then i heard a womans voice and later realized she was probably looking in the tent "window" above me but i didnt realize it at the time.... i thought it was someone mad at me for being there but i told her i didnt speak spanish and she got me to come out and went and got her son and they told me how cold it was and they were going to show me somewhere better to stay...and they showed me this entryway to a building that was enclosed on three sides with a roof...but i tried to explain that i couldnt peg my tent there. then she asked did i want milk or coffee or anythign and said how cold out it would be...i asked her could i use her bathroom. adn she gave gro some water and me some bread for her. she was really sweet and it was her dog that had been barking at us...but i really wanted to ask her if i could sleep in her garage or something... when they told me they were showing me a better place to sleep i was hoping they were taking me inside somewhere... so as sweet as she was, i was a little disappointed.... anyway, we had an ok night but even with a sleeping mat the stones were HARD.
INTERNET!!
ok this is going to be way more abbreviated than i would like... its been 2 weeks since ive had internet opportunity and ive a couple pages handwritten that i want to put in but now that stuff is days old and it would take all night for me to inscribe it all...and i dont think i can hog this computer at this little bar all night.... hmmmm... so where to start....ill try to think of the hilights... we are in a little village just east of burgos. we should get to burgos tomorrow, after a LONG hike. we are so lucky tonite as we were able to get a room somewhere and there is internet downstairs. gro is upstairs sleeping and her cuteness got us in. today we did about 16k. thats about our limit. there are people passing us by doing 30 plus k a day but they dont have heavy packs with tents or pups with sore feet. 15 or 16 is about the limit for both of us i think. today we did 12k through a pine forest. in the rain and then fog. i realized i dont mind the rain and mist as long as its not cold or windy. the few days previous to this were horrid, we got stuck in a hailstorm one day and then got rain snow wind ice etc and tons of wind the next, and i really didnt know how we were going to make it through... turns out i guess that it was part of a hurricane. anyway, the forest was a really nice change from walking along roadsides..i have mixed feelings about when the path goes along roadsides...its nice to know im not totally alone, but frankly im sick of the traffic. there is so much BIG TRUCK traffic all of the time on the national road that runs near the path. one day we actually tried walking on the road instead of the path becasue it cut 4 or 5 k off. it was SO unpleasant. never again. anyway, the pine forest was nice, but not 12k of it.... it got kind of boring and it was so foggy you couldnt see ahead of you very far. there was nothing but forest, it was like a logging road. no villages, etc nothing. saw some logger, thats it. i had been told the first part was the hardest cuz it was through the ocs (sp?) mountains, and i thought we handled it ok and were done with the uphill, then i saw a straight up path ahead. it wasnt actually as bad as it looked but it looked awfully steep. i have a pick but this computer is old ibm too old to download. no place for flashdrive. grainne ended up on my major bad list for not only going after another dog coming towards us but for managing to pull me down face first in the mud with my 30 pound pack. the poor guy with the other dog didnt know what to do because obviously he couldnt grab grainne who was after his dog, but wanted to make sure i was ok and i was just like "dog you are SO dead" and then burst out laughing, as i was lying face down in the mud.... hmmm. not to much else interesting from today except that we got SO lucky with where we are staying tonite. tomorrow we try to get to burgos and then id like to take train to leon and then get to santiago walking from there. i dont think we can actually walk the whole thing, it would take another 6 weeks cuz we seem to only be able to do 15 k a day and would need to do 20 every day and thats just pushing us too much. the uncertainty of not knowing if we are going to have a place to stay at night is what really gets me, particulary since its turned so cold. the first week was beautiful sunny weather, still cold at night, but feasible to think about sleeping in the tent. now its crap weather and cold. i need to see if i can get another sleeping bag in burgos for grainne becasue she is cold and shivering every night even inside unless she is under blankets. i specifically got a LONG size sleeping bag with a bottom zipper thinking i could stuff her in the bottom every night but shes just too big and wants to stretch out. i also got a zero degree farenheight rated sleeping bag but its gonna get returned when i go home because im cold in it at 40 degrees... i dont know who the heck they get to be the testers for these temperature ratings on sleeping bags, but they are always SO wrong...
aside from today, grainne has usually been a delight to have as company. although at the moment i am worried about her hurting feet. although they dont seem to hurt any more when she sees another dog to try to attack, or a boy to try to run after and get attention from...she loves men SO Much, her whole body starts wiggling, tail wagging, and so excited when she sees a guy. shes SUCH a girl. she was in love with this tall italian guy at the albergue last night and the ONLY thing that kept her going through the snow and ice and rain on ?tuesday? was that there was a french guy about a quarter of a mile ahead of us that she had her sights set on. anyway, her whole life her problem is always that she wants more movement. here she gets it. i think she is getting a bit too much exercise actually though, as she'd be happiest with about 6 or 7 k a day.... so we´ll see.
OK i guess ill work backwards here..... but i guess taht will make this post particulary long... hmmmm.
in brief, we spent...lets see if i can remember.... a night outside pamplona, where i left my car, the next in puenta, which is the last time i had email access. the next in a church courtyard in ? i forget.... the next in estella where we got in trouble with the cops cuz the place was kind enuff to say g could come inside but only at 11 pm...so she proceeded to sit outside barking at every dog that went by until then and they called guy in charge of the place and he came back and got mad at me... all he would have had to do was let her sit inside the door and she would have shut up but we werent sposed to have dogs in there anyway so he was already doing me a favor....the next night we spent in lorca in a churchyard because i was afraid of the 12k with no villages that came after this. i didnt think we could do 20 whatever k. the next at an albergue with a bunch of people in...some town... i forget... the next night we tried to spend in vianna and ended up in tears at the albergue becasue they wouldnt let me even talk to the hospitalero..the cops actually followed me into the albergue and said no dogs and wanted me to leave her with some guy that wasnt home. i sobbingly told them forget it as i prepared us to go another 10k for a total of TWENTY EIGHT K.. to the next town, where we arrived after dark in the rain and were turned away from the albergue there and there wasnt even a place to put our tent..they tried to send us to the camping place but then it was closed for water damage... .... we got so lucky after me finally breaking down in tears after being forced out of a church entry way so they could lock up, and sent to another church, where they gave us our own meeting room, mattress, kitchen and shower for the night :) the next we had to pass on a town cuz they said no dogs so i thought we could stay at the next--vendosa--but after arriving in the dark, unable to go any further, and with nowhere else to go, we found the albergue closed for renovations, it freezing cold, windy, hurting feet, the village dark, no shop, no cafe open, nothing, and an old lady gave us bread and apples and went out of her way to take us to the top of the town where the church had a covered entryway...but ever try to peg a tent into mortar? it only works when the mortar is crumbing. this wasnt. that was probably our worst night. we spent the next 3 nights in azofra for a rest. then onto i forget where.... oh yeah, belorado, where there were NO albergues open and we had to get a guy to open one.. even though it was a big town. i bet i added on 3 k at least just walking around and around the town... then last night in villafranca where we slept on the freezing cold floor by a back doorway--preferable to being outside at least, where they wanted to put gro.... many people here think dogs belong outside but seriously gro would DIE. she would have died the first night. she cant handle the cold like these dogs can. and tonite here...
aside from today, grainne has usually been a delight to have as company. although at the moment i am worried about her hurting feet. although they dont seem to hurt any more when she sees another dog to try to attack, or a boy to try to run after and get attention from...she loves men SO Much, her whole body starts wiggling, tail wagging, and so excited when she sees a guy. shes SUCH a girl. she was in love with this tall italian guy at the albergue last night and the ONLY thing that kept her going through the snow and ice and rain on ?tuesday? was that there was a french guy about a quarter of a mile ahead of us that she had her sights set on. anyway, her whole life her problem is always that she wants more movement. here she gets it. i think she is getting a bit too much exercise actually though, as she'd be happiest with about 6 or 7 k a day.... so we´ll see.
OK i guess ill work backwards here..... but i guess taht will make this post particulary long... hmmmm.
in brief, we spent...lets see if i can remember.... a night outside pamplona, where i left my car, the next in puenta, which is the last time i had email access. the next in a church courtyard in ? i forget.... the next in estella where we got in trouble with the cops cuz the place was kind enuff to say g could come inside but only at 11 pm...so she proceeded to sit outside barking at every dog that went by until then and they called guy in charge of the place and he came back and got mad at me... all he would have had to do was let her sit inside the door and she would have shut up but we werent sposed to have dogs in there anyway so he was already doing me a favor....the next night we spent in lorca in a churchyard because i was afraid of the 12k with no villages that came after this. i didnt think we could do 20 whatever k. the next at an albergue with a bunch of people in...some town... i forget... the next night we tried to spend in vianna and ended up in tears at the albergue becasue they wouldnt let me even talk to the hospitalero..the cops actually followed me into the albergue and said no dogs and wanted me to leave her with some guy that wasnt home. i sobbingly told them forget it as i prepared us to go another 10k for a total of TWENTY EIGHT K.. to the next town, where we arrived after dark in the rain and were turned away from the albergue there and there wasnt even a place to put our tent..they tried to send us to the camping place but then it was closed for water damage... .... we got so lucky after me finally breaking down in tears after being forced out of a church entry way so they could lock up, and sent to another church, where they gave us our own meeting room, mattress, kitchen and shower for the night :) the next we had to pass on a town cuz they said no dogs so i thought we could stay at the next--vendosa--but after arriving in the dark, unable to go any further, and with nowhere else to go, we found the albergue closed for renovations, it freezing cold, windy, hurting feet, the village dark, no shop, no cafe open, nothing, and an old lady gave us bread and apples and went out of her way to take us to the top of the town where the church had a covered entryway...but ever try to peg a tent into mortar? it only works when the mortar is crumbing. this wasnt. that was probably our worst night. we spent the next 3 nights in azofra for a rest. then onto i forget where.... oh yeah, belorado, where there were NO albergues open and we had to get a guy to open one.. even though it was a big town. i bet i added on 3 k at least just walking around and around the town... then last night in villafranca where we slept on the freezing cold floor by a back doorway--preferable to being outside at least, where they wanted to put gro.... many people here think dogs belong outside but seriously gro would DIE. she would have died the first night. she cant handle the cold like these dogs can. and tonite here...
Thursday, January 15, 2009
pamplona to ?puente de la rienta?...vitamineral green..and what can i send to myself in santiago...
ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL SUNSHINE TODAY. so nice to have sun for more than a few minutes, unlike in ireland. and way longer days too. about 8 am to 6 pm. in ireland we were dealing with 9am to 430 pm. what a drag. cold, but 45 or 50 in the sun.
made it the 20 km to puenta today. basically had to because looks like most of the albuergues in between the 20 km marks are closed for winter. i wasnt actually tired, but my feet are killing me... i spent a good part of the trek trying to decide what items i will mail to myself from here to pick up addressed to me at santiago... which brings me to : whats in my pack... : i dont think i have a normal pilgrims pack...here are some of the things that made it in.... --some of which will soon be going out in the mail to myself :p....
portable dog crate...yes. a pop up dog crate. was hoping this would enable me to get into hostels with dog but its just too much weight and seems like its going to be ineffective anyway... at the albergues tonite she was like ¨"no dogs. dog in garden. you inside. i initially had told her i had a tent and could i set it up in the yard and pay to use showers and kitchen. i kept insisting dog would not sleep quietly outside so i would sleep with her. she thought i was NUTS... well, we´lll see tomorrow morning if we totally Freeze tonite.. shes actually quiet at the moment after barking for a while she finally gives up but i will have to go back out for the night. i wish she wouldnt bark
various food-snob items: a small bottle of olive oil made it in, as did himalayan crystal sea salt with herbs, a bunch of nuts and raw chocolate, a pound of seaweed, some chia seeds, herb tea bags, and a few random other things. worried about nutrition so i packed the stuff...im not sure how people survive on the camino on just rice, bread, pasta etc, but others seem to be doing it.. oh yeah and VITAMINERAL GREEN.... the jar weighs about TWO POUNDS. my whole pack is only supposed to be 10 kilo.... but im not ditching that stuff... at the last minute i ditched a bunch of coconut oil vaccuum packs in the car. regret that one though. quick energy.. .
also in kristen´s pack... too much clothing,, namely a pair of huge, lined snow pants, ALSO getting mailed to self... i think id rather suffer in the rain or snow for a day or two than drag these pants all over "just in case". tent. sleeping bag. a bunch of those silver ¨emergency blankets" and yeah we are using them, both over and under the sleeping bag... also a small amount of dog food...yeah, that adds weight too. almost gone at least. i forget what else but i feel like i have some other unusual things in there too.. anyway...
todays trek was rather hard... much uphill, and through this clay-like mud that LITERALLY doubled the weight of your boots. and everytime you scraped it off it just stuck on more as soon as you walked... lovely scenery, lots of paths, rather than roadway...
and, BONUS: my dog still doesnt know how to heel properly most of the time. this actually totally came in handy today :p she acutually helped pull me up hills :) i spent most of the day with a spanish couple (thank goodness im not the only girl now like last night), and the guy asked to borrow grainne to help him get up hils :p id say grainne weathered the day better than i did...she was still bouncing by the end of it...of course she wasnt carrying anything.
ok have to go. time almost out. have to store up those one euro coins. only had one tonite. hope i can find somewhere to mail stuff to self tomorrow. bet i wont even be able to walk tomorrow but they only let u stay one night in each place so they basically kick you out and force you to go. sort of wish some of the in-between ones were open so not forced to do 20 k a day but doesnt look like a choice. on teh other hand, you might as well be walking. just easier if feet didnt hurt!
nite all
k
made it the 20 km to puenta today. basically had to because looks like most of the albuergues in between the 20 km marks are closed for winter. i wasnt actually tired, but my feet are killing me... i spent a good part of the trek trying to decide what items i will mail to myself from here to pick up addressed to me at santiago... which brings me to : whats in my pack... : i dont think i have a normal pilgrims pack...here are some of the things that made it in.... --some of which will soon be going out in the mail to myself :p....
portable dog crate...yes. a pop up dog crate. was hoping this would enable me to get into hostels with dog but its just too much weight and seems like its going to be ineffective anyway... at the albergues tonite she was like ¨"no dogs. dog in garden. you inside. i initially had told her i had a tent and could i set it up in the yard and pay to use showers and kitchen. i kept insisting dog would not sleep quietly outside so i would sleep with her. she thought i was NUTS... well, we´lll see tomorrow morning if we totally Freeze tonite.. shes actually quiet at the moment after barking for a while she finally gives up but i will have to go back out for the night. i wish she wouldnt bark
various food-snob items: a small bottle of olive oil made it in, as did himalayan crystal sea salt with herbs, a bunch of nuts and raw chocolate, a pound of seaweed, some chia seeds, herb tea bags, and a few random other things. worried about nutrition so i packed the stuff...im not sure how people survive on the camino on just rice, bread, pasta etc, but others seem to be doing it.. oh yeah and VITAMINERAL GREEN.... the jar weighs about TWO POUNDS. my whole pack is only supposed to be 10 kilo.... but im not ditching that stuff... at the last minute i ditched a bunch of coconut oil vaccuum packs in the car. regret that one though. quick energy.. .
also in kristen´s pack... too much clothing,, namely a pair of huge, lined snow pants, ALSO getting mailed to self... i think id rather suffer in the rain or snow for a day or two than drag these pants all over "just in case". tent. sleeping bag. a bunch of those silver ¨emergency blankets" and yeah we are using them, both over and under the sleeping bag... also a small amount of dog food...yeah, that adds weight too. almost gone at least. i forget what else but i feel like i have some other unusual things in there too.. anyway...
todays trek was rather hard... much uphill, and through this clay-like mud that LITERALLY doubled the weight of your boots. and everytime you scraped it off it just stuck on more as soon as you walked... lovely scenery, lots of paths, rather than roadway...
and, BONUS: my dog still doesnt know how to heel properly most of the time. this actually totally came in handy today :p she acutually helped pull me up hills :) i spent most of the day with a spanish couple (thank goodness im not the only girl now like last night), and the guy asked to borrow grainne to help him get up hils :p id say grainne weathered the day better than i did...she was still bouncing by the end of it...of course she wasnt carrying anything.
ok have to go. time almost out. have to store up those one euro coins. only had one tonite. hope i can find somewhere to mail stuff to self tomorrow. bet i wont even be able to walk tomorrow but they only let u stay one night in each place so they basically kick you out and force you to go. sort of wish some of the in-between ones were open so not forced to do 20 k a day but doesnt look like a choice. on teh other hand, you might as well be walking. just easier if feet didnt hurt!
nite all
k
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