Google #revengetravel - it is the identity given to people traveling, often short notice, to get out post pandemic.
A lot of people, myself included, had plans and are now finally able to execute them.
This year is a holy year, which always sees record numbers.
This week, has had for the most part incredibly good weather given a rain spell yesterday morning. It is also a Spanish holiday on Thursday similar to the Portuguese holiday last Wednesday. The Spanish people are coming out in Mass to walk the camino, many of them deciding to finally do it.
What this is amounted to, is absolute record-breaking traffic on a foot trail. Mind you, the businesses are absolutely going nuts and love it! In the end, this ultimately is really good for the whole Camino system. What this is not good for, it's peregrinos like myself, who have grown to like the peace and tranquility of the trail and find, particularly this week, the traffic to be a distraction.
This really leaves me with two choices: bitching gripe about the local people finally getting out and enjoying a trail network that I'm sure their taxes have paid for and extensively enhanced in the past few years. More of the second option, the one I choose, is to chill out and embrace this for what it is. A massive social experiment of people moving in a giant bubble with one goal. Not only do I choose not to bitch and gripe about it, but I choose to assist those who have been foolish in their preparations and jumped into the journey unprepared. I feel it is my responsibility as a veteran pilgrim to do my best to support "green" pilgrims so they may embrace the trail as much as I have.
Speaking of the trail, since I was last on this section of the Frances route 7 years ago, I have observed significant improvements to both the trail, and the business is supporting the trail. While it is still the same trail, it is not the same trail. I cannot mourn that it is not the same trail I walked 7 years ago, I must embrace the fact that this wonder is being embraced my more and more people and the evolution of it continues. The money that has been invested in the Camino trail Network both on the Portuguese and especially on the Frances routes impresses me every time I'm on the trail. The Galician government has poured extensive resources into maintaining, improving, and upgrading this trail system so that it may continue to support pilgrims well into the future. Businesses, mainly bars/cafes appear to have tripled in numbers in a few short years, and not a one of them appear to be lacking for business!
Now when it comes to pilgrims, I find myself in a unique position. I am, after all only starting in Sarria, which puts me in the same category as so many other pilgrims doing the short Jaunt. However, I also have the admiration of all of those starting from SJPdP as being on my fourth Camino with this one back-to-back with my third. I find even the ones that have done the full Frances looking to me for pointers and guidance. That, and I am one of the few Americans on the trail, which garners a lot of respect from the locals!
Today's walk, potentially the longest Camino stage I've pulled ever, saw 32.28 km with me nursing a very very angry heel! I did something today in preparation for this walk, that I really did not want to do. I applied ibuprofen gel to my heel when I first got up, which I usually reserve for post walking. I knew I was going to agitate my heel, and I knew I needed to keep the information as low as possible for as long as possible. I got about 40 minutes from my destination, after 7 and 1/2 hours of marching along and found a bar in the corner of the road just as Tina was texting me words of encouragement. I was able to chill out for a while at the bar, apply some cold spray, and apply a little bit of ibuprofen gel. Just as I was entering the outskirts of the city, my heel started to cooperate again. Imagine my frustration when my hotel was at the start of town, but the resources I desperately needed such as an atm, a cafe, and a laundromat, we're all at the other end of this long skinny town.
Three hard days of pushing, one of them in the rain, and one of them just stupidly long, have paid off. I am now at the 39 km marker which leaves me two very reasonable days which should not abuse my heal any further. I expect to return to Santiago a fourth time this upcoming Thursday before noon time local time. Aside from being incredibly busy with long walking days and taking care of everything else and contacting my family when I can find the time, I have been preparing for this fourth visit. This journey has a special meaning and objective which I have very absorbed and readying myself for the arrival... That and there's just so many pilgrims to talk to and foods to explore (and fairness, the food along the front desk route is a lot less varied than it is on the Portuguese route).
But that also brings up another topic I've been thinking about. I have had a substantial amount of time on the Francis route and a very respectable amount of time on the Portuguese route. A discussion yesterday got me thinking. Which route had the nicest people. At first I was going to say "Well the Frances of course" but then I got thinking about the time I spent in Portugal and how incredibly friendly almost every Portuguese person was (and how much English they spoke). After some back and forth, I decided the Portuguese eaked out the Spanish buy a slim margin. Now if you wanted to ask me where I would rather live in Spain or Portugal, that was an easy answer. Portugal had a lot more variety, was much easier to travel through, and their investments in community outdoor activities was just mind-blowing. Couple that, with the fact that the older generations remember life under a dictatorship - something that is constantly taught to the younger generations, and you have a society that is genuinely happy for what they have.
Along the roots, I have met so many incredible people that it's hard to remember them all! Which is actually a serious problem, because walking down the trail I will have people calling out to me quite frequently and I have to suddenly try and recall who they are and where they're from. That aside, I have made some pretty tight connections along this journey, that I will be maintaining connections with. They don't come out here for the purpose of making friends, but on that same token, I don't come out here to avoid people. I walk my Camino solo, but I will help anybody in need to the best of my abilities even if that is just providing some veteran advice.
My official Camino mileage will total up to 375 km, add about another 10% to that because that's what you actually walk along the trail not counting at day's end and I will have put on well over 400 km in three short weeks. That's 400 km of refreshing the mind, the body, and the soul... That autta' last me a year or two before Tina starts packing my bags and shoving me out the door telling me just to go again so I'll shut up for another year 🤣.
Santiago in 2 days.
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