The Camino will Provide...

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Actually I´m in Arzua which is 38 Kms from Santiago, but the town I´m in is never in the list and I´ve given up trying

I was going to write a long post today about what I´ve been pondering as I´ve walked recently, but today has provided events that require me to drop my plans and reconsider. Which in itself is a very ´camino´thing. Every day you may start with one idea of how the day is going to go, and it may turn completely on its head through factors external to you and unforseen (like it rains) or internal (you develop a nasty blister and can´t walk as you´d like).

So today was a good day for walking - cool, fine, little breeze - and I was powering along past a lot of folk who had only been walking for a few days - they are limping and look as if each hill might finish them off. It´s a lot more crowded than it was in the early days of the walk as we approach the destination (if that´s what it is), and so I no longer expect to know anyone I walk past. But then...

To digress for a moment, I need to talk about hats. I left the hat that I had agonised over bringing on the camino by my bedside table when we went to the airport. I then bought a legionnaires-style hat (not one that gives you legionnaires disease - just bad fashion sense) in St Jean Pied de Port. This was perfectly acceptable and kept the sun off and was cool. A week or so in I left it on the top bunk bedpost in Villafrance de Montes de Oca (trips off the tongue that name does). The bunk was free when I popped the hat up there (I was in the bottom berth) and then when it was taken by a Hungarian guy who I´d met at about every stage along the way, I had forgotten that it was there and then left in the morning without it. I then purchased a VERY cheap and nasty paper and hemp stetson style thing in Burgos for 3€ - I kept threatening that I was going to burn this thing when I got to Finisterre (a promise I still intend to keep).

Well today, for the first time since Villafrance, I walked past the Hungarian guy and well you can guess the setup here - HE HAD THE HAT!!! It was a bit manky, but he had carried it with him for a couple of weeks expecting to see me each day. We probably walked past one another several times during that period, but never caught up until today. He is my camino hero.

Speaking of catching up, I also ran into some folk that I haven´t seen for a week or so here in the hostel tonight. I knew that choosing the hostel ´Via Lactea´would come in handy for me.

Cheers...

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Photos

This man is my camino hero
Note that he is holding my hat reverentially!