Magic on the Camino

Hi Everyone,
Thanks for all your comments once again - they really keep me going!
Yes, Pete, I thought you might remember the daily bread and cheese. Somehow this time it´s not so tedious - mind you we were eating it for 5 months! I keep stearing clear of the callos on the menu too - tripe, and it´s still difficult to see the difference from calamari in a tapas bar. So far so good. Re photos, I don´t know how to reduce the size and then publish. You´ll have to show me when I get back and I can put some on then. A mini slde show for my finale.

I can´t believe that I only have 4 or 5 walking days to Santiago. I get emotional just thinking about it - for various reasons. Firstly there´s a sense of not wanting this wonderful experience to end. Another is that the end is so close, so it´s time to get there, so I feel a pressure to push on. The conversation with the long termers is changing as well. We are becoming a little more introspective, willing to share feelings more and what the Camino has and is doing for us. We get excited when we suddenly meet someone we haven´t seen for weeks but with whom we have walked on and off over the last month.
A couple of nights ago I had been writing my journal over a Vino and was feeling a real need to talk with someone about all this - and I still can´t find Yvonne. There is a saying that¨the Camino will provide¨. I looked up and walking up to me was Yook (Luke) from the way back at the wine fountain and with whom I walked on that horrendously wet day. He sat and we talked about just those things, and pondered how everyone is so positve despite injury, pain, bad weather, snorers and crowded Albergues. We take what comes every day with a sense of adventure and gratitude, knowing this community and this walk is unique and special. The challenge is to bring this sense of peace and acceptance of everyone just as they are, home with us.
I reached the marker indicating 100km to Santiago today. This is quite a special moment - and photo opportunity as you can imagine. Funnily enough I had just met up with Yook and a French mate of his a few km before. We thought it very apt to share two highlights - the wine fountain and now the 100km. His mate Jaques spent two days at the wine fountain! He camped there and couldn´t read the Spanish sign saying not to fill up bottles. Jaques keeps giving me high fives because he´s French and can´t speak English. It works - I know what he means.
Now that the 100km point has been reached, we are seeing a flood of new pilgrims as you only have to walk, ride a bike or a horse 100km to receive your Compostela (and a nod from the Catholic Church to say all is forgiven) Phew - I think I´ll make it!
Enough of the melacholia and philosophising. I have to fill you in on my magic day...

Rabanal - Molinaseca 26.5 km
I began this day with a severe talking to myself to slow down. So I deliberately chose to enjoy every monent and take each moment as it came. This day turned out to be the warmest we´ve had which brought out the joie de vivre in everyone. The day began with a climb to the highest point on the Camino, marked by a simple iron cross on a tall weathered pole atop a huge pile of rocks. It´s at this point pilgrims place pebbles from home, photos, flowers - things of personal significance. There were even letters and beautifully carved inscriptions on wooden panels. It is quite a spiritual feeling here with panoramic views and the offerings from the heart.
The walk beyond this was to Manjarin - a spot with one tiny stone house and an Albergue run by a would be Templar Knight. Tomas is pusuing the Templar rituals of hospitality and blessing the new day and the pilgrims on the path. If anything it´s the hippy spot on the Camino.
In the reading I´ve done, there are some pilgrims who rather than bring or buy a walking stick, have had the experience where they felt the stick has come to them. All a bit strange I thought. I brought my own titanium retractable number.
I stopped to enjoy the atmosphere and have a coffee at Manjarin and fell into conversation with a young German man who was spending some time there. He had the longest dread locks tucked up at the back of his head and piercing blue eyes. He told me about some walks in the area and then asked if the stick beside me was mine. I said¨no¨, and he told me it looked like mine. It was a feminine stick he explained - slim, well balanced and made of Hazelwood. Female witches of old always had hazelwood sticks he told me, and they were always good witches. We agreed it had just been left there. As I already had a walking pole I was disinclined to take it but it had this natural appeal. Mirca finally persuaded me when he said this stick would talk to me. So I now have a witches stick (no smart remarks thank you Jack). I love it - It slips thorough my hand smoothly, taps musically on the ground and the hard pavement too and feels just right. No there was no whoopie weed there I promise - maybe it was the elevation! I´ve met a young South African man since (a Deon look-a-like Silvys) who was just as charmed by Mirca, my German friend. So it´s not just me.
The walk from then on was amazing - through pink and white heathers growing over the hills all around me. The snow on the distant mountains was diminishing in the warmth of the day.
The terrain and architecture had changed as well. The pathway was striated with slate and the houses in the gorgoeous villages to follow were made of grey stone with slate rooves. Coming down the hill into one of these villages El Acebo, I passed a goatherd just enjoying theamazing view down the mountain as his goats grazed nearby.
From there I ended up with two Finnish girls and a Frencman to walk the last two hours of the most beautiful scenery and rocky paths through sublime forest and beside little waterways. We all agreed it had been the most beautiful day on the Camino in Spain so far.
Being so hot we stopped for a drink before finding accomodation. Something I never do - but this was the day I was hanging loose.
I´ve learnt a new Spanish word now that the weather is so warm - Cerveza - Beer!
We had dinner in the same spot later that evening, beside the river and the old medieval bridge. I swear the waiter has watched every episode of Fawlty Towers as he was Manuel to a tee, but with a wicked sense of humour and a crazy streak. We asked for the menu and he said ¨Si¨and then went and sat on the low stone wall and had a smoke as he watched the river steam by. When he poured our wine he poured a glass for himself and between serving customers he would waltz around to the crooning of Julio Iglesius. I stayed in a pensione that night, just nearby and was lulled to sleep by the lovely sound of the rushing river and Julio still in fine voice at the restaurant. What a fitting end to a magic day.

Molinaseca to Villafranca de Bierzo (Bierzo being the region) 30.7km
Villafranca to La Faba 28.5 km
La Faba to Triacastella (meaning 3 castles, none of which are left) 25.6km

I decided I need to condense these days for you or else you would fall asleep at the computer and I would never catch up. And I don´t have enough different words to describe the beauty of these three days without repeating myslf ridiculously. The weather has continued to be beautiful Even the rain when it did come was whilst I was walking through a chestnut forrest and the drip drip through the made it all the more magical. I have a poncho that covers me and my pack, and with a big gusseted space for the backpack, I look rather like a camel when I´m walking in the rain. Another description of a pilgrim in this type of poncho is ¨the walking tent¨. Most of us have them and it has been the best item of clothing I have brought with me. Being I nice and dry I could just take it all in and enjoy.
Villafranca is a lovely town set in a valley beside a river. It is built on the steep sides of the hills as well, so after a 30km day I walked rather oddly up and down the many steps and steep paths. But it was worth it, to explore it in the sun and then sit in the vast Plaza Mayor to have dinner as the Spanish played and wandered around us. I was fortunate to be in a room in the atmospheric parish albergue that night with bike riders. They don´t get up early. There was also a sign saying¨holy pilgrims need their sleep¨Brian´s comment when I told he and Jane about it was that unholy ones do too!
This albergue is also known for it´s displayed quote ¨El Camino es tiempo de meditacion interior, no itinerario turistica¨That says it all and needs no translation.
The next day saw the beginning of the all day climb to O´Cebreiro. I´d decided to break it 4km from the top at La Faba, so I could really enjoy the whole experience and landscape. At one point I´d stopped and looking around me thought that the stream, the meadows strewn with wildflowers, the steep patured hills beyond me all gleaming in the sunshine, were so beautiful that it almost hurt. I was overwhelmed. It was at that point I was brought firmly back to earth as I turned around and there painted on the narrow road before me was ¨HERE START HEL¨I laughed and took off up the steep incline enjoying the whole Yin and Yang of it - the pleasure and the pain. Again at the Albegue we all agreed it had been another perfect day on the Camino. This little village was tiny, peaceful and had one bar that became a Fawlty Towers experience as well.
The early morning sun with the mist streaming into the valleys below confirmed I made the right decision to break my journey and do the last climb to O´Cebreiro early in the morning. At one point I stood and literally sobbed for the beauty of it all. I know you are all thinking I´m going a bit soft in the head, but truly you would have cried too - well at least the female half of you.
My gude book has little quotes of wisdom and inspiration at the beginning of each daily section. The one for this day was ¨Happiness is a mystery, like religion, and should never be rationalised¨How appropriate was that?!

Well at the risk of having bored you all to death I have nearly brought you up to speed. Obviously my computer time has not been at risk so I thought I´d make the most of it. And Im off to sit in the sun with a cerveza!

Love to you all
Annie

---

---