Advertisement
Published: December 4th 2006
Edit Blog Post
The Camino Gang!
Taken from Kevin's gallery We left Granon reluctantly, although singing. I had made friends with a couple of cool American girls called Kristy and Moira who had decided to sing as well. 'I've got a loveley bunch of coconuts' seemed to be a popular song choice, of course initiated by Kellie and I. I had also written a beautiful tune called 'buen camino, peregrinos.' Those were conveniently the lyrics as well as the title. Later in the camino this became quite a hit.
Now the days around this time are a little bit blurry so if someone who did the walk with me can correct me on any of the details please let me know. But as I remember, today was the day that Frederick and I got caught in a hailstorm. We were walking with the others then the hail hit, and after a while we noticed that the others were nowhere to be found.
One of the things I miss most about Australia is the amazing storms we have, I love watching them climb up over the valley on the verandah of my dad's house. The hail in Europe isn't like the hail in Australia which will damage cars and rooves
of houses, and can give you serious head injuries. This storm was far from as exciting as an Australian one, but it was good enough to give me that natural high that I just love to feel from nature. Today the tiny pellets of ice stung my skin until I couldn't feel my limbs anymore. It was my knees that felt the most painful, ever since a skiing weekend when I was 19 they can't survive cold weather. Nevertheless I was thrilled ot be out in the middle of the storm, and nothing was going to make me stop walking. I also had a chance to test out the poncho that I'd bought for 2 euros in Berlin a couple of weeks earlier. I think Frederick was a bit jealous because his cost him 80 and mine seemed to be holding up just as well. Can't say the same for my boots though. Guess that waterproof spray didn't work. I wondered how Kellie was coping...
We walked along in the heavy downpour with the cold wind blowing, but still we were in good spirits. A bit of water never hurt anyone. Frederick and I had to raise our voices to hear each other through the extreme weather but it didn't matter, I loved being at the mercy of nature. We started talking about global warming, the tsunami etc. which led to discussing how as humans we believe that we have the power to overcome anything, but in the end it's mother nature who has the ultimate power. At that moment this thought resounded in my head more clearly than ever before. The world is so big and we are so small. We like to think that together we can make a difference, but really as a species we're powerless. We have to look at the big picture here, we depend on the earth and everything in it and vice versa. It's a very humbling thought.
After a while we reached an albergue, soaked from head to toe, and decided to wait in there for our friends. They caught up and we waited for the rain to subside before moving on.
But we never quite moved on. About 100 metres out of town I spotted a cave in the side of the mountain, and after quite a lot of effort Kellie and I managed to convince the others to come and check it out with us. It turns out it was a church on the side of a mountain, and as happens a lot on this camino, luck was on our side. There was a lady there cleaning it and she let us in to have a look around (for a small donation). The church was gorgeous, and only used for special occasions such as Christenings. There was a level built above it, and when Kellie asked what it was the lady said it used to be someone's house, but they've taken down the stairs and you can't get in anymore. Kellie took this as a challenge.
So we waited for the cleaning lady to leave and set about constructing a plan to get inside this cave. Abseilling down the power cable suspeded from the cliff above, dynamite, climbing a tree 3 metres from the cave, stealing a ladder from a nearby property, ropes, pulleys, rockets etc., were just some of the brilliant ideas that our team of 2 scientists, 2 doctors (and me) could come up with. Amazing. Louise sat by, slightly bemused, watching the incident unfold. Kellie was climbing anything and everything she could, much to the horror of our friends. I wasn't worried - "Kellie can climb anything." - I assured them. Ezra busied himself trying to make sure Kellie didn't kill herself, while August and Frederick joined in. It turns out those three young ones make a pretty good climbing team, if anyone could have gotten inside it would have been them!
But to no avail. In the end we returned to the albergue we had originally sheltered in, where we were treated to an amazing dinner with wine, singing and laughter. I was greatful to get to sleep that night, although at one point I was awoken by Kevin singing Ronan Keating to me and lovingly stroking my hair Thanks Kevin.
By the way Kevin's taken some amazing photos of the Camino if anyone would like to see them! http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=ufr82bh.75xcg4wl&Uy=-sf9km5&Ux=0&conn_speed=1&refer=digreg&UV=234036832045_28004801810&Uc=ufr82bh.75xcg4wl&Uy=-sf9km5&Ux=0
Advertisement
Tot: 0.062s; Tpl: 0.033s; cc: 6; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0203s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Rob
non-member comment
...there's a cleaner i know..all she cleans glitters like gold...and she is hiding a stairway to heaven