And Off We Go!

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So how does one start walking for 600km? One step in front of the other.

We woke to the rustling of plastic bags and muffled whispers between pilgrims at 5:20. I willingly hopped out of bed after a night plagued by dreams of failure of the camino. Seriously, I dreamt that I was getting off of my bunkbed and knocked them over creating a horrific domino effect of the rest of the bunkbeds in the albergue. We filled our waterbottles in the early morning darkness and set out for our first 30km (18.5 miles or so) hike.

Feeling a little nervous we see our first pilgrim walking and squeak out a shy “Buen Camino” (“Good Walk”). To which he replies, “Buen Camino”. Within in the fisrt 10 minutes we run into a hoard of bikers, around 50 or so riding through the streets of Burgos and each one shouts a hearty “Buen Camino!”.

The sun rises. We realize that it’ll be the first of many for the next 3 weeks.

We arrive in Hornillos del Camino at around 2pm after a slow day climbing and descending through rolling hills and wheat fields. And we book the first albergue that we see. After booking and not really sure what to do we set into the village to find an ice cold fountain in which we soak our feet for a few minutes. I meet my camino twin, an Italian man of 80 who happens to share my taste for hot pink tank tops. We soak our feet together opposite one another.

After a few minutes we meet a group of older Belgian men who do the camino for about 4 days every year on bike. Two of them ride bikes, while one drives, they meet in towns for lunch and stay in five star hotels. Not the typical pilgrims. The invite us for beers.
We have lunch, the pilgrim’s menu, with a group of Spanish guys that we meet, Diego, Pablo, Billy the Pilgrim, and so on.

After lunch we get our first dose of Betadine in blisters from the lovely Billy the Pilgrim aka blisterologist. Basically, the only way to cure a blister, according to the doctor, is to remove the liquid and replace it with iodine. Ok, sounds doable. I mean blisters themselves don’t hurt too much do they?? WRONG! The most painful thing you could ever imagine in your life. Like taking a knive and stabbing it straight into the bone. This pain goes on for about 30 seconds and then a slight eurphoria comes over you when you realize it’s over. Thanks Billy, for teaching us this.

We pretty much spend the afternoon wandering around, looking at the church and doubling the number of permanent inhabitants. I end up going to bed at around 8pm after suddenly getting really dehydrated, the rest of the crew gets together for a quick dinner and goes to bed at 9:30 to get ready for our second day of walking!

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Photos

Brett Owns the Camino
Camino Mom taking it on.

Brett Getting Betadined by Billy
Brace yourself!

Comments

[Shea]

jealous!
dannie - it looks like your camino trip was amazing!!!!!!! i can't wait to see all your pics and read all your notes. wow! i am so proud of you! e-mail soon and let me know how you are! te echo de menos, mi novio de espana! xoxo