Living Contentedly

After a rocky rather than rough night's sleep, I bailed @0600 & rocked The Way - for so.e reason I love this time of day on pilgrimage The particular section of camino,to the next village is known as the "Knee Killer". Certainly it whoop de dooed down & up lots of times but jogging off some hills filled me with joy.  In todays Village 1 I managed hot bread & hamon which course was fantastic. I tried to play sword fights with an old eye, he just raised his stick a little. The spot I ate was directly across from a carving depicting God tromping on brats.  I got disoriented leaving tow  & an 80yr old took it as his duty to stop his car, get out on the ride & provide a thorough set of directions before clambering in, starting up and pootling away. Brilliant. Village Two Logrono was big &  came at 22k. This was more a city & the church celebration drew 500 people with music & singing. Everyone was well dressed. ...

Lovely Alb. but I had to escape to the kitchen due to coughing. The flies were busy & made it hellish, but First World Problems. I did get going early & on the Way @0600. With no torch (?) I bimbled but after so long found Way. Despite this the morning was a treat.  At Los Arcos I bought bread, cheese, çherry red Roma tomatoes, & choccy on mias insistence that I enjoy life a bit more. About 1000 I pulled over & had the best picnic ever listening to racing motorcycles in the distance. The walking the rest of the day was direct & smooth. As usual up steep to the village (Sansol) & down & back up up here.  Highlighlights i lost Nan's pinky ring on Way ( I'll stay here, you dont need me anymore) Saw my first deer Lovely open country Visited Inglesia del Santo Sepulchre (Roman built, site of pilgrims funerals) Cough persists

The view ahead leaving Lorca. Villamayor de Monjardin, is the pointy mount in the right background.  Bridge before Estrella Leaving after lunch. The much-touted wine fountain. I dislike red wine, but did it anyhow... I had diarrhoea with minutes. Nearly there. Health Report: No medico for chest. Farmacia assures the tabs I have are strong.  Tightening shoelaces & greasing up has seen the blister settle.

After a weensy breakfast at the basic but decent albo in Uterga, I was stoked to hit the road before sunup.  these two shots were taken from the same spot, looking right, then left ( moruzabel?) This countryside is beautiful, vineyards, rolling hills.at Puenta de Reina, walking through the old sector as we do, I found a grocery with the classic little old lady; msnzsna, aged cheese, breadstick for €2.50 & I got a burn Camino.  I carried those all day. Removing the bum bag to chest was liberating and heaps less pain. Got to another village, stiff uphill, & found a pharmacia for chest meds & cough drops.  Down again, rough trail, but workers were on site. I found a causeway for lunch.  Apple, cheese on bread. Cooled feet & noted  blister outside R heel. Julie & Chrissy are flying home today. Waving.   Tightened shoes, using surgeons knot & it felt ...

After the worst night's sleep, I dreamt I was choking, I baled early onto the darkened streets of the old sector. I found a bakery, literally glowing gold with produce, grabbed coffee and a sweet bread. After 1k, back into modern society, traffic, maze of four laned streets. I found no farmaci open at this hour. Leaving town to see mountains whipped by low cloud, & big fields of stubble. This was taken from in such a field after eating breadstick, goat cheese & tuna, watching the farmer turn the stubble in. Tonight I read a good quote from " Wind in the Willows":- " the best part of a holiday, is perhaps not so much in resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working".  We had to claim a ridge lined with wind generators. Hellishly steep, should width, hard work. But there was a nice Camino Icon surprise at the top. The way down was treachorous: steep, washed out, with r...

Key points from today's walk : - first 12C Romanesque church. - bathed & lathed in Are ? River - first under €20 day. Body report: - still coughing - fever on ending the day's walk has eased. - I am dehydrated. last 2 images of a sizeable & well loved village before Irotz or Ziritziaitz The church was open, very old, dark & engaging.

Coffee breakfast & hit the road. Took a photo at the sign Just as Michael ( loud TEXAN) latched on to me and said, repeatedly: He's carrying his wife's pack. She died of cancer, and he talks to her. I'm crazy I know I'm an ex-navy service . I was planning on stopping at 10k, but after bacon & eggs ,( in Spanish) I felt strangely powered up. I left my stick their, and met Simon the Camino donkey, pulling a woman with disability. We met several times. Just before ZUB the trail got weird & I was in need of a bed.  The town though was beautiful, stone bridge, river, narrow roads, well maintained buildings. Alb is fan. Went to bed with fever. Snacked later feeling better, WiFi great for ABC radio, messaging mia,  Julie & Chrissy.  town for morning tea. Cafe & pound cake. Started with E. same site. cat, all cats here were tabbies Simon  the pack donkey, "energetic". ...

To describe the walk from St JEAN to ORRISON as epic would be a gross unde rstatement.Steep, wet, pack weight increased by wet clothes, a flu, but distractingly beautiful. At ORI I had a coffee, coke and banana, and didn't realise it but when staff tell what time their shift ends, they're hitting on you. I missed it, but am flattered. Anyway, up and up it went & my legs were moving but I was only movin slow! Until I met a guy who was literally one foot length per step. Mitchell (Vancouver) had sore hips, so I hung with him. The RONCE albergue as recognised, was massive but worked well, 180 beds. 

San Sebastian teen service was brilliant, kind of bullet train, fast with typically long but few stops. Pyrenees to the north were occasionally ragged, high and timbered. I was seeing the little villages I had read about these past years. Excited on a different was, like visiting inland NSW, space, simple natural beauties & fewer people. I expect fewer of them are extroverts? I hope so.  Pamplona is a little like Canberra, university, classy parks, wide circular roads.   Pamplona. With plenty of time i hopped off the trendy to donde the autobus estacion. I did see two signs, bit typically for me here so far, theu meant nothing but fristration. I did a clockwise loop, increasingly large. Now I sit waiting two hours for the bus to St Jean Pied de Port!!! All the books said it leaves at 11am in season, they got that wrong too. However, I have seen good, promising things.  I need a phone SIM In the interim, I have seen several Camino signs.

Day 1 v late, saw arrow so walked. Glopp church found, goats, hydrangeas ( sr marg)  Day off track, leso cafe, highways too far inland, freeways, thorns, scuttle 8 lanes. Before SS got worse, truckire Paul got me to donnostorio . lovely archi, ppl, but too much. Accomm not Caminoey, but pilgrims Milo NCa x USA, Lin x Denmark. Amazed me getting lost, but they didn't c g'loop etc.  Love ferral Camino, vs hotels, evening meals, "suburban" shit.   Fri 19/9..hit promenade at San Seb to see BoB up close 1st time . sea mist, boats moored island on bay. Copper sandals, fitness. Swimming, bch chsors eyc. Wrong turn to W. Quick on after. Up over head & big slog  around headlands over the sea.. Rocky erodrd, Fr pilgrim looked shot early. Took up with at orio. Little town bridge. Met max walked Paris SdC, finis, Portugal, ptimitivo, now returning yo Biarritz, final few days. Body exhausted.  After met German aero eng . doddery,  At Zaur no accomm. ...

28l macpac pack D/Bag1 : Puffer jkt & Sleep sack D/bag 2: leggings, 2xsocks, 2xundies, shorts, t shirt, ls top,  Poncho + thongs Sachet : tbrush, pills, nail kit, tape, Vaseline, ear plugs Pouch: credential, torch, cable,  Waist Bag : passport, cash, cards, phone, kindle, notebook + pen, glasses, earphones,  Wearing : tshirt, shorts, fleece, hat, sunnies, sandals, undies, socks

Woohoo! Walking down a quiet country road that I've driven and ridden along many times and a find a new road running off it. In all my years I've never seem it before. But try it? i had to. About a kilometre on it got real steep going. I didn't get as high as Eaglereach, but I could rib shoulders with it. On top of the rise I found a lovely horse property nestled between hills on top of theain hill.  This cheeky fellow appeared as I was snapping the horse sculpture. I suspect he is the stud stallion.  Rather than head down the other side, i turned back as I was approaching an hour out, and it had been a good stretch.  The view past the horse property was lovely, as the sun lowered in the sky.  Today's wall was in sandals and they went well. I'm really torn over sandals v boots. 

As I ponder, 48 hours from my departure, and cannot pin down what I want from the Camino, my heart feels bruised. Yet again, my only companion in day life, my son Joe attacked me physically and emotionally.  Yesterday morning, steaming coffee, tools and new catdoor assembly nearby while I was drilling the first hole, Joe flung the door open with angry face and aggressively grabbed at me and yelled at me to stop. He refused to acknowledge reason or for him to moderate his mood. In fact he escalated with a verbally abusive barrage about my "inability" to carry out work around the property as he saw fit. I asserted that I would fit the cat door at my next oppprtunity and he leered at me and left. I came off without feeling hurt, instead concerned about Joe's mental health, but honestly, I was deeply hurt by yet another emotional, verbal and physical attack.  As usual I busied myself with other jobs. I got on, to salvage the remainder of the day as best I could. But, my heart...

Spurred on by a photo of a rock cleft along the Tomaree Coastal Path, I was determined to go see it on real life. The parallels between the headland to headland coastal trail of the Camino del Norte & what I knew of the TCP, was not lost on me. This would be a good emotional as well as physical preparation.  My research also revealed some possible benefits from eating dried fruit, nuts & peanut butter along the trail. They are calorie dense & will help keep energy up.  So, stocked up on dried mango & banana, trailmix &  bananas, I hit the trail. And as it turned out, the trail hit me back. Arriving on the coast on a headland south of "clothing optional" Samurai Beach, i immefiately noticed the surf was up! Large rumbling waves smashed the crimson rock fortress of headland & I was half expecting the ground to tremble with every collision. It didn't but I never lost the expectation.  The upside was that the cooling seaspray kept the nudie lurker...