Day 7

We left Triacastela this morning and are staying in an albergue in the small
town of Barbadelo, just to the west of the large town of Sarria. Total
distance today was 24 kms, We started off at 7:15 approx., in the black.
This is only possible because we have head lamps. Sometimes the trail
markings can be hard to see, but we did well. By about 8:15 there is enough
light to switch the lamps off.
For the first 3 hours I had a significant amount of upper shin pain,
especially on the down slopes. I consumed my remaining Advil and for the
last half of the day things went much better. I'm not sure if the
improvement was just the Advil, or whether the walking loosened things up.
From the map it looked like we would be dropping in elevation all day. And
while this was the general trend, there was actually a lot of up and down.
We walked mostly along the side of ridges overlooking beautiful valleys.
The towns were mostly small except for Sarria. In Sarria, I picked up more
Advil and some Epsom salts for my blisters. Just before we left Sarria we
stopped at a pub for lunch. We noticed that we were right across the street
from a very modest city hall. Soon, some very well dress people started
arriving at city hall. Then a couple of photographers and a video camera
person. Well yes, it was a wedding party. Half an hour later a beautiful
old car arrived with a bride all decked out in white. It was very nice to
watch this unfold from our table on the patio. The gathering and
interaction of the people looked as if it could be in Milton or any other
place in an industrialized country. People seem so much the same here as at
home. We focus on differences, but we probably have more in common with one
another than our differences.
Also today we bumped into a middle aged, sporty type named Shelly from
Saskatchewan. Her story blew our minds. She has been walking 35 to 40 kms
per day since France. But that's not all - she does this wearing sandals!
She expressed some concern that a pain in her lower shin may be tendinitis.
Wow, I can't imagine.
She also said something very interesting that a couple of older sister from
Ireland had told her about time for contemplation while walking the Camino -
well honey, there's no time for that because we're always thinking about our
feet, or legs, or where we are going, or where we are going to eat. This
sadly is so true.
Dinner is done - bacon and eggs, soup, salad and yogurt - and I've stayed
behind at the table to finish this update. Our morning plan is to be up and
out for 7am.
This has been a challenging but good day. I have now walked over 150 kms.
Tomorrow we cross the 100 kms to go point - very significant for Ted - the
final push.
Good night!

October 7th (day 6)

Today has been a short day as we walked from the high land of Hospital Da
Condesa to the much lower town of Triacastela, a walk of 15 kms. Overnight
there was quite a bit of rain and the temperatures dropped. By morning the
rain stopped so we walked through another day without rain. As we started
out and as long as we remained at the higher elevations, there was a dense
cool mist supported by a steady wind. It felt very maritime. I eventually
put my rain jacket on top of my fleece jacket to keep warm.
By the time we reached lower elevations we left the mist behind and the sun
came out and raised the temperature. It has turned out to be a beautiful
fall day.
The area is still characterized by tall hills and deep valleys, but the
valleys have higher levels of agricultural activity. For at least half the
day we have passed dairy cattle in greener pastures. The downside of this
has been a day of cow patty avoidance. The cows and the peligrenos share
the same trails. The cows are milked in the villages and are taken out to
the pastures after the morning milking. Some trails are quite the mess, and
the smell of manure has been with us the whole day.
On the physical side, my feet are fine and appear to have adjusted to the
walking demands. My shins and knees had a very tough day due to the
significant downhill trek. A double dose of Advil helped quite a bit.
Thankfully we only needed to complete 15 kms today.
We are staying in a private albergue tonight. It's quite nice. I have
attached a photo of it.

Vespers

While we were in Rabanal del Camino on the evening of October 2nd, I had the
opportunity to attend a vespers service at the local church. Of course it
was Catholic, and the service was conducted by three monks from an order in
Germany that run the Catholic activities in this town. In case your mind is
running to an image of short, heavy set older men, looking like they came
from a previous century, these monks were young, bright, and well
maintained.
The church was perfect for this vespers service. Old - centuries old. The
interior was quite dark as I believe there was just one window. The ceiling
was not that high and formed a large barrel vault of stone. The wall and
ceiling surfaces were old and crumbling and looked like someone should have
commenced repairs two centuries ago. The flooring was all new and produced
this amazing aesthetic contrast to the state of the rest of the building.
It was a compelling space.
Layered on top of that - medieval music! I love medieval church music! The
three monks knew the music cold and sang it beautifully. And they sang in
Latin. Thanks to my experience singing a good number of catholic masses
with the Toronto Classical Singers - I knew the words and how to pronounce
most of them! The words and the music were printed, with the music
presented in the medieval musical form - I actually studied this!!!!!!!!
Yes, I was very excited. Wow, who would have thought that this would happen
- a wonderful spiritual experience produced by a harmony of factors. It was
truly magnificent.

El Camino, eh!

A comment that comes from many people from other countries when we explain
where we are from is "there sure are a lot of Canadians on the Camino."
Then there is the follow-up question, "Why would that be?" Yikes! Our
government didn't let us know how to answer that one. No government
pronouncements, no newspaper or TV articles or editorials on spirituality
trends, no memorable national church movements pushing people to the Camino,
not even an incredible super low Air Canada discount package to northern
Spain. So why? Well I only know one thing for sure - we have met a lot of
Canadians. Strange eh?

Day 5 - October 6th

Today was beautiful with near clear skys and temperatures around 25 - great
for hiking. We covered 23.5 kms from Trebadelo to Hospital Da Contesa. We
started at the floor of a valley between two ridges, and worked our way up
over 2,200 ft to high pass and down into another system of valleys. The
photo is taken near the top of the pass looking back towards from were we
came. What is in view represents less than half our vertical climb.
Trebadelo is hidden behind ridges.

Walking uphill today was fine - as was walking flat. For some reason,
walking downhill was very painful below the knees on the front shins. I'm
taking Advil every 4 hours to see if that helps, and I applied a cream Ted
has. Hopefully it will work.

We had a blister discussion with various Canadians at a bar half way up our
climb today, and there was no agreement on the best method to treat them.
According to one person, the Spanish medical community feels it is best not
to drain a blister. Medical communities in other countries appear to
differ. All I know is that I have done nothing but cover mine, and they
appear to be doing much better today - all of them - even after a tough 23.5
kms.

On the weather front, Ted has not walked in rain during any of his 28 days
on the Camino, or stated another way, in over 500 kms of walking. The
weather is very unusual according to our inn keepers yesterday. Now that we
are in the area of Galacia, rain is expected. We watched a weather system
move in tonight, but it is not raining yet, and one of the locals said it
will not rain tomorrow.

I forgot to add a comment about wine to my blog yesterday. Our evening
dinners include a beverage - either water or a bottle of wine. Now it may
surprise you that we choose the wine, and you may ask what does it taste
like if it is equal to water in value - but you would be approaching this
from the perspective of a Canadian, not a Spaniard. The bottle of wine put
on the table last night had a value of around 2 Euros, a little more than a
bottle of water. The wine is locally produced, and sold to the
establishment in large containers. The establishment then divides it into
regularly sized bottle and puts a house label on it. There appears to be no
taxes or government marketing controls. The really big surprise - the wine
was excellent - really. I wish I could bring it home for 2 Euros a bottle,
($3Cdn). It really was a nice wine. The wine tonight really wasn't that
good - but we consoled ourselves that it only cost 2 Euros - what should one
expect - water? It still had more value than water!

October 5th - Innkeepers

We reached Trabadelo and these were our innkeepers.  They are a delightful couple – he’s Spanish, she’s Dutch.  They speak English well and were able to tell us much about the area, themselves and their experiences.  They did the Camino a few years ago, and then decided to open this Inn with 3 rooms and a small bar with a few dining tables.