In general, my insomniac sleep pattern of waking up after only 3 or 4 hours, has continued, despite the fresh air and exertion of each day. Neither medication not alcohol have any effect either. Perhaps I should accept that I just don’t need more sleep than this, at this stage of my life? In any case, I guess I shouldn’t worry.
The last couple of days have been thought provoking. Bad weather has meant that walking has been hood up, head down, bent against the wind and rain, lost in one’s own thoughts. Good weather has meant conversation has been free-flowing and engaging.
I’m not sure if there is any correlation between the weather and my physical condition, but everything was worse in the rain…so painful, that I had to return to the albergue to send my backpack ahead once more. I have henceforth decided to continue with this service until my pains improve sufficiently!
With the sunshine today, everything had eased somewhat. Perhaps due to a slightly longer sleep, perhaps also due to some thoroughly engaging conversation!
I also have to add that, in the last few days, I have taken to fixing a visual point in the distance, then stopping there to loosen off the muscles in my shin and ankle area. So, every few hundred metres or so, I stop and do my “stork” impression, much to the amusement of my fellow walkers. It slows me down a fair amount, but it definitely helps.
This morning in Leon, George had to concede that he had indeed left his retainer, for his teeth, behind at the last albergue. Of course, nothing to do with the sensational night of excess and fun at El Elvis Bar the previous night!
The backpack courier service that I was using wouldn’t deliver without pre-payment, and in any case, we couldn’t get in touch with anyone at the albergue itself to see if it was actually there. So there was nothing for it, George had to go back, and Jade accompanied him.
Hartmut and I (Osi at this point has diverged and is going to a different village tonight, but no doubt our paths will cross again soon), ended up stopping for coffee only a few hundred metres from breakfast. Then again for second breakfast and coffee some kilometres later.
With only the two of us, we fell into step with each other (a much slower pace than he would naturally be at!)
But conversation was fun and liberal. Even I hadn’t realised quite how many times I’ve lost my passport and had it returned, mostly through serendipitous timing!
It is certainly a luxury to explore topics of conversation that, I guess in everyday life, we don’t have the energy or the space for. We questioned everything, from the power of the mind to alter one’s state, living in the past and present, to living by light alone.
My regular text contact with Jade and George revealed that, shortly after our second breakfast stop, they were only about two minutes behind us! How we laughed, that they had managed to exhaust the Leon public transport options, then take a taxi for 46kms, walk the same distance as us, and catch up just on the outskirts of Leon!
Admittedly, Leon is sprawling, and we had to tread Tarmac for several kilometres to leave. But I should mention that the bigger cities… Logroño, Pamplona, Burgos (not so much)… all mean that we walk through a lot of industrial estates and trudge over seemingly endless Tarmac. My pictures might be slightly misleading, as I am not showing the uglier aspects of the Camino!
It turned out that George too, had been experiencing serendipitous timing. On his return to the Reliegos albergue, there was no sign of the albergue keeper, but there was still a pilgrim there who was packed up and on the verge of leaving. When George asked if he’d seen his retainer, there was a blank. But upon further description, the pilgrim went into his backpack and produced it! He had been meaning to take it onto his next stop and leave it there, just in case!
George then told us how he’d found his hat returned in a similar way, towards the beginning of the Camino in Logroño. He’d realised he’d lost his hat during the day, and thought that was it. End of favourite hat. But at the next albergue, it just appeared to him sitting on a shelf in the albergue! Turned out that Marcel had picked it up and brought it along to the next albergue “just in case”!
Camino magic.
Su-a Lee
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