Buen Camino

Ola, I reached Spain after racing down the Atlantic coast in France, realising that the Spanish mountains will not be easy and that I could run short on time to reach “Sesimbra” in the end.

I also changed plan and do not cycle the “Camino del Norte” but opted for the traditional Camino with a total of 5000 instead of 7000 meters to climb. At my last night in France I met two cyclists who also wanted to drive the Camino. They had a support car with them and offered me a lift of approximately 40 km to the place where they wanted to start their journey, closer to Pamplona, which I happily accepted – one mountain down.

So here I am on the Camino and I want to tell you about some my first experiences.

The majority of people I meat so far are from Spain, USA, Canada, South Korea, UK, Germany and from Tasmania.

He was the most heart refreshing person I met in a long, long time. I had just climbed (pushing my bike) a really long climb and sat down on a bench for a break and some water when these 3 people came up the same way. I asked them if they would like me to take a picture of them and they were very happy and I got given 3 cameras.

They appeared like old friend while in fact they just got to know each other on the Camino. One was from Wisconsin one from somewhere in the US and the one from Tasmania. So they sat down as well and started sharing their treasures that they carried around with them. Lovely fresh bread, goat cheese, grapes and the Tasmanian had one of those Spanish goat skin water bottles filled with wine, telling us it’s only allowed to fill them with wine. Then he unwrapped a long, hard salami kind of sausage announcing that finally the moment has come to try it. And he bit into it with a joy I have rarely seen - ever. It was wonderful and the only important thing at that very moment in his life (this is how it felt). So we chatted along about how wonderful life is and the food and the weather and the view and that this is all that matters and celebrated our newly born friendship and experience in common. We had a great time, great laugh and when we parted he said “Thank you for sharing your story”

Happy People

In the afternoon the same day I twisted my ankle while pushing the bike over really uneven rocky ground. It did not feel good at all and I decided to check into the pharmacy of the little village in which I found accommodation for the night. It was a tiny little pharmacy with a hipster kind of looking pharmacist and 2 English-speaking customers beside me. They showed the pharmacist one after the other their blisters and little injuries of their feet and he took all the time in the world to talk to them and give advice – totally specialised on feet. Later I met them both back in the only Bar of the village where we had a pint or two and paella together telling us our stories.

Most pilgrims are my age and older or really young – Students and pensioners

Time to move on for today.

There are places with fresh water and benches to rest in every little village

One more thing – The picture below shows a table with fruit and a sign Donation – That was on top of a very steep climb and it was all fresh and there was nobody and no house or anything close by – Some good soul is doing this for the pilgrim. Isn’t that really just beautiful?