Susan's Camino De Santiago Pages

"So........

I´m in Burgos! And er, pretty soon I´m leaving! I haven´t really gotten around to blogging this camino I´ll admit. Mostly I´ve been avoiding all forms of communication, only turning my phone on briefly every couple of days, mainly if I needed to use it for a torch! Useful Tip: If you´re camping in the middle of nowhere a torch would be a VERY useful item!!!

So what´s been happening then... well it´s been hot, very very hot. And we walked in it, a lot. It´s also been very very pretty! Of course I brought my camera, that was a dilemma not worth having!

I admit I was a bit skeptical about walking the same way again but mostly its been lovely. If anything I had forgotten how beautiful this part of Spain really, watching the sun rise over the mountains near grannon the other morning was amazing!

Also i hadn´t taken into account how different the landscape would look in the different seasons. Valleys that were rain-soaked, flooded lush and green in spring are now sun baked dusty browns and yellows. I´d always assumed I wouldn´t like sun-burnt Spain but in fact it looks it´s own kind of beautiful, the first evening headed into Pamplona on the train I watched the sunset turn the yellow fields orange and purple and it was stunning.

Also nice to see is all the fruit ripening along the pathways. The grapes that were tiny little green buds in may are now lush green and purple fruit hanging temptingly along the vineyards. (I haven´t nicked any don´t worry!) Free food is available though in the form of blackberries, of which there are loads! It´s like one long feast, I did collect some for a tasty breakfast on the second day but after that i couldn´t be bothered, there´s so many if you fancy one you can just reach out and grab a snack! Funny thing about the blackberries though, cos it´s so hot it´s more like eating cooked blackberries or drinking blackberry tea! Everytime I pop a hot blackberry in my mouth it comes as a surprise that it´s not the cold refreshing fruit that you would pick in english autumn! Still hot tasty treats all the way...

So the landscape and the places have been lovely. We made a bit of an effort to stop in places we haven´t stayed before. Mostly we have been wild camping. I admit I didn´t realy think that through as much as I should have (torch would´ve been good) but actually I´ve found I´ve quite enjoyed it. Maybe not every night, a shower is good occasionally, but to be honest if I have a sense of ´been there done that´ about any of this trip it´s about the people and the albergues! Somehow with the promise of a nice bit of secluded privacy in your own tent and no snoring a night spent sharing your personal space with old fat spanish men in g-strings begins to lose it´s appeal. (although someone told me a few months ago that some folk pay for such experiences!)

Also, and this may sound a bit grumpy but I´m really lacking in enthusiasm for having to say ´buen camino´ to every single person i meet. sigh. still that said on the occasions we´ve popped to an albergue it´s been pretty nice to socialise. last night we had a very nice evening just sat in the bar at St Juan until we headed out to camp in the woods under the stars and eveyrone else had to sleep in the apparently dirty albergue there! :)

One interesting camping expeience you wuldn´t get in an albergue. I woke up one night to what sounded like explosions adn flashes of light. I got out of my tent quickly wondering who was shooting at us (lots of woods say private hunting etc) and lo and behold there was a firework display going on! So there I was, in the woods at midnight, watching fireworks through the trees!!! Pretty cool eh, I like few things better than fireworks! :)

So me and zoe have been going pretty slow - or well it seemed that way to me possibly Zoe would disagree. I seem to find walking caminos pretty easy-going these days! I don´t even have a blister. Zoe is doing great. She tells me she is happily camped tonight somewhere not in a horrible city! I hope she makes it to the sea, although i begin to suspect she prefers sitting to walking in many respects!

A terrible thing happened earlier I thought for a few kms that i had lost troll! I was actually a bit grief stricken, he has walked so much camino pathway with me. Turns out he was just riding hammock style in my hat! How on earth he unscrewed himself from my backpack and jumped into my hat I´ll never know - he´s a sneaky one that troll! yesterday he actually dived into the water foundtain in Villafranca! I guess troll too is very hot!

Well tommorow i have a day in burgos, I expect I´ll just sit around in the heat and paint. I´m pretty glad I ended my camino here even if it is a wrench not to go on, there is so much pull on the Frances, hundereds of years and pilgrims headed to Santiago makes it very hard to stop before Santiago. Still burgos is beautiful, i think its cathedral is even nicer than santiago (if I´m allowed to say that?) and I was soory to have missed it last time by being so exhausted and blistered.

Guess what! Two weeks walking and NOT A SINGLE BLISTER! What a record eh!?!

BUEN CAMINO ZOE!!!!!!! ULTREIA A FINISTERRE MI AMIGA X





"