Yesterday’s 36 km (21.5 mile) hike from Vilar de Mazarife was really tough on my feet. I actually didn’t realize how tough until I had to use every blister dressing and band aid that I had to get ready for today’s 23 km (13 mile) walk to
Rabanal. The elevation rises gradually from 900 meters to over 1150 meters at Rabanal.
The view in that direction from Astorga is beautiful.
It was really hot, the paths dusty with lots of cobblestones
and my feet hurt so I made the conscious decision to go slow and stop often and visit with people along the way.
I’m glad I did. Early in the day, I met a young woman named Twyla, a nurse from
California. She told me she was on the Camino with her 74 year old mother who walked slower so she was pausing to allow her mom to catch up. She told me that her father had passed 25 years earlier of a heart attack in his 40’s and that her mom had wanted to make the pilgrimage to Santiago for many years. This year circumstances permitted her to take time off from work to accompany her mom. I was amazed to learn that they had started about a month earlier in St Jean. She said her mom had a tough time crossing the Pyrenees but that since then things had been going really well. I waited with her and then had the privilege of meeting her mother Vicki when she caught up.
I asked them if they walked regularly before in the US before the Camino and Vicki, the mom, said not really. She said her knees weren’t good. Here’s a picture I took of them.
Her mom, Vicki, told me their was a mass at 8:00 that evening in Rabanal (where we all were headed). They were the first people I had met on the Camino (although I know there are many thousands) who were making a true religious pilgrimage to Santiago. Twyla told me that she was walking the Camino with both her parents. It was clear to me that Vicki was as proud of her mom as her mom was of her. I bid them “Buen Camino” as I walked on ahead and cried as I thought of this loving devoted mother and daughter making the pilgrimage to the tomb of St James the Apostle for their long departed husband and father. For once, I was crying about something other than Cary.
I continued to walk along and I smiled inwardly as a picture formed in my mind of the two of them on their first day, weeks earlier, starting up the other side of the Pyrenees mountains. It’s more than 500 miles from there to Santiago and they had now covered over 300.
An adage that my father often used, “the longest journey begins with the first step” suddenly took on new meaning.
How does one accomplish anything in life? How does one get anywhere? You take the first step, that’s how.
It doesn’t matter if your stride is long or short or if your pace is fast or slow or how large or difficult the goal or objective or even how old you are, if you want to accomplish something, if you want to get somewhere, if you have a goal, you have to take that first step.
Unlike yesterday when I hardly stoped until I got to David’s Casa de los Dioses after 17 miles, I stopped every time I got to a town which on todays segment was every couple of miles. It took me 5 hours walking to cover the 13 miles to Rabanal and with the stops it was close to 3:00 when I got here.
Rabanal was an important pilgrimage town in the 11th Century and is seeing kind of a rebirth today with ancient buildings being brought back to life.
Tomorrow’s another tough but exciting day heading up almost another 400 meters to the highest point on the entire Camino Frances 1515 meters to a place 15 kilometers out called Alto Altar. The Camino then descends to 500 meters over the next 10 kilometers. I’m booked in a hotel in Ponferrada which is 17 kilometers or so after
Alto Altar for a total of 32 kms (about 20 miles) but I’m not going to try to be a hero. I’m more worried about the going down than I am the going up so I’ve got the phone number of the local taxi cab and if my feet hurt too much after I get to Alto Altar I’m going to use it.
After all if I do, no one will know except us. It’ll be our secret.
Buen Camino