Camino de Invierno - The Suffering in Silence Walk

This was Pietro from Milano who struggled every day, like really struggled. He had a fondness for the old cervesa and a hammy knee. I passed him every morning circa 930am and he’d rock into towns around 3 hours after me. But like Otto from my first Camino. Although Otto was 85. Fierce nice fella Pietro although we hadn’t a clue what the other was saying. 

Top class.

630am. Didn’t sleep much night before due to noise from road. 

Averaged 35kms for the 8 days,  Started at 12.20 , 28 Sep from Ponferrada Finished 1440 5 Sep in Santiago Longest Day: 47kms 

Well, she did make this dress herself (while studying for a chemistry exam)

Proof that I was actually here (again) 

I had forgotten that any spare sliver of land was planted with vines. I had also forgotten that mid September was harvest time. That meant lots of juicy grapes for me. But I would never go so far as to take already picked grapes. No way!  Interestingly enough, i bumped into some Romanians who come over for September to harvest the grapes. The Spanish vineyards can’t get the locals to do it. Too hard. The  daily rate depends if you go horizontal on a vine (€80 - €100), or up and down ( circa €150), the latter being even more back breaking. Those Romanians are a long way from home. This is tough stuff. 

As I wandered into the small village I took the photo below thinking this didn’t look good for me finding a restaurant with a normal Menu (del Dia).  And so it came to pass. Nothing open anywhere. I ended up buying two packets of tex-mex Doritos and slogging two apples. Plus I did have some of my stash left (a quarter of a roll) so I didn’t starve. It’s a long  time since this has happened but such is life. Today was last minute dot com in that I didn’t know would I stay in Ponferrada or chance doing the 23kms in the afternoon heat. I went for it and booked a place near the trail but didn’t check for food choices. Was slightly unlucky I think. Come to think of it I should have stolen a cob as well. 

As the Bishop of Santiago (Padre Jesus Fernandez Jesus) said to me when I was heading off: “Suffer something terrible Frank, but don’t die”. Not dying is the key to all the Caminos.  The World is in a desperate state what with Climate Change and everyone behaving badly. So what good has my suffering in silence done you may ask. But say if I didn’t suffer, where would we be? Jesus was crucified, this is the least I could do. When I walked ‘For the Sins of Others’ everyone agreed it made a big difference at the time. Sure, there was some controversy with some over-exuberant female fans and I regret that. But it was before the #me2 movement and we are all better people now.