Saturday, May 2, 2009

May 2 - Walking Pace


Everyone´s walking style is different and everyone has to set their own pace on the Camino. Next time I come on the Camino I´m bringing longer legs. When I start showing my Camino pictures all anyone is going to see are pictures of John and Dayton´s backpacks and backsides . I´m usually at least 100m behind, okay make that several hundred kilometres behind, although they do look back a lot to check on me. In some ways it´s good to be in the quiet back of the pack. There´s lots of time for thinking and some times too much time for feeling - things like tired legs and sore feet.
John has so much energy and is a determined walker. I knew he was a fast walker but I never appreciated how fast. Just put his backpack on him, wind him up, let him go and he´s off. Dayton has a long stride so he covers a lot of territory trudging along and he´s heroically carrying the heaviest pack, helping me out. Me, I am what I am and I´m doing the best that I can. However, we are usually among the first to arrive at an alberque so I guess I´m not holding them up too much.
Today we walked from Torres del Rio to Navarette. It was a long 34 kms. We left at 6:45am just as the cock crowed (seriously!). It was dark and cool but clear. I knew it was going to be a clear day because, when I got up in the middle of the night and had to go outside through the courtyard to get to the facilities, the sky was peppered with stars. Very promising.
It was an 11km walk into Viana which looked like a rough town but we found a taberna which was abierta so the café and té were appreciated. The walk into Logroño was industrial and tedious. We got there around 11am but it took almost two hours to cross the city. John went off on his own to find a phone card for his Spanish phone. This is turning into his every big city chore and so far has not been successful. Dayton continues to make sacrifices for me as, when I needed a bathroom and the owner would only let clients use the facilities, Dayton ordered a cervaza even though it was only 11:30am. What a guy!
The refugio in Navarette was run by French hospitaleros and was situated between two bars so, once again no complaints. Let me amend that. No complaints until the lovely French couple who shared our ´dorm´snored all night!!!.

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