Sunday 19 August 2007

Getting close to the end

Hi everyone,
Since the Camino is drawing to an end I think it appropriate to speed up the process and give only a few details of the travels.

Molinaseca: wonderful wee town, has a genuine roman bridge, lovely narrow streets, lots of life, good food and a great wee bodega in which Greg and I were not only served the best wine we had tasted all trip but the lady of the bodega provided a plate of fried tatties and green peppers. Now how is that for knowing your customers are fellow Celts.

Villofranca: Decided to stay at the "Ave Fenix" albergue. There is an amazing story about how the "New Pheonix" came to be so named but that is another story. However the most amazing thing of all was that I met Lynsey who used to work in Student Services. After she left she completed her studies as a Chiropodist and spends two weeks each year at "Ave Fenix" albergue tending to the feet of the footsore and weary. It was a great and delightful surprise to hear a Scottish accent, the first we had heard since leaving home(other thaqn our own and we don´t hear them anyway).

Lynsey did my blisters, mosquitos bites and scraps on my back from the rucksack. Felt superb afterwards. The blisters never returned but the mosquito bites are still louping.

O Cebreiro: set off the following morning for the big push up to the top of the world, 30km for the easy route, 34 for the not so easy route. Guess which one we took. It was a long and very hard day with a 1500ft increase in altitude over 5 miles and it is very hard going.

Aside: My guess is that that was the one that put paid to me.

The views are truly Alpine and worth the effort. Had a great evening with the group of Dutch people.

Triacastla: Up and over the big hill (1250m, and superb views) and steeply down into Triacastela. Took the boots off and the tibial tendon and associated tissues were well and truly swollen.

Decided to wait until the following day to see if things improved, they just got worse. Thought I would take the bus to Sarria but it was 15th August (all time BIG holiday in Spain) and in that part of the world nothing, but nothing moves. Eventually took a taxi.

Spent the day resting in Sarria. Spoke with Scott Graham at work and talked through the possiblities. I spent some time going over the various options but since I need both legs to work for the foreseeable future I took the decision to stop walking.

I revised that decision the following morning (felt a lot better) and set out walking to the next town. Not a smart move, lasted 5km and had to get another bloody taxi to take me to Portoomarin. Saw the doctor, she strapped me up and said "FINALE" in a big loud voice. Strong men don´t weep so I am told but hey, this was a hard one to deal with. Just under 700km done, 70km to go and the walking has to stop. Strangely the hard time was when all the others set off the following morning. That, as they say, was the pits.

Will follow this up tomorrow.

Still in good spirits though here in Santiago, just back from Finisterre where I got to the end of the earth.

cheers,
Arthur

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Still the Arthurian legend as far as I'm concerned, Arturo. More so, in fact. Not discounting the disappointment - but actually the bit you have done puts the bit you didn't in high relief. Let the angels do the last tenth - you have more than deserved to put the legs up, get stuck into some tapas, and have a good uninterrupted scrape at those bites you haven't reached yet.

Was up Findochty and Buckie for the week-end - so the Doric's aa beezed up again.

See you soon.
best, Sandy

Anonymous said...

Arthur - sorry to hear about the leg and I know that completing was the big goal - but hey- 90% is almost there. Keep the spirits up and see you soon.

Dave