The Stone Site

Walking for sometime we are developing some kind of routine to manage the day. And here it is;

1. Wake up call at 3.45 or 4.00

2. Then trying to wake up; shower, re-packning, breakfast and general messing around and wasting time until 4.45.

3. Hitting the road or at least trying to do it in the dark, sometimes it’s easy to find the way – sometimes (like today) it was a bit tricky. Without the Camino app we had been completely lost.

4. Walking, walking, walking and getting hungry and then walk to find an open coffee place (and you know that could be an important matter). And so we do until 10.30 …

5. Time for the hard last hours – now the sun is getting stronger, the feet are tired and your only focus is to reach target.

6. Reached the target around 12 or 13, often in total exhaustion – just thinking of a cold shower.

7. 13.00 to 16.00 – enjoying the Spanish siesta. I’m getting quite good at this, especially compared to the walking!

8. Then “after-life”, looking at the place, buying breakfast, having a nice pilgrim dinner, some wine ….

9. Bed time (latest 22.00) … dreaming of pain-free feet or doing the Camino by car;-)

And then it starts all over again – but with a little more pain in my feet.

Doing about 30% of the Camino we now have the whole map on one page – however it needs to be a big page!

Only 22 km to next place – a piece of cake! So we took a long sleep and woke up about 4.15 in the morning. We took our time, and then leaving the hotel we was almost caught up in the pilgrim traffic! We managed to hit the rush hour for pilgrims and it was such a nice experience! In small groups, paired or alone we all were heading towards the same direction. Like a snake, a body of strangers but still pilgrims, slowly we moved on.

After walking some hours it started to smell differently, then “not nice” and getting closer it smelled quite awful!! It was fertilising time, so yes there was a whole lot of shit going on! Suddenly our walking speed increased a lot!!

Otherwise we have seen a lot of roads in different conditions. The challenge is that it feels like walking on glass – my feet are not happy with what I’m doing and they send quite a clear message about it.

Today’s walk about 30 km was a bit easier then expected but the “after-life” is so much harder. I have been lying in my bed for about two hours and there is no bone in my legs that doesn’t hurt! What happened? Did a truck run me over? Don’t know, but it hurts like h…. and it doesn’t stop either!

A very nice surprise is our hotel and the room – super modern and with an excellent view. From my bed I have a close look at a Stork nest – a proud family with a teenager (?) baby stork. There is a lot of standing going on there, but also fixing the feathers and so. So, I should be happy that I’m not having long stork legs. But I should decide when to stand up next time, some day next week sounds like a good idea! Meanwhile I will look at The storks, looks like there is a flying lesson going around right now….

To avoid heavy damages and healing some wounds like the muscles and in the feet we have taken a day off (as planned).

Many weeks ago, home in Stockholm we booked a wine tour at a local bodega. It was a success, turned out to be a big place really doing wine (and not just show of for tourists). It all ended with a great wine tasting. The whole group had been quite silent, after the first glass it changed. During the last tasting it was more like a great party and we had great, great fun!

Instead of eating lunch at a restaurant we went to the supermarket, there is so much delicious food in Spain and the big supermarkets are such a garden! Was thinking about buying some nice prawns, but they handsome red, big, fat Gambas so I bought them instead. Eating the first two they tasted a bit raw – after googling I realised that these ones should be grilled! Oops – the normal outcome of eating such food raw could bee quite bad! So I had to buy a bottle of cheap whiskey and took a serious drink to kill all the bacterias. Let’s see how this will turn out – but at least I had a very nice siesta nap.

Between 12.00 and 19.00 everything is about the heat (again), most cities are completely dead – no sounds, no people, nothing open it’s quite scary; “are we the only one left at the planet?”. I don’t know – but what I know is that our team is very, very slow. So we are perhaps the only one out in the heat.

To be able to make 30 km we need to get out very, very, very early. In the darkness we go, and in away it’s quite nice. You don’t see the endless road in front of you, just a few meters at the time. Then the birds starts to sing, then you see other walkers catching up on you, then the sunrise and finally the shit hits the fan and you are walking in 40 degrees!!

Today we finally reached Logrono – what a fine and big city. Staying at the city Center there are so many nice restaurants, cafes and bars. Now at 18.00 everything is closed – but wait until the evening as soon the sun is away all people will be out! Tomorrow is resting day so we hope to stay out a bit later to see a bit of the Spanish night life!