My Way: Pilgrims

My Way: Santiago de Compostela at night

My Way: perspective

Yesterday was my longest day. I walked for over eight hours, covered over 36 kilometres. And discovered in a shopping mall that I had lost six kilos since leaving Australia.

My last day of walking on the Camino was epic. I walked across blighted moors, challenged vehicles on roads with no sidewalks through three towns, negotiated 300 metres down a precipitous drop, made my way along the soft sands of a surf beach and climbed to the Fisterra lighthouse.
I was proud,even had a certificate to prove it issued by my final overnight stay.
Showed the kilometres done to the waitress who served me at my celebratory dinner.
“Hmm!“ she observed,"that is about the distance that I do each day working in this restaurant.“
She was right. Really, it was nothing special.

My Way: back from the edge

Fading light over the fishing port. The town does not see the glory of the Sunset in the West. Sensibly it nestles on Eastern side of the Cape away from the worst of the Atlantic weather.

¿Dónde están mis sardinas?

Not quite dead yet and so on, into the thriving touristy fishing port of Fisterra for a big seafood meal of octopus. I can afford it: lost six kilos in the last month and the albergue is charging me only €6 for my bunk and a shower.  Burp.
Then, in the fading light, a quiet life-affirming photo walk through the fishing boat haul-out yard.

My Way: even unto the end of the world

Thanks boots but it is time to die

The end of the Roman World

I walked to the end of the world today...well the Roman one anyway. Must have been a great place to retire from the army at the height of the Roman Empire's power. A long white beach, lush green forests plunging down iron cliffs to a dark blue Atlantic. And only a stones throw from the deep, watery abyss to where all souls went after death, off the Galician Costa da Morte.
I did the traditional thing at Cabo Fisterra, walking out below the lighthouse and leaving my boots. These were the boots that had seen me a thousand kms of prep and actual walking of the Camino from France; good boots that never gave me a blister but now breaking up and beyond repair.
I peeled them off at the blackened officially recognised fire pit below the stone cross. I placed them with a bunch of other people's offerings of clothing. No one spoke in the warm windless afternoon. Other pilgrims sat around on the bare rocky slope staring out into the misty azure where there was supposed to be the horizon. An Italian tourist understood exactly what I was doing and added some of her tissues to the insides of my boots so they would burn better when the time came.
I put on my shower sandals and slowly walked the hour back down the hill to the town.

My Way: beyond dogma

My Way: beyond dogma

Just passed through Santiago De Compestella, hooked up with Nancy for three days and now walking out to Finisterra, the end of the world on the Galicia Cote del Morte (Coast of the Dead) where the Celts and Romans are reputed to believe that the spirits of the dead went.
I have two valorous dead.
First, my wonderful boots. They are worn out by well over a thousand km of prep and actual walking of the Camino. Blister free. But the uppers are breaking up and heels worn away. I intend to do the traditional burn below the lighthouse if it is allowed. I have been told by a veteran who has done the trip several times that there is an almost continuous bonfire there fuelled by the garments of pilgrims completing the walk to the setting Sun. We will see.
The second death has been my faithful Sony Z1 mobile that has taken  nearly 2000 photos in the last two years and become my primary electronic Swiss army knife for coms. The glass has broken for the third time, the chassis twisted, it is no longer waterproof and it now only accepts small recharges.
So in Santiago Nancy and I discovered a mobile fixer who shook his head in horror, pointing out that it would be cheaper to replace than repair. Consequently, I am in the delicate process of transferring everything to a newish second-hand Z3 successor.  Yes I will give it a decent burial into the recycling stream so it can live again as a vacuum cleaner circuit board or perhaps a critical part in a future Terminator.
I will complete the walk in another two days and, wearing my back-up shower  sandals,  bus it back to Santiago were Nancy will be finishing her course. Bikes will be waiting for both of us to repeat the journey to the coast. That is the last of the serious walking for this trip, my legs are close to worn out too.
Walking these final few days is a totally different experience to the long journey to Santiago from the French border. Only the rugged few complete the full 4500 year old path all the way to the coast instead of calling it quits at the climactic swinging of Botafumeiro at the Santiago cathedral.
A little more spirituality and less of the easily digested Christian propaganda.

So today, like so much of this weird north west corner of Spain, today was magic, like walking through some children's unicorn storybook...if it weren't for the incongruous and pervasive Tasmanian blue gums. They are a local pest and serious bushfire risk; our revenge for the rabbit and Lantana.
So it goes.

My Way: lesson from the Spanish economy

Couldn't take a really summarise with a picture or two so I will try to image it in words.
Looking down along a blue-green ridge to the valley of the rio Sil and the city of Ponferrada.
On the right a coal-generation plant spews a smog, fouls the waterways and demands valuable farmland to stockpile it's fuel.
On my left a row of quiet turbines harvest the passing breeze.
Over 30% of all power in Spain is now from wind and more than half is from renewable.
Is that the cause Spain's economic woes and an unemployment rate of over 20%? No, not according to The Ecomomist http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21649660-spanish-unemployment-ticks-up-again-many-workers-are-sinking-poverty-not-doing-job That was caused by a bubble of bricks and mortar investment.
Australia take note.



Posted from Lee Shipley's phone

My Way: wet, wet,wet

And sometimes you need to build a raft.

Thunder and lightening across a bare plain. A bit of a worry for pilgrims

Barely visible in the morning light and driving rain. Fortunately, very little traffic and what there was carefully picked it's way through the constant stream of pilgrims.

New road carved through a field

Reservoir dominates village

Posted from Lee Shipley's phone

My Way: Living León

All my precious bits ready to pounce for freedom now that the zip is broken

The bigger replacement, hip bag by Dieter, is more practical but bits can hide.

A decent burial

Stunned by the variety of cityscapes in Spain. The contrast of "nicer than Nice" San Sebastian and Bilboa with its sophisticated modern street art was one thing but now trying to deal in my head with the austere berg of Burgos and the joyous, infectious flair of León fou waling days along the Camino.
I am in León a day early because I cheated and shared a cab for the last 18km. My overstuffed bumbag broke. I needed a replacement urgently so I would not leave my valuables strewn along the track.

So I spent a day doing a refit in the next large town, Borgas' old rival, Leon.
Instead of boring you with a duplication of some of the thousands of León landmark photos of the León available online, some shots that try to give my sense of the place. I have a real soft spot for it and its kind, courteous people and eclectic architecture.

"I collected some of their Proverbs: thinking that as the sayings used in a nation, mark its character, so the Proverbs of Hell, shew the nature of Infernal wisdom better than any description of buildings or garments."
--William Blake, Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

Posted from Lee Shipley's phone