Downshift Musings

So Much Harder Than I Thought It’d Be

Today was not such a Buen Camino. My head was down most of the day and I really struggled to make it.

The morning started out innocuously. We were in the trail at 7 and watched the dawn as we walked along some red cliffs. It was only as we hit the first rise that I realized that I hadn’t seen some of my clothes as I packed up this morning. We soon figured out that Rich hadn’t recognized some of my things when he was bringing in the laundry last night and some of my wash has been left behind on the drying line at the albergue.

I left my pack and trekking poles with Rich and ran a number of miles back to town, retrieved my belongings and ran back to Rich. This put us at the back of the pack and I was concerned about trying to catch back up. I soon found out that I had injured my right leg in the run. I could barely move my leg due to pain in my hip area. It was very painful and I wondered if this was the end of my Camino. I kept staggering along and we made the first town and stopped in a bar for breakfast and a couple of Advil.

Today was supposed to be an easier stage of the Camino but we pilgrims are beginning to realize that we didn’t really understand how hard this trek is. Nothing is “easy”.

Today’s route took us past more vineyards and olive orchards and through some really nice towns. Rich gathered some figs and apples from trees along the way. Part of the trail was an old Roman road which is interesting from a historical perspective but pretty hard on the knees. As Rich put it “the Romans need to send out the maintenance crew”.

Tonight’s albergue is riverside and we’re about to go out and explore this extremely picturesque town.