Greetings from the end of the camino. My official certificate says I walked 559 km in 24 days before putting my feet up in the Santiago cathedral plaza. That’s probably close although I took a few accidental shortcuts and detours.
Week two continued the dramatic coastal scenery of week one — crossing through the provinces of Cantabria and Asturias. So this involved lots of walking inland to climb over forested hills then back out to the coast, up over windswept capes and back down into scenic bays with fishing villages or surfer-filled beaches. I also passed through a couple larger cities with their industrial and commercial zones reminding me that I was walking through inhabited areas rather than a wilderness.
After the first week I didn’t have any more days of constant rain. There were several rainy days, but I could cover up for the rain and then dry out again afterward. And my feet got much better after I went through 3 boxes of bandaids for the blisters.
I quickly figured out some things that I wasn’t going to use. So I mailed them to Lisa. Then figured out more things I wasn’t going to use so mailed another box. The pack became pretty manageable after that. Lots of people use an inexpensive service provided by the post office to ship your bag to your next stop. I could see doing that in the future.
The most memorable part of week two of the trip had nothing to do with the route. While walking out of a town on a cool rainy morning I saw a cat lying in the middle of the path. It didn’t move when I walked up to it so I expected that it had been hit by a car in the nearby road. But after a closer look I realized it was still breathing. It was striking to feel my role switch from a casual observer of my environment to a participant. I had become responsible for this cat and needed to decide what to do. A Google search showed a vet’s office 15 minutes back into town so after some deliberation I wrapped the wet, muddy cat in a bag and carefully picked it up. I kept expecting it to die in my hands, but every time I checked he was still breathing. I noticed he had a clipped ear so it was clear this was a feral or stray cat that had been spayed. I got strange looks from people as I walked into town with what must have appeared to be a dead cat, but he kept breathing. The office wasn’t yet open when I arrived so I had to wait another while for the vet to show up. When he did arrive the vet was sympathetic but not hopeful. However he said he would start the cat on intravenous fluids and I could call the next day. So I picked up my pack and headed back out on what ended up being one of the longest days of the trip.
The following day I put off calling for quite a while since I didn’t want to be told that the cat had died. However when I finally did call the vet surprised me by telling me the cat was doing well. Ha, this totally made my day! He sent pictures of the cat in recovery and then again a few days later when they released him back in the wild. The vet (Daniel) told me he has twelve cats of his own and he had decided to call this one Santiago.
By week three the route entered the province of Galicia and turned south to go inland. There were a couple days of long climbs before it leveled out again on the slightly rolling plateau of central Galicia. Finally the route joined up with several other caminos on their way to Santiago so I found myself walking among dozens if not hundreds of other hikers and cyclists for the last two days.
I met plenty of interesting people who were hiking the route: a quiet, young Ukrainian guy, Alex, who just loves walking by the ocean; a retired Spanish journalist, Jose, who wanted an easy, laid back vacation; Carlos, who spends all his vacation time walking different camino routes; a retired professor, Cristina, who has walked the camino four times in memory of her husband; Michael, a tall, gregarious American who pulled everyone he met into his circle of friends; and a group of six guys who hike part of the way every year and wear matching red jackets with their names emblazoned on them. For many people this was not their first time walking to Santiago and likely not their last.
The pilgrim’s certificate you fill out to partake in the official walk asks what your motivation is: religious, spiritual, sporting, etc. I didn’t really know what my motivation was; it was none of those. But now I think it’s to remind myself that it’s worth it to inconvenience yourself to experience something wonderful and good in the world.
