Pilgrims Are Tough (Day 26)
Today was a 16.5 mile hike through rolling hills again. I was still a little shaky from yesterday and it got extremely hot again (I guess that's a thing now) but I made it to the nice little hillside village I'm staying in tonight.
This line doesn’t do justice to how the hills felt.
As I struggled up one hill I felt something strange in my left sock. Not a pain just a rub. Once I got back to my room I found out that I've got a tear in the big toe section of my left sock liner and a tear in the side of my right sock liner. These two have been awesome but after 360+ miles and the steep descents the last couple of days they've started to fail. I'm going to have to figure something out (probably start wearing two pairs of socks if the liners keep disintegrating) and I am certain I will continue on because I've learned one thing for sure this trip - pilgrims are tough. Now please don't think that I'm comparing toughness on the camino, which is a voluntary endeavor with numerous ways out if needed, with the toughness of someone dealing with illness or loss. I recognize that there is a huge difference. With that said, I've seen some true toughness out here. A recent example would be a lady yesterday who had a big, purple blister on her little toe burst while she was walking down the trail. She immediately stopped, saw that her socks was filled with blood and figured out what happened. She then cleaned it up, taped it up, sucked it up and hike on the remaining 11Kms to where she was staying. I saw her this morning at breakfast. It hurts like hell and she's walking 25Km. There are numerous stories of people overcoming all kinds of super nasty foot issues. Mostly open blisters and sores. I guess I could've warned you that this post if kind of gross. Hopefully you weren't eating while reading this. If you were, get a to go container. Whatever it was it'll reheat nicely. Except gyros, that never works. Just throw them out.
Anyway, aside from the foot stuff there are people who've taken falls, got stitched up and continued on. I'm walking with a lady who got a blister. It got infected (a very real danger on the camino), her ankle swelled up and her leg turned red and hot. She went to an emergency clinic, got antibiotics and then took the bus ahead to each town for four days while her sister-in-law continued to walk. Once the antibiotics had stopped the infection she bandaged the foot up and started walking again the next day. AND SHE WAS EXCITED ABOUT IT. Speaking of these two ladies, the sister-in-law continued on alone for those four days and didn't miss a single step. She has said repeatedly that she's "not a hiker" and did a few training walks for this trip but this isn't her type of activity normally. I've had to repeatedly remind that she's more of a hiker than the majority of people I know (360ish miles with no rest days makes my case) and that whether she likes it or not, she's a hiker now. A lady from Vancouver took a fall, broke her kneecap (fractured the bone) and continued on for eleven days. She only stopped when the doctors in Leon said she would need surgery if she continued. Let me be clear, she didn't know it was broken for those eleven days but she did simply walk through the pain. That's hard core.
At this stage the majority of the people I see have been walking since Saint Jean like myself. Most of us are in some sort of disarray. I've seen dozens of people walking slowly or limping up hills as the days go by. Each evening I look at the feet of the other pilgrims (everyone wears sandals in the evening to let the feet breathe) and all I see are bandages and tape. Each morning I look at these pilgrims faces and see determined smiles. This is a mentally tough group. After this many days I guess you have to be. I had a fellow walker ask me yesterday how I was going to complete the 10Km I had remaining. He told me he was "many dead" (English was not his first language but I was still impressed with how well he spoke it) and couldn't do it. I told him I was certain he could if he had to. He asked how and I said, "just keep walking dummy" with a smile. He laughed, stopped and took out a sharpie. He then wrote "Just keep walking dummy" across the back of his backpack. Then he passed me the sharpie and asked me to sign the quote. He patted me on my shoulder and crossed the road to his hostal. It's odd that this is the first thing that got me choked up. I'm not sure if it's because perhaps I was some small inspiration to him, or if it was heat stroke. I think it was probably heat stroke.
Tomorrow is my final 30Km day. My strategy is worked out. Just keep walking dummy.
Some photos from the day:
Back off ladies, I’m taken.
Aside from the super cool statues there is a fair amount of pilgrim related art on the camino. I’ve just been bad about taking pictures.
