Walking the Camino isn’t very hard. It’s just walking. But it’s walking everyday and all that goes with it. My normal schedule this month is to wake up about 6:00am,, get dressed, pack my backpack, find a place to eat a basic breakfast like toast and coffee or juice and a croissant, then start to walk. Depending on where we are staying (and my ability to get out of bed at that un-godly hour), that all may mean we are on the road as early as 6:30am or as late as 8:00am.
We are usually walking between 20 and 25km so that is about five or six hours for us most of the time. Add in one, two or three breaks, that is another 15-60 minutes. That all usually gets us to our destination for the day between 1:00pm and 3:00pm. If we can, we eat a small meal at that point, like a shared salad or sandwich and some drinks.
After that, we shower, sort our gear out, then wash and dry our clothes. If I can, we use a laundromat. That means getting there and back (one laundromat was a half hour’s walk away), 30 minutes washing, 15-30 minutes drying, and add in some time for figuring out different processes and finding change. If other pilgrims are there, which is normal, we chat the whole time. If they are not, I can start writing the blog.
If there isn’t a laundromat in town, that means I wash everything by hand, usually in a tiny sink, so clothing gets washed slowly. Then we hang it to dry on on a line in the sun, or in the room if we have to. That all takes almost as much time as the laundromat.
Meanwhile, I also have to book accommodations down the road. This is very time consuming but later in the walk, I will have already booked the rooms so, someday, I can celebrate not doing this anymore. This is the busy season for the Camino and finding space has been difficult. Yesterday, I managed to find rooms that fit our needs in two towns in an hour. It used to be easier but many accommodations on the Camino no longer list in Booking .com. They just take too much commission.
Let’s not forget time for dinner. We always try to eat with other pilgrims. That is kind of why we are here, to meet people from around the world and ask them not to give up on the US. Oops, that slipped in. Sorry. Anyway, we try to eat by 6:30pm if siesta time in the village allows. The earliest we get out of the restaurant and back to the room, it is almost 8:30pm but we have been as late as 9:30pm. I brush my teeth, shave, make sure everything is ready for the morning, and finally, either finish the blog or start and finish it.
Almost every day on this Camino, I have been typing away at 10:30pm, long after my proofreader is asleep and long after I should have been too. The last few nights, I have been falling asleep mid-sentence and after waking up, having to figure out what I was trying to say. I have typed a LOT of jibberish. Last night, in my sleep, I managed to delete at least four completed paragraphs right before I posted them. Other nights I have only been able to post after midnight.
I can’t keep doing this. When I can, like today (I hope), I will try to post stories from the day. If nothing interesting happened or I don’t have time, I may just post photos. I don’t know. I like keeping family and friends up to date with what we are doing but I really need more sleep. We will figure it out
Peace y’all.
