Again, I woke up early ..had bread and coffee and I was underway by 6.30! sunrise...
the auberg man gave me a hearty goodbye, they had been really caring and kind pilgrim hosts.. I was one of the last people out of there... I had 27kms to go and was worried that it would take long since I had not been clocking a lot of kms per hour lately..... the early start did help with the heat...also the path was very out in the open so no tree for cover. my mind got preoccupied with negative thoughts, in someways its like what happened to me before in meditation retreats.. I would fixate on a situation that was bothering me and then my mind just could not let go of it... I thought of all the 'other times' I had to deal with something similar...and this time I wanted to change it so I would be done with it once and for all...not likely but that was the excuse I gave myself for not letting go of the bite.....later I would regret this ...i had foxused so much on the negative..(this was not the first time i had done this on the Camino, but this time it went too far..or perhaps so far that i got sick of it or from it, which is good for the sake of wanting to renounce this in the future) that it felt like I was full of toxic mental juices, and it felt almost like a hang over... in retrospect I will view this just as an experience of purification and that I do have a renewed commitment to guard my thoughts more in future.... i think i run the danger of going down this direction, because i am unconsciously using the energy of anger thus induced to fuel my exercise and i had worried about 'energy' from the beginning of this day...
The first hours I was able to walk for longer with fewer breaks...there were a few towns I passed, but they were far enough away it was not tempting to go in... I would survive off those snacks which I carried on my back including a day's worth of water.. . the heat rose steadily... I wore my hat...it was dry heat...but breaks became more frequent as the afternoon progressed ... I met an older Swiss couple, we both almost got lost on way to this farm house, and together we figured out where the actual trail continued. Later we would chat a bit..they were doing the pilgrimage walk over the course of several years and in sections..they usually walked with another couple, but this year that was not possible so they were walking a variation, and then next year they would continue where they had left off and complete the final leg of the Camino to Santiago... they were both not doing well with the heat and later I would see them quite wrecked...I also ran into young spanish man, who kept getting behind me somehow ... I thought he was a faster walker but I think he took nice long breaks... although he spoke no english ...and i was not longing spanish fast...me and him would eventually develop a good rapport, with much humor.....
I pressed on... not till the last hour would I get some shade trees...
there were hermas made weird painted blue rocks..the Swiss man would later explain that the lake we were passing was man-made and had flooded local farmer's land so they had to leave the village..which is now in ruins a mere 15 years later... people want to be reinstated in the their homes in the village...and the blue rocks were some sort of statement about this to raise public awareness...
The last bit of walking was through a thin dry woods with more blue rock piles.. and glimpses of the artificial lake..the entrance to the 'village' what was left of it was a giant castle like ruin which actually looked pretty cool...the auberge looking like it blended right in to this landscape
...once I arrived at the auberge, I found out it was a 'private one' which meant it was more expensive and in this case not very friendly... I was quite out of it and tried to nap but I arrived too late in the afternoon and the room was too hot...someone had strung a clothes line on my bed which made it hard to get in so I tied it to another bed..later the owner of the clothes line gave me a dirty look...(he was the rather stern father of a young man who had developed a foot injury from walking too hard and long, too soon)..i felt very unapologetic about the whole thing..the room was tiny and they had a clothes line outside for us pilgrims ... a lot of the young spanish people I had met over the last few days, had kept moving, because this place was too expensive for them... with dinner it was 25$... they did have wifi here but really too slow to be of much use...the pilgrims here, where comfortable to hang around with ...even if you dont speak the language..they will sit down with you and somehow include you...even the stern Grenada man and son...... One young man tried to practice his english with me, his brother-in-law was American and he had visited America himself.. including a trip to Seattle.....i had asked him about some cool spanish bands to listen to and he turned me on to some names to check out... ... Dinner was at 8.30 which felt late ... they had a light vegetarian option, we had gazpacho soup and fried veggies....after no lunch and small breakfast it probably was not enough.. I sat ironically at the german speaking table...the older swiss couple i had met earlier...and the german doctor woman who'd been there last nigh... we just talked about pilgrimage mostly ... they wanted to know about my experience in France and how the gites were set up there... it seemed everyone was staying up later which meant me as well..for many who were only doing a week's worth of walking this was the last day...also the inside of the building was quite hot..people were outside waiting for it too cool down.. finally all was quiet and eventually despite heat I would sleep..and I slept through till six..which in Spain seems to be late for pilgrims..
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