Dorm room noise gets me up at 5.12.. I try to get my pile of stuff out as quietly as possible since the American family next to me is still trying to sleep in.. I think they have just started walking.. I have instant coffee from the machine again...there was this Spanish pilgrim, who had gotten his little dog to be housed, inside the shoe room..the dog was whimpering and peeing on the floor, I'd seen a few others with dogs on the Camino, if this was an example, it seemed to be a stressful experience for the animal... I am one of the first peeps out the door..if not the fastest walker..yet no one passes me for a long long time... I don't quite get why peeps get up at 5 only to hang out for ever, a little gripe of mine..... Because it was over cast and the town itself ended quickly,it meant no street lights and no star light,.. I was walking in very dark conditions.....I did have a light buried in my bag but decided I would follow the on and off flickering of a flash light and two pilgrims in the distance before me... ..this was my only clue the first hour that I was on the right track..they were figuring out the arrows markings for me... the rocks under my feet, seemed to be almost a bit illuminated, but perhaps it was a trick of the eye in the pre-dawn..
It took over an hour for the light to start coming up... The landscape is flat...still dry and still farms..like wheat... I would see some sunflower patches, through out the day, as well...the first town was not for 6kms... I was eager for real coffee and some food... I found a place open, I had a tortilla which is basically an omelet with potatoes in it..... then another 9kms to another town, I repeated same food and drink... then another sixish kms to Santo Domingo.. on the way here I start having stomach probs... pains perhaps from eating more food than I had in two days.....
..In Santo Domingo de la Calzada, i stop at the beautiful church... and i stop in the open Auberge. its another large one... people, I now recognize, are streaming in for the day., this seems to be an important Camino destination....the people at the front desk are young international group of friendly woman .. they speak multiple languages and well...it seems like they really have taking hosting a pilgrim's auberge very seriously in this town.... after a rest, I decided that I felt good enough to walk more... and did another six kms..my feet were bugging a bit.. I ran into the young German man I had met before.. he is one of the fit and strong ones..but he now too has a sore or strained tendon.. he blamed it on too many kms per day, too soon into his pilgrimage... it seems we all have to go through these adjustments ... walking this much daily is not normal for most of us...and he actually jogs a lot in his daily life.. but he thinks walking pilgrimage is quite different on the body..much much harder...
The last bit of walking was on a gravelly road..which I just don't like, my shoe-soles were never very thick to begin with, but have gotten thinner over time, and I really can feel every rock I step on..... the walk itself is this weird continuation of pushing myself on... its not too hard or painful like in the past..but it is a weird urgent push... I arrive in Granon a very small town, around twoish...the Auberge is attached to the church, there is no charge, only donation, and full of warm friendly women volunteers.. meals are included here... I see lots of new faces..Perhaps it is because I have overshot the standard Camino-stage today, and am walking in between the major stopping points.....so now, I am walking with a different group... In this Auberge, the solution to cramming lots of peeps, is to have the bed mats right next to each other... the Camino is a great place to learn to let go of the sense of 'personal space'...sleeping very close to total strangers....it's not difficult to do, if your tired, and you are just grateful to have a dry safe place to sleep.. I shower, launder and nap, the usual essentials for me... it took a while longer to fall asleep but I do pass out for at least half hour... more people had showed up while I was asleep...again it would be full house... I would be sleeping next to two Italian woman to one side of me..so not total strangers, since, I have met three times already...they are friendly towards me... but we have no common language..I meet more peeps who marvel at my large pack... including a very nice French woman who has just finished the Camino is now here volunteering here...There are lots of young hippie types.. it's like I am on a different trip again ...there are a lot less Spanish people in this group, it seems to be more international........ In eve, we share a communal meal .. ..I felt little out of sync within this pilgrim group ... most seem to have just started and I have been on the road perhaps too long..i feel a bit flippant and the energy seems more somber..at least at first......i slacked in the corner of the common room while everyone else seemed to be helping out with food preparations. At dinner, our table was the last to become chatty... I started talking with a Spanish bicycle pilgrim and his wife.. they are only doing eleven days on the Camino they have short vacation. He is completely friendly and cheerful... he is a person I would not expect to get into conversation with ordinarily.. he is a business man who seems to really love his work... he has worked in the masonry stone business and has traveled all over the world to do business and find rare interesting samples for his trade.. .he absolutely loves traveling for work.. he told me of going to 25 cities in China in 30 days and of flying across the USA and back just for an hour and half business meeting in a single day...he said he was on a strict diet of salads and fruits during these times and absolutely no alcohol.. he said sometimes in Asia it is difficult to convince his host, he does not drink, since it is important for them to ply business guests with as much booze as possible... It sounded like he's seen the rise and fall of his fortunes and had always bounced back... not only was I surprised at how much I enjoyed his energy and enthusiasm, because I have stereo type in my mind that people like him would not really lead satisfying lives... I also thought people who are in his type of work, were doing it for the money, not because they actually really enjoyed it... but he really really did...
but it does sound like he had always given enough time to his family and to play so that he did know how to balance things out... he had lived in America a few years and thoroughly enjoyed that experience as well.. I think he just really get into the marrow of experience and enjoy what ever he is involved in... and his energy was contagious... The room, in general seemed to share positive energy, it was full of lively conversations.. after dinner there was a short communal prayer service in a side chapel, that included reading a section from bible story, I read a section in English for them and others read in French, Spanish and Italian.. we were sitting in candle light and people had an opportunity if they wanted to share any positive thoughts they had to add to the energy, in the language they felt most comfortable in... Afterward and before I had spoken to this French woman who had just completed the Camino and was volunteering there... she too was just beaming warm energy everywhere... she was also very intrigued by my extra long version of the Camino and what my experience had been like... so there were little love fest happening here between different peeps, or so it seemed... I would later hear of others that I would get to meet, also having had wonderful conversations and warm connections in this place.. It would stick out in our memories as one of the more special Auberge experiences on the Camino. not bad considering that I had felt not in sync or social when I first got there...
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