The mountains in the distance have moved over the horizon and are slowly and ominously marching ever closer. This is a reminder that we are soon to leave the Meseta and head into the mountains that separate Castilla-Leon from Galicia, and ultimately, Santiago de Compostela. We are fortunate to have had a painless transit of the Meseta. The temperature has never exceeded 75.
Yesterday was a long 19 miles from Terradillos de los Templarios to El Burgo Ranero. It's a pretty rough stretch, with lots of open ground and a few towns to break up the monotony. I'll admit that Burgo Ranero is not my favorite place; it's not an overly pretty town. There is little natural stone in the area so most of the houses are mud brick. We ended up staying in a private albergue, family owned, run by a young man named Cristiano who is half Welsh and half Spanish. I enjoyed getting to know him, and apart from two biker peregrinos, we had the albergue to ourselves. I splurged on a private room with a queen bed for the princely sum of 15 Euro. The best part of the whole place was that he had a couple of kittens in the backyard. The students don't quite know what to do with my cat affinity. As Hunter put it, "It's funny to me how you just melt when you start talking about cats". That's me, Dr. Evil. "When Dr. Evil gets angry, Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset. And when Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset, people die!"
Aaaanyway, today was a much shorter 12 miles, which was great, but it's still pretty remote terrain; no break for the first eight miles. For whatever reason, I've mostly ended up walking by myself the last two days. So I've had a lot of time in my head. I suppose this is good, because I've been able to start noodling about some things. I'm finding that it's a whole lot easier to talk to God than it is to quiet the mind enough to listen to what He might have to say. I hope I can work on that over the next few weeks. Nonetheless, it was an interesting, if difficult, conversation in my head. One of the reasons I'm here on this Camino (other than the students) is because I've got several things I've wanted to examine, but have not been able to detach myself from in my "normal" life to do so meaningfully. Frankly, these are things that I struggle with, but that I don't know how to deal with, or change, and that I often find myself ashamed of. This is difficult to describe in a blog, but it's as if I'm in this place where I say, "God, I have these things, and I'm ashamed and don't know how to deal with them. I can't deal with them. Will you take them? Will you fix them? Will you love me in spite of these things?" That was a rough half-hour, and I was glad to be walking by myself.
Even so, walking wise, it was a fairly easy day, and we're in the town of Mansilla de las Mulas, which is walled. We're staying in a nice clean albergue right outside the wall, with a lovely garden. It was nice to get in right at noon when the place opened and have all afternoon to relax and get caught up on things. Tomorrow is an equally short 12 miles, and we're staying at the Hostel San Marcos for two glorious rest days. If you've seen "The Way" this is the hotel that the protagonists stay in to treat themselves. Needless to say, we are looking forward to it!
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