Half Way There!

It is day 17 today and we have walked a total of 396 kms. We have picked up the pace a bit as we are walking through the Meseta which although it is flat, still poses challenges. The daily rate is now between 25 and 30 kms and we can see the difference this makes to our level of fatique and our poor feet. While the land is pretty flat, today was a very hard morning with 17 kms on rough gravel roads which was quite taxing. As well, there was nothing along the way for diversion, like a coffee stop or other interesting sites. With a few rest breaks, we managed to get to the first town after about 4 hours. The kms seem to take longer here, than when I was training and I think that carrying the back pack and the different terrain makes a difference in just how fast we can go. I clocked my rate at 5 kms per hour yesterday, but this is not always so steady.
We are enjoying the food along the way. There is a variety of shops to buy food for breakfast and lunch and often breakfast is a simple yogurt or juice and fruit until the first bar for cafe con leche. This is accompanied by a cheese bocadillo which is fresh bread sandwich with cheese or ham. We need this kind of nourishment as the effort of walking all morning takes something. We often have wine in the afternoon with snacks, following the arrival, showers and washing our clothes. Dinner is usuall very fine and we have been enjoying wonderful cooking and special soups like lentil and garlic soups. The main courses can be a stew or fish or chicken of some kind and usually fruit or ice cream for desert. All of this costs about 9 euros for the dinner each day and of course the jug or bottle of wine is always included.
Food, water and foot care become the priority once we have found accomodation for the night. Last night we stayed in a convent or beside the convent actually, anticipating that it would be a serene place of beauty and calm and instead was a rather austere and crowded location which was not entirely restful. Today we have lucked out and stopped a bit earlier than planned and we have 2 rooms, each with 2 beds, so we can close the doors and get some uninterupted sleep tonight.
In every little town or village that we pass through, we see wonderful churches and also statues of pilgrims of the past. The Camino has become quite an attraction and also a way for these little towns to prosper with the many people that travel through each day. There can be literally hundreds of pilgrims walking through a small village daily, each of them stopping for a drink or something at the local bar and so the residents, while you wonder how they stand the constant stream of people, seem to take it all in their stride.
Today as I was walking or hobbling rather along the gravel, it occurred to me that it was a simile for my life, in that I really don't like the hardship of how things have gone at times in the past and will be choosing differently the kinds of direction that I take from here for myself. We also talk a lot about the lessons on the Camino for our life and after this walk is over. We come back to the same few things which are related to being kind and generous to others.
Living like this with so many other people, you are seldom alone, except when walking, and you are usually surrounded by opportunities to relate to new people in ways that are new because of the language and the culture differences. Does not matter that the ages variation of everyone here is great, people just seem to engage with each other in a way that does not normally occur in real life and so it makes you think about how it could be if we were to put a more humane touch into our perspective with each other in our real life.
Tomorrow we will be travelling again on the flat roads and hopefully not too rough as my poor feet ache with the walking over stones. Since we are now a bit more than half way, I can see that there will be an end to this journey eventually, which was hard to really see at the beginning.
Until next time...............Maggee