Meaningless Milestones

Gray fog and yellow flowers

 Meaningless Milestones 

So today we got to Melide, Spain. 

Melide

In many ways that’s no different than getting to A Fonsagrada 5 nights ago or Tineo 5 nights before that. 

But Melide is a “meaningless milestone” on the Camino Primitivo because this is where we intersect with the Frances Camino. Doesn’t really mean much because we are not going to Melide, we are going to Santiago de Compostela. 

But at Melide things change. Coming down the Primitivo we maybe have 50 people a day. Coming down the Frances there are probably 500 - maybe more. So the quiet sanctity of the Primitivo gets replaced by the hustle and bustle of the Frances 

But only if you let it.  

Because just like in real life, quiet sanctity or hustle and bustle is controlled by YOU, not by the circumstances which surround you. 

Quiet of a morning fog 

House hidden by the hue 

So we are here to enjoy quiet sanctity in the midst of hustle and bustle.  When I do my prayer steps (in the rain) tomorrow there will be 50 or 100 people go by - which doesn’t limit the efficacy of the prayer any more than 5-10 people going by. 

For those who are interested in the details of our walk:

• today was 22 km from Ferreira to Melide. I carried my pack for the first time in over a week and I did feel it, but I survived and will carry again tomorrow
• Tomorrow (Monday Oct 10) we plan to do 20 km from Melide to the hamlet of Calle. 
• We are 50 km from Santiago de Compostela and plan on arriving there Wednesday morning by walking 20, 20 and 10 km
• It looks like rain tomorrow. Today was a cool fog for a good part of the day but before that we had 8 days on unseasonably good weather. So now whining here. 

Thanks for following. Thanks for praying. I know some of you have prayed for my feet and I appreciate it. Someday I might post a picture to show that I wasn’t exaggerating the seriousness. But then again since many of you are squeamish I probably won’t. 

And most of all thanks for allowing me to pray for your deepest  needs. 

Reviving my motto

 Magic in the Mundane

Today it’s time to revive my motto from “Your Daily Dose of Thurland” and remind you that there IS magic in the mundane. 

Today was 28.5 km walk. 75% of it was on tarmac, 25% in forest glades. That’s

Intriguing flower to brighten the mundane 

Presumably by tomorrow all these
buds will be intriguing flowers. 

Mountains are gone so let’s take flower pics 

Dahlias 

Berries (Not flowers)

Today we witnessed a fight between three elderly Spanish women. Believe me, elderly Spanish women know how to stage a loud fight. I was wanting to get my camera out and record it but (first) that’s just plain rude and (second) I was afraid they’d band together and turn on me!!

Always time to say Hi to a horse 

We are now 72 km from the Catedral de Santiago de Compostela, so suddenly the end is in sight. It reminds me of the sign I saw painted somewhere near the end of the French Camino: “The end is a present. Open it slowly!”

For those of you who are wondering about my feet, today they did a great job. So great that I have decided to try carrying my pack again tomorrow.  (I have not carried since Day 5 and now it is Day 13. I kind of miss the old girl)

Tomorrow is the day that the Primitivo meets the French Camino in the town of Melide (20 km from here). If it’s like other years (and there’s no reason to think it won’t be) everything changes at that point. On the Primitivo Day 6 we did not see a single pilgrim until we quit for the evening. Day 7 - 80% of the day before we saw another one. In the last 7 days we see maybe 10 or 12 for a few minutes each day. Starting tomorrow the silence will be shattered with large groups of people all day. 

Our plan is to walk that 20 km to Melide without reserving a bed for the night and then see if we want to go further or not. 

So that’s my mundane for today. 

A little update on the Prayer Steps. If you have sent me a request you have been “stepped for”.  When we get to Fisterra, I hope to video a ceremony in which I take a stone representing each of the requests you sent and throw it into the sea. Unfortunately I won’t be able to do this live but I hope to record it and post it here. 

Good night from Ferreira Spain. Our home for the night is in this very pastoral setting. 

Ponte de Ferreira Hostel 

Of Fiestas and Thanksgiving

 Lugo - Fiesta SAN Froilán 

Another beautiful day to walk in Galicia! 

Motto in last night’s albergue

Cool and foggy start to the day

Warmed up in a couple of hours

Business on the Camino  - Eucalyptus harvest

The horses love Emily and her apples

First view of the old city wall in Lugo

I have to say Emily and I have been truly blessed with the weather we have had to walk. 

Day 1 a started as a rain day for a couple hours, and we had to keep our rain gear handy all day

Day 2 and 3 - seasonable, but good weather

Day 4 - Heavy rain all day. (You have to expect it on Camino, so no whining allowed!)

Day 5 through 11 - unseasonably warm, sunny, and (in short)  fantastic. 

Day 12 - light, cool fog in the morning, warm sun in the afternoon!  

Forecast for 13, 14,  and 15 - low 20’s C - and low percentage of precipitation!  

Truly blessed. 

Today in Lugo is the Fiesta of San Froilan, so when we weren’t resting we had lots to see.

Daytime streets

Nighttime streets

Cathedral at night

 But tomorrow is a 27 km day so we were back in the hostel by 9:00 pm. The music is definitely out there but thankfully not too loud inside. Hopefully our roommates will be quiet when they come in. (Yeah, right!!)

Speaking of Fiesta, this weekend is “Thanksgiving Weekend” in Canada. 

Two questions:

• what are you thankful for
• How are you going to express it. 

In Spain, the phrase “Thanksgiving Day” is translated as “Día del Acciones de Gracias.“ Translate that backwards and in English it becomes “A Day of Thankful Actions”. 

So the question I have for you (to ask yourself) is “what thankful actions are you going to do - this weekend and beyond”? 

I’m going to keep Prayer stepping, so keep sending your requests. I am humbled by the level of trust people are putting in me in the form of the deeply personal nature of some requests arriving. Please know, if you have sent requests, you have been prayed for.

Good night from Spain. With tomorrow’s nearly 30 km walk we think we are four days from Santiago!! 

Turned the corner

 Turned the corner

Emily the horse whisperer 

A couple of days ago we entered the province of Galicia and the beginning of that first morning walk was a stroll through an easy pasture land and creek side!  I mistakenly thought we had turned the corner on the difficult stages on that day.  Boy, was I WRONG!! Wrong with a capital everything. 

But today I can safely say we HAVE turned that corner. We took a short day today - and again tomorrow - and it has been wonderful 

Typical Galician hamlet

Motto from a garbage bin

A few observations about the Camino Primitivo. Remember, these are personal observations and opinions, but they are based on personal knowledge as well. 

• it lives up to its name of being the most difficult of the Camino routes. 
• You can get by with no knowledge of the Spanish language here, but not as easily as the other routes I have walked 
• Duolingo (as a language teacher) really works. I have had many interesting conversations in the past 10 days by simply saying “yo estudio español en Duolingo, y me gusta practicar”. 
• The food in Asturias is great - I mean really great (most nights)
• I’m a bit hesitant about saying this one, but in my opinion the private hostels on the Primitivo are a step above the private hostels in the same price range elsewhere. 
• When we went home from our first Camino in 2014, I confidently stated to almost anyone of almost any age and almost any physical condition “you could do this!”  When I go home from this one I’ll be saying “think twice about the Camino Primitivo.”
• It is truly stunning, but you have to really work to see that stunning. 
• If I were to ever do this route again, I would definitely (remember I’m 69) begin shipping my bags from the very beginning. I ran into issues at the beginning and I’m willing to say that at some point in every day until today, I thought to myself “I’m not sure I can walk another stage”. 
• I have two favourite Albergue’s on the Camino Primitivo. If you are ever going to walk this make sure you do a short first day and stay at Villa Palatina in Paladin - a few kilometres before Grado. The owners and their main man (only man - lol) Crazy Pablo have created an atmosphere that gave our Camino a magical start. 

Villa Palatina

• And also - if you are walking here strongly consider making the “stage” from Cadavo to Lugo a two day walk and spend the afternoon and evening at a Pociña Muniz Hostel. They will treat you and feed you well, and send you off on the final stages well rested. 

The evening meal

The beds in the corner 

Approaching 

We still have several days of Primitivo remaining (115 km - so 5 or 6 days) but having walked in Galicia before I know that things have changed, and the corner has been turned.  There are other challenges ahead. (All of the Camino struggles are not physical)

But for today I can say - we are on a new stage. 

Thanks for following so far. And remember - if you have significant prayer requests, I still have a lot of prayer steps left. I met Itay from Israel last night and as he discussed the prayer walk he called it “. Praying with your feet”. Message me on fb messenger or thurland@gmail.com if you want to be included in those steps. 

Looking back can be good for the soul!

 Look back, not ahead

This is true for most (OK, all) long distance hikes I’ve ever done, and I’m thinking it has some value as a life lesson as well!

I was reminded of it again today as Emily and I finished Day 4 of the 4 hardest days in the middle of the Camino Primitivo. 

In the last 4 days we have:

• Walked 87 mountain kilometres
• Ascended 3779 meters (equivalent of 6.8 CN towers)
• Descended 3590 meters (equivalent of 6.5 CN towers)

She has valiantly carried her backpack every step. I have had mine shipped ahead for the last 4 days. 

She waits for me at the bottom of the hills - today for close to an hour! 

What is the life lesson?

You can learn a lot about yourself by looking back at where you have come.  

Because every day is a struggle (don’t feel sorry for me. It’s a struggle I have chosen.)

But because every day is a struggle, it’s easy to just put your head down and plod on!  Or pick your head up, see what’s coming, give a grunt of despair and then plod on. 

Today during one of the longer ascents I had to stop to catch my breath. I looked back over my shoulder and was amazed at how far we had come. Until this point I had only been plodding and thinking of the struggle of the next hill. 

See the mountains in the distance?
They used to be our mountains!

So here’s the life lesson in a nutshell:

- When you look ahead, you only see the struggles you must face. 

- When you look back you see the victories you have gained!

And bonus lesson: 

- the reminder of past victories often give you strength for future struggles!  

That’s it for tonight. Enough philosophizing for today. 

Tomorrow we are planning a short (15 km) day, with less than 1 CN tower of both up and down. 

Assumptions

 Assumptions. 

Today I made a wrong assumption. Easy to do. I looked at the Camino App I use, noted that the ascents and descents were significantly less than yesterday, looked at the mountains behind us, compared to the rolling hills in front of us and naturally (I think) assumed this would be an easy day.

 (It didn’t help that I misread the app!  Lol)

When I started feeling tired on this “easy day” I quickly did some calculations. Forgive me the details but:

Yesterday on the hard day we had started an ascent at 3100 ft. We dropped quickly to 2200, making it hard. 

On todays “easy day” we had been steadily (but not usually strenuously) climbing, and suddenly found ourselves at 3600 ft.   Not sure how that happened, but suddenly this easy day has some cardio attached to it and the rolling hills were higher than the mountains! 

Anyway after a long day (it was our first 28 km walk) we arrived safely at our hostel in á Fonsagrada where we sleep tonight. 

Tomorrow is one last difficult day. 25 km with 1039 m descent (2 CN towers) and 850 ascent. (1.5 CN)

Entered a new province today

The province of Galicia

I use the pain of the difficult days to remind me of the pain that some of you carry. It helps me to formulate prayers on your behalf, or at least it helps me breathe your name over and over again into the ears of our loving Father. 

The day after tomorrow, when the trail levels out, I hope to still pray effectively, but tonight is a good time to send me a note of you want to be included in tomorrow’s difficult day prayers.  If you wrote me late last night you had some significant steps with your  name attached today! 

Hasta mañana. 

Don’t make assumptions. 

There’s magic in the mundane!

The truth? That was HARD

The truth? That was HARD!

1461 m descent. (That’s 2.64 CN Towers)

1107 m ascent - (2 CN Towers)

When it was all said and done I have to say that was undoubtedly the hardest day of any hike I have ever done.   Down hills, long down hills are hard on calf muscles. They don’t excruciate, but they loudly rebel

But there is good news:

1 - We saw amazing panoramic views of Asturias mountains. 

Walking above the clouds

Emily wondering if she could swim in the clouds

First glimpse of our home for tonight. Unfortunately
it would take us another 5 hrs to walk there

Looking better than I feel. 

After a 2200 ft descent we finally got to the crossing

2 - I got a lot of prayer steps today.  And some of them were for you.  Most definitely those who write me in the middle of my night (early Sunday evening in North America) with those deep needs and heartaches were included by name in many steps today. 

Tomorrow. 

More beauty. 

More prayer for people with aching hearts.