Another twilight start through the narrow streets of Castrojeriz, wanting to hit Alto Mostelares, a 900 meter climb, with a fresh set of legs.
I left town into a long tree lined dirt path with the valley on either side of me mantled by twilight-painted blue fields of wheat and barley; behind me the lone Venus in the sky…
The climb went well, as I usually just slow down, turn on the “torque” and attitude, breath deep until I reach my goal.
I passed a retired Spanish couple in their 70’a on their way up the mountain. This is their 25th camino together!
The sun rose while I was on the plateau, and as I made my way to its end I looked out over a vast unpopulated valley. I was talking to my wife Lyndsey on the phone at that time and mentioned that I had little water left and a way to go to next fountain… I made it fine to my morning tortilla and coffee in Itero de la Vega.
While having coffee I ran into Gaby, a quiet Hungarian woman who does not speak much English, but we seem to run into each other recurringly at the same coffee shops or albergues and use a combination of sign language, bits of English, and google translate to make observations on the normal happenings on camino life.
I also ran into a gentleman named Jack from Clovis, CA, who studied at my same dojo when he was a kid (now Japan Ways, used to be Way of Japan back then). His wife is joining him to do the last 100k, from Sarria to Santiago.
As soon as I finished talking to Jack, an Irish teacher I met in Castrojeriz, Seamus Connor, showed up on his rented bike. Seamus is a catholic Christian who teaches religion, and I think also history, and he makes a point of sharing his faith and experience with the students. He is doing at video blog on the camino.
Before moving forward, I made a point to ask a few pilgrims where they were staying that evening while I had planned on staying in Fromista, it sounded like the best option was a rural house refuge called “En el Camino” where they serve a pilgrim meal.
While at the refuge, the priest who had came work the young seminarians to Burgos but who had to stay and wait for his bags, finally caught up with them.
I was able to reserve a table for us al to share a pilgrim dinner together, and I then joined them for their evening prayer routine in the garden, which included some psalmity and other canticles, without any Marian veneration. Coming from a more “low church” faith tradition, the antiphonal scripture reading ad song was a welcome experience for me.
Finally, there were some local families there at the refuge and the kids started doing taikyoku shodan, a kata that is part my karate system… I asked the kids if they wanted to do Heian Shodan together, and it was real fun, and a treat for the other pilgrims. 🙂
