Elephants in Africa have large ears and elephants in Asia have small ears. That is the thought I awoke to in the middle of the night. Crazy I know and don't ask me what that has to do with the Camino, I am sure nothing, but maybe I will be surprised to discover it somewhere along my journey,
The path out of Logrono felt quite long as it was about 5 miles on pavement. Pavement seems to really take a toll on the feet and joints as opposed to the gentleness of dirt paths. Makes me think that sometimes our attempts to make things easier can sometimes have negative effects as well.
I discovered something new today about my backpack. All along the path, I have struggled with getting my water bottle out of my backpack and have enlisted the help of Fred to provide me with this necessary nourishment. Lo and behold, I learned that I could retrieve it through an opening in the side of the netting that holds that bottle. All along I have tried numerous contortionist movements in an attempt to wriggle it from the top to absolutley no avail. Nine days into my journey and I am still learning such basic things!
Speaking of backpacks, I feel as though my backpack is becoming much like the shell that the snail so adeptly carries on his back. It feels as if it has become a part of me. I barely notice it's existence. When I shared this with Fred, he said his pack feels more like a tumor. Guess trying three different packs versus just grabbing one based on weight alone has it's merits!
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| Mural |
As we have passed tunnels that take us under highways, there has always been grafiti to send messages of one sort or another. There was a particular tunnel today that had the neatest mural depicting people on the camino both my bike and on foot. Just a neat connection to the anonymous person who painted it, a sharing of the camino experience if you will.
As we walked above the freeway heading into the village of Navarette, there was a chain link fence presumably to protect any waywards from plunging to certain death. What was neat about it was that pilgrims had made crosses out of sticks they had found along the path and placed them into the links of the fence.
Also as we headed into Navarette, there were ruins of an old pilgrim hospital that was built in 1185. It was strange to think of people walking this same path nearly 1000 years ago.
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| Ornate Church |
In Navarette, there was a chuch in the square that was open and beckoned us in. We are thankful that we did because it was the most ornate chuch we have seen along our way. As I have indicated previously, we have preferred the austere churches but beautiful music was playing and the lights were shining on the front of the church creating an almost mystical moment.
We also met some new people - Glen, originally from Canada but has lived the better part of his life in Thailand; Ann, a lady from Australia traveling by herself. We found these people to be fast friends. We all had dinner together and had such and amazing time conversing about a host of topics. We certainly hope our paths continue to cross as we press on to Santiago.We decided that we were not going to try to make it to Najera and opted instead to stop in Ventosa. We are so glad we did because we found the most beautiful albergue of our journey. Better than that, we reconnected with Steeve and Steen and Inger from our first stop in Orisson. We thought they had gone ahead of us so were very excited to see these fellow prilgrims and now, friends.
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| To Santiago |
Lesson for the day: There can be surprises around every corner - and it is such delight when you come upon them.
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