12 Days to Go, Plantar Faciitis, Help!

About a month ago my heel hurt a bit. When I am training, things always hurt a bit. I didn't think much of it. 

With Donna and my pack

My new boots arrived...identical to the ones I wore in September so I knew they would fit well and be comfortable. The old ones have almost the 500-mile limit on them and I wanted new.

Turtles are good luck and I welcomed him

We did a 6-mile training walk. My heel hurt a lot! I took several days off and just did stretching and icing and took ibuprofen for 10 days. No cure. Last Thursday I went to a podiatrist. He shot my foot with steroids and said "Go out and train." Being a good patient, I walked 7 miles on Friday with my backpack...although I did lighten it to 12 pounds.

Pygmy rattler on the trail

Lunch in Suwannee was fun after the hike

It was actually a very fun walk. Check more photos of the Adventure Bridge near the end. Russ and I opted to not try it with our packs on and back-tracked out to the road. When I got home, I cancelled our dinner plans took ibuprofen, and went to bed. The longest I've walked since Friday is 2 miles.

Jane shows off the adventure part of the hike

Today I went to a physical therapy/massage/acupuncture/Chinese herbal medicine center. I'm going back. They seemed to have the idea and maybe they can help me heal faster. Afterwards, I went to the Fitness Center and worked out briefly on the elliptical trainer, so as not to pound on my heel. Much harder than walking, so probably good for me. Tomorrow I'll go to yoga, another brief elliptical workout, and another massage. Any advice. Help!

Hospitalero time is coming

We have our plane tickets. We are studying our Spanish every day, but we do not feel ready for prime time conversation yet. Even in our dreams, we only see ourselves as being able to communicate basic needs, like shopping in the little tienda-- “I want those vegetables, over there on that shelf.”

 

But we are greatly looking forward to the experience and then to walking with Pam and James for a couple of weeks and almost 200 miles.

And, we are having fun buying gear again, although we already own more than we would consider carrying. It is just such fun to find new, lighter, better versions of stuff we have. I’m bringing my same rain poncho. After my testing it thoroughly last year, we never had any rain.

It is almost countdown time.…train, train, train, study, study, study.

Becoming Hospitaleros

El Burgo Ranero, including church with resident storks

Not at all sure how it got started, but it surely was sometime last Spring. We had decided to attend the Annual Gathering of the American Pilgrims on the Camino in Winter Park, FL, in March. The meeting lasts about three days, and there is an optional two-day extension; one can arrive early and be trained to be a volunteer hospitalero in a network of albergues along El Camino de Santiago. We saw the Gathering as a mini-vacation--a chance to meet up with people we knew from two years earlier and, especially, spend some time with our sister and brother-in-law, who are seasoned pilgrims and Gathering goers. Somehow a notion took hold; why not extend our little vacation and take in the hospitalero training? It should be fun, and we were curious about what it entailed.

The Albergue

So we took the training. It was interesting and fun, but we didn't volunteer last year, deciding to walk instead. As things turned out, we found ourselves walking a much more rugged and demanding route than expected, and that might have helped to make the idea of holding still for a couple of weeks seem more appealing. I don't know if it was then or sometime later, but the idea of volunteering gained currency, and last week we decided it was time to put our names in.

The wetlands, home to the town's frogs

Our first choice of where to go was the famous Albergue Guacelmo in the mountain village of Rabanal. We informed the operators, the British Confraternity of Saint James, of our interest. We got an offer, but unfortunately the July dates they had available didn't fit with our plans at all. Our second choice was the municipal albergue in El Burgo Ranero (the Town of Frogs), a dusty village in the Kansas-like Meseta. We got the offer and the dates we needed, so we will be off next May. We've gotten a welcome and a few instructions, but it appears that, like most other things on the Camino, it will be an informal, cordial, and physically demanding undertaking.

Leaving Madrid

A view of the Prado, unfortunately glimpsed only briefly on Sunday morning as we were rushing to catch the shuttle to the airport...maybe next year. Don't mind the image of the finger at the top of the photo; it must be my fault, because who could conceive of a design flaw in an iPhone?

Beginning the Trip Home

We bid goodbye to our pilgrim friends and we are off to the train station. Tonight Madrid. Tomorrow Gainesville.

Side Trip Cancelled by Rain

We'd planned a fun side trip to the former capital of Spain, Valladolid. This morning when the 5 of us met in the lobby to head to the bus station, the changed forecast was 80% chance of rain both there and here in Zamora. We decided to stay here where we have a hotel to take refuge in.

It never rained.

I guess that is good ... Although I hate to carry my poncho all this way and never use it ... How's that for a conundrum?

The 5 of us had breakfast together and then went separate ways until our pilgrim meal at 2:00.

Russ and I wandered the Romanesque building walking tour, visited the cathedral, and took pictures from the ramparts. Later I want to shop for a trinket to add to our Christmas tree decorations. I try to buy one memory per trip for the tree.

Wine and cheese with our pilgrims friends at 7:00. They will hang here until Sunday to avoid a forecast of heavy rain on the trail tomorrow. We are sorry to not be going on with them. Sunday's walk looks very pretty and not too rigorous in the guidebook.

But Florida calls and our tickets home are for Sunday.

Last Day on the Trail

Less wind, 40 degrees when we started and mid-50s by noon, partly cloudy skies, wide open vistas across rolling, harvested farms, a shepherd and flock of sheep running across a field and then road ahead of us just too far to capture on camera but close enough to hear all the sheep bells clanging and pick out the black sheep from the white, one smelly barn to walk past with 3 barking dogs tied not as securely as I would have liked but securely enough...we got by unharmed, about 12 miles to Zamora.

Our new Hungarian friends had bused ahead because of a sore leg and found a new, clean, inexpensive hostel and great restaurant. They met us at the medieval bridge onto town...so for once we didn't get lost entering a city.

When we got to the hotel, they had champagne and little sandwiches waiting! What a treat.

We rested, ate a wonderful meal, visited the albergue where we might volunteer sometime, saw the city on foot, bought cheese and had a cheese feast at the hotel on the evening. The bus riders had, bless their hearts, brought some wine from El Cubo albergue so we had that too. Great day.

The Prettiest Walk Yet

Low 40s with 20-30 mph winds this morning as we left our fun albergue about 8:30. We (us, the Canadian, and the Hungarians) spent yesterday evening enjoying pthe homemade wine of the albergue owner and his stories of breeding Arabian horses and opening the albergue in August. Never let it be said that having no common language makes communication impossible. We used the I-translate app to go from Spanish to Hungarian to English all evening. Great fun.

The photos show how lovely our walk was today. What a change..mid80s last week and blazing sun to downright cold this week and dramatic cloudiness.

On the trail we saw 2 foxes, kite (not a swallowtail but equally big), a big, loose, barking, black, sheep dog with sheep ... but happily he wanted to bite only passing cars, not pilgrims, corn fields in irrigation, sunflower field ready for harvest, vast panoramic vistas ... And not many hills. Perfect.

Two albergues in this town ... bonanza ... but one had smelly bathrooms. We are in the other one with 5 bunk beds. So far 4 men...Russ , our Canadian friend, a Frenchmen, and a Spaniard plus me. We each get a lower bunk :)

Tomorrow ... Zamora.

This Camino Keeps Hitting Us With the Unexpected

Under threatening, ominous, low-hanging clouds we ventured out into, believe it or not, a cold, windy morning at 8:00. It was still quite dark.

We had stayed up talking with the 10 roommates in the 8-bed albergue long past dark. The Irish couple pulled the 8th mattress off the bunk and slept together on it on the living room floor. The Japanese pilgrim curled himself into the settee...better than an airplane seat, said he.

It was still dark when we all stirred about 7:30. We got on the trail about 8:00. It was a gradual and relentless 12 mile hike over rolling hills and took us about 5 hours. It would have been better with a cafe bar along the way or some smashing scenery. But it was pretty much just a long walk.

We are in El Cubo del Vino which is tiny. We stopped at the first albergue and paid 24€ for a room with two lumpy beds. The Hungarians and the Canadian are also here. We had our pilgrim dinner with them in town. The Hungarians treated us to guappo.

Now it is siesta time. At 5:00 the stores will reopen and we will buy ingredientS for an evening fiesta. It is still cold and blowing at about 30mph. Rain is forecast. A few days ago we were suffering heat stroke. What next??

The photos show the trail today and our albergue under the day's dramatic sky.

A Little Albergue in the Middle of Nowhere

Tonight we will stay in an albergue with 4 bunks beds, 2 toilets and 2 showers. Everything else in town is closed for vacation. So far there are 9 people...2 French, 2 Irish, 2 Americans, 1 Canadian, 2 Hungarians. Oooops. The hospitalero says 1 must leave. It is 12 miles to the next town. Good luck kicking one of us out. We're sticking together!

The weather has taken a turn to cooler. It was a great walk to get here. If only it were spring and green this would be beautiful.

Oh heavens ... A Japanese man just arrived! He does not speak Spanish, English, French. I'm glad we were here first!

The photos show the walk today and the albergue

Salamanca

What a pretty place! We walked around yesterday in the sun (interspersed with sitting on the Plaza Mayor re-hydrating and people watching), last evening in gorgeous weather, and today in rain. Salamanca seems to be an all weather city.

Longest Hike Ever, Not on Purpose

Friday we hiked about 20 miles. We know other pilgrims regularly hike that far...but never before, and never again we hope, do we.

We planned to hike about 12. The owner of the casa rural where we stayed in San Pedro said there were 2 villages at about 11miles distance. Each was about .5-1 miles off the Camino but one had no accommodations. So she reserved us a room in the other.

We should know better than to trust a non-hiker when it comes to distances. After walking about a mile, the village was still far over the hill before us. We retreated to the Camino.

A sign for the other town said it had a lodging. We headed off route a second time. In about .5 miles another sign had the lodging crossed out. Back to the Camino and onward into Salamanca...about 3 miles to the edge of town and about 2 more to get to the city-center. Then we walked in circles until we found our B&B, which is very nice and had a room even though we were not reserved until Sat.

The morning's walk was great. The afternoon was nice, but being tired makes it less wonderful and the sun gets really hot about noon. We got in about 3:30.

This city is lovely. More to come about Salamanca.