Catching up With Heather on the Camino

It’s been a few days since I’ve been able to get to the computer – been down at my Dad’s after dropping the kids off at Stanstead airport with their mum, for their holiday in Germany, with our old friends Roland and Renzi.

Heather’s adventures have continued apace! I’m going to have to pack a couple of emails into one bumper post today; something for you to get your teeth into.  We’ve even got the very select set of photos that DON’T make Heather look like a granny.

I’ll let Heather pick up the story:

I´ve got pics downloaded onto a memory stick.  Good stuff!   I´m not going to even try and download Picasa on a coin-in-the-slot pc and I´m not on Facebook but I promise I´ll do it when I get home.  Now you know the only photos any camera takes of me are HORRIBLE ones.  I refuse to believe I look like a granny!  So very selective.

In a bar last week,

CaminodeSantiago-InaBar

At Puenta La Reina what seems like years ago,

Camino de Santiago- Puenta La Reina

My shadow in the morning on The Meseta,

Camino de Santiago- Meseta Morning Madness - Demons?

A little sign showing a few km to go.

Camino de Santiago- A few km to go

And The Sign!!

Camino de Santiago- The Sign

Security notice at roadworks;  The Spanish literally translated says ´Work Zone, for your security, do not leave the path´.  (Zona de Obras.  Por su Seguridad, No salida del Camino). The English translation?  Wait for it.  It´s good.  I mean it was a proper metal sign, not a bit of paper…

You ready?

WORK ZONE

CERTAINLY

IT´S NOT OUT OF THE WAY

Gee, what a load of flippin´rubbish Google can come up with when asked to translate a phrase.  But my impatient question is this;  anyone with any intelligence KNOWS that all you get with a bit of Googling is literal word-for-word.  Why the heck didn´t the someone-in-charge ask someone-who-knows?

Aw, Heather, come on, you´re meant to be accepting stupidities/systems/things.

Hi Everyone,

And I hear that the weather hasn´t been so good generally.  I´m sorry about that.  I can´t help being too hot most of the time.  And actually, I´m not really getting used to it, there´s heat and too much and I think it´s too much – for me, anyway.

So how is my body?  (Don´t answer that).  Well, after three weeks, now, I have definitely lost weight although I haven´t found any scales.  Mrs Wibble Wobble round my middle has gone and my shorts are loose.

My hair? MY HAIR??  Look, if you don´t start with quality, it´s hardly likely to be better, is it?  I would say that if you took a worse-case scenario of amateur over-the-top peroxiding, you´ve just about got it.  Even Rumplestiltskin (remember he wove straw into gold?) couldn´t do anything with this.  So be prepared if I do manage to get a photo or two through.

(Aw, children, do you remember that wonderful video we had of Rumplestiltskin, accompanied by Schubert´s Unfinished?  Ah, memories.)

Otherwise, toes great, feet great, toenails naff, everything else working as it should, energy levels tip top.  Daily routine – getting up 6.30 ish, walking by 7.30 latest, 6 hours or so walking with a bit of a stop or two, finding albergue early afternoon, find food, go to bed about ten ish, sometimes 10.30.  It´s good!

How am I getting on with Paulo Coelho´s The Witch of Portobello in Spanish?  Yeah, great! Have read seven pages now and understanding everything.  It´s good to have to work it out without a dictionary.

Made my first ever phone call in Spanish today but they haven´t found it. Oh, you know.  I can´t mention it by name as Roanne will go mad.

Am 23 km past Leon.  Tomorrow Astorga!  Less than 300 km to go!

Part 2 …Footwear.  What I finally took were three items.  1) My Merrell approach shoes.  Very well worn already and now at the end of their tether but still clinging to their tether…. 2) My Merrell sandals.  Invaluable.  I´ve done most of my walking in them.  3) Flip flops I bought at St Pancras Station.  And I would have been MISERABLE without these to go round the albergues when my feet were past wanting anything on.

The trainers and sandals are white with the dust.  When they´re all on the shelves where you have to put them when you get to a refuge, everyones´ are white.

The trainers are heavy in my rucksack and I have considered sending them home – BUT when things turn nasty as they did with my toes last week, having an alternative is essential.  And there are phases when I just wear the trainers for days at a time.

Love

Heather xxxx

I’ve shuffled a few paragraphs about to make the two emails flow but I think you’ll get the drift!