All roads lead to Santiago
It was crowded on the path today, so in summer it must be unimaginable. Not so long after I walked the Camino in 2003, I can remember being shocked when the total number of pilgrims arriving at Santiago reached 100,000, 90% of them having walked the Camino Frances. How was this sustainable, I wondered at the time. A few nights ago, I saw on the Spanish TV that the total so far this year was 260,000.
It is particularly bad on the last 100 kms of the Camino Frances, this being the minimum distance to be covered on foot to receive a Compostela. A majority of the people on this last stretch are Spanish; this is probably not true of the earlier part of the Camino, since anyone travelling from foreign parts is going to walk a longer distance.
This overloading occurs on the Camino Portuguese as well, but not the Primitivo, because it's too hard. If you are going to walk the minimum number of kilometres required, then you will choose flat ones.
But there were fewer in the afternoon. Most would break this long stretch in two.
I passed a number of weary, footsore pilgrims, usually young and probably wearing the wrong boots, limping, hobbling, shuffling off to Santiago. But there were some older ones as well, who were likely on a religious pilgrimage. I saw an old fellow sitting on a bank halfway up a hill, exhausted, and a woman moving very slowly, literally pushing one foot in front of the other.
The supply of facilities has grown to meet the demand. Arzua must have twenty or more albergues, for in summer, a thousand or more pilgrims pass through each day. Ours was a large building with several dorms, and at this time of year, not busy at all. There are dozens of albergues along the stretch to Santiago as well, and these compete for clients, especially at this time of year, with colourful advertisements. One even had an electronic display triggered by a motion detector as you passed.
And there are also very many bars and cafes. Some land owners with a small piece of land at just the right spot, where the Camino enters a village after a stretch through the woods, must have moved from economic hardship to affluence after setting up a bar with a "beer garden" right on the path. Others were out of luck. Satiated pilgrims leaving one bar aren't going to stop again for the next hour or so. The ideal spot is where pilgrims are ready to stop for a break.
Some of these local people must bless the Camino; others must curse it. Imagine having a thousand people tramping through your back yard each day!
It was fairly easy terrain, with stretches beside the road, and though eucalyptus and deciduous woods, and along sunken paths through the fields, with some gentle climbs.
The bornes, the concrete marker posts displaying the shell, which, strangely, was sometimes pointing in the wrong, pre-Galician direction, a worker's mistake, I suppose, too expensive to rectify, were covered in graffiti or slogans. Some In English I remember are
God loves you
We love everybody
Tourist pilgrims, please leave albergues for pilgrims
There no hell below you and only sky above
Five Turk's was here
Strangely, or perhaps not, there were no cynical or blasphemous rejoinders, such as "No, He doesn't" or "Bugger off".
Our strategy for covering this forty-kilometre stretch into Santiago, was not to stop for a break too often or for too long. After walking for ten kilometres it is very tempting to stop for a coffee, and it's very tempting to linger. So we stopped only three times, round about the 16, 26, and 34 marks,, and arrived around at the Hospedaje La Tita at seven o'clock. This is not luxury like the Mapoula where I stayed last year. It is a small room above a bar, without facilities, but not bad for €25.
It has been a very satisfying walk, hard at times, but rewarding in its variety and spectacle. Preben has been a good companion. We would walk separately, but meet up at bars and hostels.
No comments:
Post a Comment