Day 3: Mercadoiro to Portomarin

Day 3
The Irish lady decided that she might try a couple of km today.  The group was taken back to Mercadoiro and she and I were dropped a few km along the path.  It was cold and windy. We walked a bit and then stopped.  The road was fairly flat so she sat and I pushed her on the walker.  Then she tried walking with her sticks but tired soon after.
We found a patch of sunshine and sat in the sun for a while. After an hour she was feeling sweaty and weak.  I called Reinette and asked her to phone David (our trusty Portomarin taxi owner) and tell him where we were, about a km from where we had started.  We waited at a cross-road at the taxi came to take us to Portomarin.

The others arrived after lunch.  I got an email from Isa to say that she would arrive in Sarria the next day and would walk to Portomarin.  Reinette and I walked around the square, visited the supermarket and a couple of little shops.  That night we ate out at the O Mirador. Pat and Janet don't like evening meals so Pat joined us for a while but Janet and the other lady didn't venture out.

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Hospitalera in Corcubion - Day 5

Rain, rain, rain. It rains most days here and even though the sun shone yesterday, it started raining in the night and was still raining in the morning. I feel sorry for the pilgrims when they have to leave the warm, cosy casa and walk off in the mist and rain, but it is only 9km to Finisterre and even the rain can´t stop their joy at reaching the last marker with the 0,00km marker at the top of bluff near the lighthouse.
The Austrian was first up and left after a cup of coffee. Then the rest came down in dribs and drabs, nobody really has a sense of urgency with so few kms to walk.
"Whats for dinner?" asked Isa when they had all left and we were having our breakfast.
"It´s cold" I said, "Let me make a vegetable curry tonight". She wasn´t sure, people in Spain are not accustomed to Indian curry, but I convinced her to let me make curried beans, South African style.

Once we had done the houswork and had a shower, we set off for Cee. Corcubion and Cee are practictaly one place, right next to each other like Johannesburg suburbs. There was a weekly flea-market in in the square and streets around the supermercado and we strolled around looking at the wares. I bought a blouse for 3€ to replace my polka-dot blouse which is now only good for doing housework in, and a long sleeve top for 3€. I also had to buy some reading glasses. Somewhere yesterday the little screw came out of one side of my glasses and I couldn´t find it so I bought another pair in Cee.

Then we went off to Muxia, a really pretty place with a lovely coastline, picturesque lighthouses and a church right on the sea with enormous, smooth rocks - apparently the place where San´Tiago landed in the stone boat which sailed across the sea without sails.

We had a cafe-bar stop along the way back and I bought Isa a Martini (poor girl is never going to guess right!) but I felt sorry for her!

"How many pilgrims tonight?" she asked.

"If it rains, completo" I said, "But if it stops raining, maybe 15 or 16."

When we got back there was a lone pilgrim sleeping on the bench. She got up when we pulled up in the car.
"Wait" said "Isa "we open just now." We had lunch, got the kettle on and the books ready and I opened the door for the pilgrim. When she gave me her credential I screeched! It was a South African credential, one that I had issued. Matty had emailed me for an urgent Visa letter before leaving South Africa and I had no idea that she was going on to Finisterre. So it was "Hello Skattie, hoe gaan dit" hug, hug, jump, jump, kiss, kiss! My first South African pilgrim at Corcubion.
Then two very bedraggled young women appeared. They sat down outside so I went to them and asked, "Are you going to sleep here tonight?"

"We´d really like to," they said folornly. "We walked too far yesterday and didn´t make it to the town so we slept in a tent, and we got wet, and the ground sloped the wrong way, and we are very cold and my feet are terribly painful ......"

"Come in then" I said to them, "Go upstairs, choose a bed, get out of these wet clothes and have a hot shower. When you are ready you can come down with your credentials and I´ll register you."

They looked like grateful puppies! "Oh thank you, thank you so much" said the younger girl. We are so tired.......".

"Go on then" I said, "When you come back down you can have a cup of tea or coffee." The older girl looked as though she was going to burst into tears.

"I think I'm going to cry" she said.

"Don´t you start that" I said. "You´ll have us all drizzling. Upstairs."

They come down an hour later showered and smiling but in bare feet. They have blisters and can't wear shoes.

Then Isa got a call from Begona in Finisterre. A group of 5 pilgrims had arrived in Cee and wanted to know if there was space in San Roque before walking up the hill.

"Yes" said Isa "we can take them". Soon we had another group of wet and bedraggled, limping pilgrims to process. They were friends of the first two so we organised the rooms so that they could be together. Four were from England, one from Holland and another from New Zealand. Then a Spanish couple arrived with a friend in tow and soon we had 15 pilgrims in the house. Once all had had a cup of something the sun came out and some did washing whilst others sat inside listening to music or writing. I cooked a huge pot of curried beans but had to keep adding an extra bottle of beans, and when those ran out, a bottle of veges as the numbers grew. We made three bowls of salads and with Lola´s veg soup as a starter we had more than enough for all the pilgrims.
"We have been dreaming of a big, hearty, vegetable stew" said one of the Enligh girls, "But this was even better - thank you". We sang the ´we are hungry´song and they took photos of the lemon peel arrows in the salads. By 10pm we had cleaned up and had started setting the table for breakfast when there was a knock on the door. A young French pilgrim arriving late, hungry and in need of a bed. Out came the soup, a bowl of curry, bread and a yoghurt for desert. He said that we were angels and he had come to heaven! Well, this angel was ready for bed so I took myself off and went to sleep listening to guitar playing and singing wafting up from downstairs.

(Isa receives an email from a German pilgrim)
For me a dream has come true! I owe God and all people thanks who have helped me on this way - with dear words by her friendliness and by her actions. My short visit in the Albergue of Corcubion will remain unforgettably for me. I am very grateful to you, Isabel, Lola and Sil.

Hospitalera in Corcubion - Day 4

We´ve got the cleaning down to a fine art. One day I do the bathrooms and Isa the bedrooms and then we swap. We share the downstairs I sweep and dust and Isa mops and then she sweeps and dusts and I mop.

After two days my nails all started splitting (harsh disinfectant here) so I´ve taken to using gloves. After turning my lovely red blouse into a polka dot creation I´ve also started wearing an apron so I really look like Sadie-the-cleaning-lady! The albergue is spotless. We sweep, spray, swab and scrub every surface every day and the place smells really fresh and clean. I like the Pine frangrance and Isa the Lavendar so it all smells like a forest. In the afternoon we put on the coffee machine and burn an incense stick and it has a very welcoming, home-from-home feeling.

On Saturday Lola took us to Cee where we had a drink and Tapas at a terraced bar outside the main Carrefour supermecado. I still haven´t had to buy Isa a Martini because she has still not guessed correctly the number of pilgrims we´ll have each night.

The book that the pilgrims write comments in is full so Isa and I buy a new one for the albergue. Some pilgrims draw elaborate pictures, add stickers and get quite lyrical in the comments they write in the book.
When we got back to the albergue there was a "Gary Cooper" look alike waiting on the bench. "We only open at 4pm" said Isa. "OK" he said. "I´ll wait because I have a painful leg and can´t carry on walking today". So, what do you do? You open early, which is what did after grabbing a bite to eat and getting the registration book ready. We write in blue ink one day and red ink the next.
I bang my head on the pantry ceiling. The pantry is a space under the stairs - normally one would use the space for a broom or boots closet - but this is our pantry and you have to reverse out bent over otherwise you bang your head. A group of rather noisy girl pilgrims arrive and we let them in too. We showed them the view of Finisterre from the bedroom windows and they showered, had some coffee, sat on the lawn chatting and smoking. The next minute they told us they had decided to walk to Finisterre after all. I couldn´t blame them. The shine was shining and there was a good chance that they might see a sunset over the Atlantic. After the full house the night before we had only 7 pilgrims last night. Even so, we sang the San Roque - Queen song and had a great time at dinner. One of the pilgrims had a swollen shin and I offered to massage it for him with Arnica. It is a strange thing about pilgrims. He was a very well dressed, cultured man (a dentist from Austria) who brought a bottle of good wine to share at the table but left without giving a donation. Sometimes it is the mendicant pilgrim who drops a coin in the box who is the most grateful. Lola has offered to take us to Muxia tomorrow which about 18 kms from Corcubion. Another day in paradise!

Saints on the Camino

MANY MORE PHOTOS ON THE CAMINO PATHS - NEXT POST DOWN


There are many saints along the camino. One you will find regularly, in France and in Spain, is Saint Roch. He is depicted as a pilgrim, with a wound on his leg (sometimes the left, sometimes the right - sometimes the shin and sometimes the thigh) with a dog offering him food. This is his story:

St. Roch was born at Montpellier France. His father was governor of that city. At his birth St. Roch is said to have been found miraculously marked on the breast with a red cross. When he was twenty years old, his parents were killed. Although left with their fortune and the government of Montpellier, he renounced his riches giving all the money to the poor. He handed over the governmental duties to an uncle. He felt an inner calling to proceed toward Italy. Disguised as a mendicant pilgrim (a beggar), he set out on foot. Along the way, he encountered village after village stricken by the plague. Knowing then what his inner calling was about he began travelling from village to village staying in each for weeks at a time devoting himself to the plague-stricken and curing them with the healing power in his hands. He never feared for his own health or safety but lay his hands upon all he met and they were healed. He healed ailing cattle and other animals as well.
After a few years he himself was stricken with the plague. Not wanting to be a burden on society he withdrew to a wooded area outside of a village called Peacenza and waited for death to overtake him. As he lay at the brink of death a dog appeared and lay down beside him licking his wounds. The dog would periodically disappear and return with a morsel of food that he had collected from near by Peacenza. Although the dog was himself thin from starvation, he always lay the food gently on St. Rock's chest for him to eat. St. Rock soon recovered and was found by the dog's master who took him to a place of shelter. St. Roch then resumed healing the people in the plague stricken villages. Returning to his home in Montpellier, St. Roch, still wearing his pilgrim clothing and physically changed because of his ordeal was thrown into jail by his own uncle where a few years later he died. After his death the cross on his chest that had been their since childhood and some documents found in his possession served to identify him. He was given a public funeral and the miracles continued long after his death.

If you walk the Via Turonensis you will pass through Le Muret. This little pilgrimage chapel in the woods was mentioned in the 12th Century. It has a wooden bass relief of the Saint as well as scallop shells carvings in the wood.