Cat Food For Lunch: Century Resident Continues 500 Mile Hike Across Spain

June 12, 2010

We are continuing to follow the journals of Century resident Terri Sanders as she hikes 500 miles across Spain this summer.

As Terri hikes from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France, she will file dispatches from her journal and send pictures when possible for NorthEscambia.com as she hikes the Camino de Santiago — the Way of St. James — to the Atlantic Ocean.

For her first entry, click here. And for her second entry, click here.

June 1 2010

Start; St. Jean Pied a Port

Destination; Roncesvalles

Just as I remembered Lou was up at the crack of dawn. Back home I had been getting up early for practice since my morning does not start until 8ish. I was well rested and much relieved to be here. The morning air was brisk but the sky was a beautiful blue. There are 3 separate paths over the Pyrenees Mountains into Spain.

Of course Lou chose the most arduous one.

It is also the one with the most spectacular views. This path also benefits Pilgrims because the sun does not penetrate into the Valcarlos Valley until later in the day. We knew it was going to be a steep climb today. The worst one of the whole trip. After today the trail is relatively flat. As old as I am one would think that when I hear the word ”relative” that red flags should go up.

However Lou and I had hiked part of the Appalachian Trail and he knew what flat meant, or so I thought. I had not brought my hiking poles with me because on a relatively flat trail they would be pretty useless and just be extra weight. I had gotten my pack weight down to 22.4 pounds. That was before I let my new found friend back at the Madrid airport convince me that I would not need a sleeping bag. I dropped 2 more pounds ditching my sleeping bag.

He was meeting his friend Ronnie to send her off on her Camino. He was from Gainesville, Florida, and figured we could get together later to retrieve my bag. Will I ever learn to just trust my own judgments?

Anyway back to the day’s hike. The cobbled stones leading out of the city were easy to walk on. The farm land reminded me of being in rural Florida. If you didn’t see the building you would think you were in the states. Today’s hike is 19 kilometers. Metric were not taught to us when I was in school. I know two things about kilometers. A 5K run is 3.2 miles and a 10K run is 6.2 miles.

Our climb today would give us an elevation gain of 1450 meters over 25 kilometers. No matter if it is in miles or kilometers it was going to be one big long grueling day.

The guide book says that this route is a veritable baptism of fire into the El Camino and Spain and I began to believe it. We are encouraged to stretch our physical as well as our spiritual muscles as we climb. We are supposed to be able to sleep soundly tonight and reflect on our inner purpose for this journey, and if the purpose wasn’t clear we were to ask for clarity.

I didn’t need to wait until tonight to ask for clarity, I needed a divine revelation right now to help me get though today’s hike. Somehow I had left my hat at home so I had nothing to shade my face or the top of my head. Our reward was a clear day with stunning views although you can only see so many stunning views before you get bored. The thickly wooded countryside gave way to open hills and moorlands.

We stop several times to catch our breath and try to give our pounding heart a rest. I was extremely glad Lou had put on about 30 extra pounds since the last time I saw him. I seem to remember going up and up and up. All the while I am telling myself that this is the hardest day we will have.

There are lots of Pilgrims on the Camino but very few Americans. We are told Buenos Camino which means good way time and time again. We would climb for a couple hours then find some shade to rest in for a few minutes. Like any other climb, you think you can see the top only to have the trail turn and continue to go up.

At one point a herd of sheep came across the road in front of us then turned and climbed the bank to greener pastures. The lead sheep had a bell on and I guess the rest of the sheep followed him. That was the first wildlife we saw on the trail. Later on we would see cows and horses along the road. It must be free range out here.

At lunch we stopped at a shaded place and pooled our resources. Lou had done some grocery shopping yesterday while waiting on me. He had several cans of some sort of meat and some cheese. I had some bread and left over cups of yogurt. Lou opened a can of whatever it was, it looked like tuna fish. Neither of us had a spoon or knife so we used the broken handle of a little plastic spoon I had to scoop the meat out onto the bread, topped with a slice of cheese it was almost fit to eat.

We are sitting there eating when a Pilgrim came by. He spoke very little English. He picked up the can of mystery meat, howled with laughter and told us we were eating cat food. My stomach turned over and it was all I could do not to throw everything I had just eaten up.

The saving grace was that I knew there was no water to clean up afterward with so I just lay down and tried to think about something else. Frenchie took the can over to his friends and they too howled with laughter. I kept hoping he would confess he was jut pulling our leg, but he never did. I told Lou I would share his cheese with him but he could have the cans of meat!

We finally came in sight of our resting place for the night. It was a magnificent stone building with 60 bunk beds in it. Every other bed had a isle so two bunk beds were pushed together. Lou went down to make reservations for our Pilgrim meal while I unpacked my pack and made my bed for the night .Our reservations were at 7:00.

We joined the others in line and were escorted to our table. Another American, a young guy by the name of Ryan was seated with us. They just keep filling up the tables until there are no more empty spots. We had a bottle of wine and a bottle of water. Our first course was some sort of soup, I have no idea what it was but it tasted pretty good.

Then we could choose from trout or stuffed peppers for the main course with French fries. Since I had already seen the trout and knew it came to the table with its head still on I choose the stuffed peppers. I do not like to eat the head of anything with the head still on except crawfish, I ordered the stuffed peppers.

They bring out this plate with three tiny stuffed peppers and some sort of red sauce. Thankfully there was a basket of bread that would fill me up. We had a slice of vanilla ice cream with strawberry sauce over it to finish out the dinner. Lou ate my French fries since I could only manage a few. I do not have any kind of attachment to French fries. I guess I cooked too many of them when I was working at a fast food place in my younger years.

After dinner we hobbled back over to the hostel where we paid 6 Euros for a bed. I will say that this bunch of hikers is a whole lot quieter than the Appalachian Trail hikers. It was lights out at 10:00 sharp and the doors were locked. Everything thing hurts tonight. I hurt in places I didn’t know I had.

Miles 14.9 (I felt we had hiked a hundred and fourteen.)

Comments

One Response to “Cat Food For Lunch: Century Resident Continues 500 Mile Hike Across Spain”

  1. Tammy on June 14th, 2010 1:16 pm

    Hey Aunt Terri!!! Glad to see ur still doing good. I guess I wont be getting you the cat food for Christmas this year lol Everyone is asking how you are doing when they see us at a show. I tell them to look on here and they can keep up with you. Miss you bunches! See you in a couple weeks.

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