Journal: Century Resident Continues Spain Hike

July 1, 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 is filing 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.

To read the complete series from day one, click here.

Make sure you join NorthEscambia.com the new few days as we catch up on Terri’s journey and complete the series.

(Scroll down to read entries from three different days.)

June 12 2010

Start: Castrojeriz

Destination: Fromista

Some idiot pilgrim thought it would be cool to get up 4:30 am and leave.

I had had a rough night anyway. First, Lou’s cell phone went off after he went to sleep. Of course he didn’t hear it and every few minutes it would buzz to remind him he had a message. The head of my mattress was right there at his back pack. After an hour or so I nudged him and told him his phone kept buzzing. He partially sat up, raised his hand toward his pack and fell back down on his pillow, dead to the world.

If there had of been more light in the room, I would have dug his phone out and either turned it off or threw it at him! But there were no lights; in fact there were no working lights at all in the room. It is a sure fire way to get people to go to sleep early. Of course it does not get dark here until 10:30 or so. I moved to the other end of the mattress and tried to go to sleep.

Just about the time I dozed off the lady on the mattress next to me, stretched her legs and kicked me in the head. Remember, all the mattresses on the floor are pushed up next to each other. That scared the kajebbies out of me. It was close to 3:00 am before I finally dozed off.  I might have gotten 90 minutes of sleep.

I had bought a silk liner and a pack towel last night so I am looking forward to a hot shower tonight! If the hostel tonight does not have any blankets I will at least have my liner. Again, no place to eat breakfast. I am beginning to wonder what people do in these small towns for breakfast! We grabbed a power bar and headed out.

It was cold and overcast but thankfully no wind was blowing, nor was it raining. Right off the bat, we had a strenuous climb of a hundred meters over a 2 meter walk. The book says it is a glorious 21.9 kilometers on an earthen track. Someone forgot to mention the fact that it had been raining it was a slog and fight your way 21.9 kilometers while trying to stay upright! It was also a mud magnet so that within minutes you were carrying an extra couple pounds of dirt on the bottom of your shoes. It was slow going and not very glorious!

The nice thing was when we got to the top of the climb, there was a van there with two tables set up, fresh fruit and hot coffee. I am not a coffee drinker but two cups of coffee was nice on a cold day. They were owners of a hostel in Fromista where we are staying tonight. They handed out color brochures describing all the wonderful luxuries that awaited us at the end of our hike today.

About a mile later, it dawned on me that I could have asked them to transport our packs to the hotel tonight since we had already decided we were going to stay there. Sometimes I am not real bright! The thought of clean clothes, a hot shower and food was our motivation to keep up a steady pace. A few hours later we step to the side of the road to let a vehicle pass us.

Just as he passes I noticed that he was the company that transports packs for pilgrims. I tried my best to flag him down as he passed but didn’t have any luck. Lou said that was twice today I missed a golden opportunity. We rounded the corner just on the outskirts of town and there sat the van, unloading packs at a hostel .I started yelling Amigo just as he closed the back door of the van. When I reached him I asked him if he could take our packs to Fromista. Si,for 5 Euros.

We quickly tagged our packs and loaded them into the van. I grabbed a kiwi, an orange and a white chocolate candy bar and stuffed in my pockets. Off he went with both of our packs. It didn’t take long for it to dawn on us that we had very little with us. But we were rewarded with no packs and a long stretch of flat road. I almost took off running. You notice I said almost.

A few hours later we found some fairly dry grass alongside a canal and we threw down our coats and ate our snacks. Today’s trail was laid two thousand years ago. It is mind boggling to think that pilgrims walked this trail that long ago. We talked of what kind of provisions they might have had. I assured Lou that they probably did not hike in the rain!

It was 2:00 when we hiked into our hometown for the night. The hostel was on the farthest outskirts of town. After a couple of tense moments when we tried to communicate that we wanted to wash our clothes, we finally understood that you give your dirty clothes to the hostess and she washes and dries them for you. We splurged and got a private room with two twin bedsit will be a nice treat to be able to turn the lights off when we want to and not be disturbed by early risers.

I put all of my clothes together and fixed a big plastic garbage bag to wear after my shower and Lou took off to drop our clothes off. The room was cold but clean and just enough hot water for a nice long shower. Three hours later, still no clothes and we were starving. Lou did not want me to go to dinner in my plastic bag so he went looking for our clothes. He came back and said when he finally found someone who knew about our clothes they were not yet dry.

Granted the sky was overcast and not a good day to hang clothes out to dry, but three hours were more than sufficient to get them at least partially dry. Lou gave me an extra T shirt he had that was a bit longer than my sack. I wrapped a towel around my waist and told him if I was not back in an hour look for me at the jail. Again hand language came in handy. I finally found our clothes strewn over a washer and dryer. I grabbed my pair of shorts, and a shirt and headed back to the room. Lou was surprised I had found our clothes.

I told him “Hell hath no fury like a naked hungry woman.”

Miles 15.8

June 13 2010

Start: Fromista

Destination: Carrion De Los Condes

They offered breakfast here this morning. Toast, coffee, hot chocolate, and tea cakes. We ate and rejoiced as we stepped into overcast but dry skies.

The last few days have been short as far as mileage goes. We cannot go farther because the albueques are too far apart so we either do 25 miles a day or 12. Today was probably the most boring day of the trail. The trail follows the main roadway from our starting point to our destination. There was a place we could have taken an alternative trail, but the trail fizzled out at the start and wasn’t marked. We were afraid of falling into the canal or at least having to cross it, so we choose the main trail.

With it being Sunday we saw maybe 30 cars on the road . For the first time cars honk at us as we walk. It is a bit of encouragement to us. We stopped at a small town for lunch. It was early in the day so the usual smoke filled cafe was empty. Soup and a ice cream revives our spirits and we head on. The first two hostels we stopped at were full. It seems the advertising brochures that are being handed out along the trail are nothing more than a bait and switch tactic. We ended up paying 15 Euros for a room we shared with two other people.

The town side was that one of the pilgrims in here with us, turned the TV on (which is all in Spanish).He said the World Cup was on and he wanted to watch it. The trouble was he never shut up or sat down to watch it and was constantly switching channels. Gitter (a woman from Holland) came in later and I thought we were going to have a fight over the television being on constantly. It was aggravating to Lou and me but we kept our mouths shut although I did turn it down when the hiker took a shower. We have had no television in the rooms and have grown quite accustomed to the peace and quiet.

Miles 12.2

June 14 2010

Start: Carrion de los Condes

Destination: Terradillos de Templarios

I am sick…I have lost my iPod.

I use it at night to listen to music as I go to sleep .I know exactly where I left it. Every morning I wake up and it is right by my pillow. I didn’t notice that I had not packed it yesterday morning. It makes me sick. Now I will have to wait until Christmas to get one from my kids since Mother’s Day has already come and gone.

Lou and I have finally figured out something about this trail and it’s hostels. The hostel owners go up and down the road advertising rooms with 15 or 20 bunk beds for 7 Euros. But when we get there those rooms all always filled and we are stuck taking a more expensive 4 person room or a private room. The complimentary breakfasts are a joke as is most of the breakfasts offered by any cafe which happens to be open early in the mornings.

We have decided that every afternoon we will find a market, stock up on fresh fruits and stop along the trail to eat breakfast .It will be cheaper, healthier and offer more carbohydrates for the days walk than the little overpriced tea cakes we get. Enough complaining!

As we left town we stopped at a little petro station looking for something to carry for lunch. There wasn’t anything suitable for lunch but there were M&M’s which is a first to find over here. So far all I have found were Kit Kats. I spent 8 Euros on M&M’s for our snack for today.

Today we passed through a flat and somewhat featureless terrain. There is very little shade and very few public water fountains. There were virtually no cafes so we tried to pack some extra food in our packs. After we had hiked about 12 miles we came upon a little trailer where a man was grilling tiny sausages for sandwiches. He also had fresh fruit, cold drinks and beer. We each had a banana and I drank a Fanta Orange that I had got back at the petro station. One thing I have learned is just because a can has a orange label on it, that does not mean it has orange drink inside.

We took an alternate route today that took us off of the main road and along an old farming road. It was quiet and peaceful and the only sounds we heard were of the birds and our shoes hitting the trail .The sides of the trail were in full bloom of wildflowers. At one point Lou became uneasy that maybe we had missed a turn off of the trail. He said he was 50/50 sure we were on the right path. I told him I was 80/20 sure we were on the right trail. He asked me why I was so positive and I pointed ahead to a faint yellow arrow. He said he was only checking to see how honest I was.

There was just the right combination of fluffy clouds and blue skies to keep the sun off of us and a nice breeze to boot. We went through the first little town which the book says has nothing to offer. What we found was a clean cafe and great meals at a decent price. The food that is available to us has very few carbohydrates that our bodies need for energy the next day.

We got lucky today, we got fries which were not only fresh but also fried in fresh oil. A strange tradition here is that most lunch meals include a fried egg. It doesn’t matter what else the meal has, but there will be a fried egg on the plate. I guess this is how they make up for not eating breakfast!

We finally got to the hostel we were going to stay in only to discover the dorm rooms were full. We had a choice of a private room or a room with two bunk beds and a private bath, which is what we choose. I got a bottom bunk which is great for me since trying to climb a metal ladder with round rungs is a killer to already sore feet. We are hoping no one else joins us.

I walked up front to get my water bottle fill and inadvertently took a wrong turn which sent me down the other side of the hostel. There were several rooms with glass doors and all the rooms had numerous empty bunk beds .In fact there were no hikers in any of the beds. That put a really sour taste in my mouth. I am a business woman and I don’t have a problem with people making a profit. That is what business do. I do have a problem when people deceive the customers in order to make more money.

The closer we get to the end the more we find practices like this taking place. Today we reached the half way mark both in miles and in days. We are pretty much on track to finish by June 30. gone are the leisure days of 12 or so miles. This week we have mostly 15 – 20 mile days and even though the terrain is flat, it makes for a long day.

I borrowed Lou’s cell phone to call my oldest daughter and sing Happy Birthday to her. It was good to hear her voice. She told me when she first saw who it was calling, she wasn’t going to answer it because she figured it was Lou calling her to report that he had lost me! That was the exact thing I had just told him, that I bet she wouldn’t answer the phone.

Miles 16.6

Comments

3 Responses to “Journal: Century Resident Continues Spain Hike”

  1. Papermaker on July 2nd, 2010 2:06 pm

    You’ve been gone too long! Everyone in Century knows Mr. & Mrs. Dumenkoffen?

  2. Terri Sanders on July 1st, 2010 3:47 pm

    okay I am clueless who is Gerry Dumenkoffen?

  3. Gerry Dumenkoffen on July 1st, 2010 8:35 am

    Mary and I are glad you have Lou with you. What a gem. We have enjoyed your tales. Best wishes to you and Lou for many more happy nights together!

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