A Day in the Life

I wake early.  I always do.  Why? Because some German always sets his alarm clock at 5.30 am.  Why is it always a German? What is it with these people and alarm clocks?  This is a holiday for God´s sake!  And how do I know they´re German?  Because within a minute of the alarm clock waking the entire hostel they´re jabbering with their mates about where they can get the cheapest breakfast or some other inanity.  So I lay there for about 15 minutes plotting revenge and listening to them rustle their belongings into their backpacks and then resign myself to another day of purgatory.

By now its almost 6 am and I decide to get up.  First a big drink of water, I try to get a litre down before I start to walk.  It´s hot and a couple of times I´ve been dehydrated and seen some very sick Pilgrims who suffered badly from it.  Then off to the bathroom to brush my teeth and hope for an SBM.  Successful Bowel Movement!  The consequence of failure is likely to result in the deposition of a present for a Spanish farmer somewhere along the road during the morning. I hope to avoid this but have had to few times over the last 3 weeks.  Next I tend to my wounds.  It takes a good 15 minutes to sterilise and dress the assorted blisters and their remnants.  Then on with the walking shoes (groan), a quick read of the guidebook and I´m off. 

I usually walk for around 2 hours before looking for a cafe and breakfast in one of the villages we pass through.  If I´ve been well prepared I´ll have a few bananas in my pockets that I eat during that time.  Then it´s into a cafe where I have a cafe con leche (coffee with milk) and a Nepolitana.  This is a sort of croissant filled with chocolate, a quick zap in the microwave and its an oozing mess of sweet brown liquid inside soggy pastry.  What could be better to sustain a pilgrim?  I also look for shops to buy fruit, the stone fruit are great right now and I´ve had feasts of nectarines and peaches.  The apples are crap, old and wrinkly, like my walking companions! 

I´m drinking water all the time and there are many fuentes (fountains) along the way.  Through all of this I´m doing about 5 km an hour depending upon the terrain.  At worst it slows to 3 and at best its probably as high as 6.  By midday I´ll be getting close to my destination, a short day finishes around noon and a long one (> 28 km) by around 2 pm.  On the really strenuous days I´ll finish around 4 pm, completely exhausted.   I reach the chosen town and look for the alberge, stumble across the threshold and get my credential stamped, hand over 4 or 5 Euros and accept another bed in a communal dorm.  Then its off to shower, hoping they´ve got doors or even curtains and pray for hot water.  Then wash my clothes, hang them to dry.  Tend to my wounds and have a snooze.  By 5 pm I´ve roused again and am looking for friends to have dinner with.  Off to local restaurant around 7 pm for the menu peregrino and back by 9 pm with a full stomach, ready for another night with Haystacks Calhoon (from Alberta) and his amazing snoring machine.

And by the time I know it, some German´s alarm clock is going off again......