I made it throught the night. Fortunately there was a farter in the room so people ignored my snoring. I awoke at 6 on the dot by some churchy thing playing on the speakers for a few seconds. This was our wake up call although we didn’t need to leave until 8:30 so you could lie in if you wanted to. One of the ladies in the room didn’t get that memo and turned the light on. Commence a rather heated exchange between the early birds and the late risers. I just sat there listening to shouting in a mix of Spanish, french and German. Welcome to day one of my Camino!!

After the blood and teeth had been cleared away everyone seemed to have made up with each other. Surprising what a coffee can do for people. Everyone drifted out to start their journeys. I was the last to leave because I’m unorganised. They didn’t seem to mind too much but to be fair I couldn’t understand them, they might have been livid!!

As I walked out of the albergue I saw the sign for the start of my Camino. With a skip in my step I started my 870km wander to the other side of Spain.

I realised very soon that the people in the hostel that had told me that my bag was too heavy were not lying. The section I was starting on had red difficulty and that meant hills…..steep hills. Was I going to be able to continue? Time would tell I guess. None of it mattered anyway because I saw a goat up a tree and that made everything alright.

Heavy backpack issues aside, the feeling of freedom had started to penetrate the shield of anxiety that had been surrounding my brain for a while. I found myself walking along smiling like a bell end to myself.

A short while later after I had passed a tiny little church I bumped into a couple of other pilgrims and started having a chat. We then proceeded to spend a big portion of it walking together, seperately, two of us walking without one then stumbling onto the other one having a snack then back to walking individually. It was a bit strange but I enjoyed it.

After a few kilometers there was a fork in the road. One way led to a nice path round the side of the mountain, the other lead to, what I liked to call it, the bastard hard route. The obvious choice, when walking with a backpack that weighs as much as the sun, was the easy route but the bastard hard route promised a decent view. Now I’ve seen some decent views in my time but this one was pretty spectacular. Obvs the photos don’t do it justice but it was as breathtaking as carrying my backpack was.

35 degree heat on top of a mountain whilst essentially lugging a beer barrel round with you will certainly make you a sweaty Betty. I drunk 4 liters of water and it didn’t come out the usual downstairs way. I think I lost a liter through my forehead.

Once we got back down to civilisation I had to do the obligatory “walk through a Spanish city and take photos” part. (See photo below)

We then carried on to an albergue that turned out to be full. We had been walking for 19km by this point. Having the feeling of an envisaged shower snatched away from you is bollocks. The owner (a guy called mario) was a true gent though and gave me a beer and a set of walking poles.Now I was the sort of person that looked at people who used walking poles and thought to himself “WANKER” but I must admit I am a convert. I can power up hills faster than a sports car now.

Anyway I’m tired and I’ve run out of witty comments and hilarious takes on walking somewhere. Here is a photo of where I lay my head for the night.

BUEN CAMINO