April 28, 2016 Thursday

An Uphill Walk to San Juan de Ortega    Walking Day #11

Today started out somewhat cold; we could see our breath in the air as we started walking through Belorado. The weather prediction was for rain or snow, and I was hoping we would at least get close to the end before it started raining.

Walking through the small town of Belorado, I looked for way markers on the sidewalks, but saw none. The Camino route through this small town is marked mostly with yellow painted arrows on curbs, the ground, or on signposts.

Being that Belorado is a small town, we were very quickly out in the farmland again. I am walking today with Don and Beth, a couple about my age from the western half of Virginia (far away from the Washington, DC area).

The lush, expansive farmland stretches as far as you or the camera can see.

This is one of the older way markers, a blue and yellow tile set into a concrete post. This one is old and quite faded, and has a charming age to it, one of many reminders of all the pilgrims who have walked this exact route before us. We are carrying on a long tradition going back more than a thousand years.

The farmland continues all around. This area is no longer vineyards, but grain crops, mostly wheat.

The church in a little town of Villafranca Montes de Oca at about the half-way point in my walk for the day (12 kilometers from Belorado). Immediately after passing the church the path goes up a hill, very steep, muddy, slippery, and a fairly long climb (probably 400-500 meters long). We are now making a change from the farmlands to the forest.

This part of the forest is predominately oak trees. On the right is a young lady Kelly from Brazil that I have encountered and walked with several times over the past week. She told me she first heard about the Camino when she was 15 and wanted to walk it, and now, more than 20 years later, she is doing it.

This picture shows a steep downhill section followed by a steep uphill section. This part of the walk is not at all flat.

And then the forest changes to this pine forest, quite dense. The path on which we are walking appears to be a long natural clearing in the forest. Many years of pilgrims walking on the path have probably prevented the encroachment of the forest over the path, keeping the path clear.

Most of my walk today was by myself, not uncommon for everyone on the Camino. And even when you walk with someone, often it is a quiet walk with only very occasional conversation. A few people have asked, “what do you think about,” to which my only answer is that I do not really know. Thoughts come, thoughts go; it is similar in some ways to a meditation.

One thought I did have a few days ago was about Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to successfully climb Mount Everest in 1953 with his sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay. (They never revealed who actually reached the top of the mountain first.) Hillary is quoted as saying, “It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”

On my first day walking the Camino from Saint Jean Pied de Port in France over the Pyrenees to Roncesvalles in Spain, I contemplated that my feelings about the difficulty of the climb may have been similar to what Hillary may have been thinking: Will I ever reach the top? Can I even take the next step? Should I stop here and just give up? The beauty of nature around me, the wildlife (wild horses, eagles, vultures), the comraderie of my new friends – these things and my desire to conquer my own fears and self-doubt allowed me to continue. And it was a glorious day; difficult, but glorious.

Today is much easier than that first day, but also difficult in some ways. The beauty of nature here is never in short supply. In some sections, the forest is close on both sides, almost like a tunnel through the trees.

Then, almost suddenly, as we descent gradually into what appears to be a river valley, the forest opens up and farmland appears again. In the distance, about 2 kilometers away is San Juan de Ortega, a small town with a poplation of 20, one albuergue, one hotel, and one church.

The church at San Juan de Ortega. It is undergoing a rather massive reconstruction.

And on the short stretch of brick sidewalk, here is one of the way markers at San Juan de Ortega – instead of 10-12 inches across, it is 6-7 feet across, so big that I missed the first one (there are about 5 on the short sidewalk by the church).

I am staying in the hotel, and resting. This was another really beautiful day on the Camino de Santiago.

Next: Walking to Burgos and a rest day.