6 apr

Walked another 37 kilometres today, from Vilafranca to Hospital de la Condesa, making a total of 1288 kilometres.
Camino Duro, the hard way, it had been sounding appealing to me for days. Gideon Lewis-Kraus, the writer of ‘A sense of direction’ wasn’t able to walk this difficult alternative of the main Camino because his mate Tom didn’t want the extra trouble. The guide I had been reading was very positive. ‘The incredible views make it feel as though you’re walking along the roof of the world’. On my not very detailed guide this alternative route would follow after one had left Villafranca. After walking for about a half hour, with no indication of a Camino duro, I realized I must have missed it. It turned out that the alternative route had started at a point before The spot Merlin was parked. I had missed it last night.
Being disappointed I decided to make the easy way hard. I’ve never walked so fast before. In a little more than 2,5 hours I had walked 18 kilometres. The 3 kilometres on the steepest part up the O Cebreiro mountain I walked in 30 minutes. I just felt so strong, it was a quite invigorating experience.
Part of the reason I was able to walk so fast was because I was irritated. Irritated with an American girl writing a PHD-thesis about the Camino as a way to promote social justice. Social justice being a way for people to be more tolerant, less discriminating towrads each other. This American girl was interviewing a German couple just when I was downloading a few newspapers in the local Aubergue last night. The guy really liked to hear himself talk. When the American thesis writer asked if he thought everyone should walk the Camino – the question alone made me crinch – the German guy said that he wasn’t convinced before he started if walking the camino was a great idea, but now he thought it had to be mandatory for everybody. That’s the word he used. Mandatory! I guess you have to be German to come up wit such a ridiculous thought.
My goodness, if anything is good about this walk it is the fact that most walkers are searching for some kind of direction in life. That creates a special kind of bonding. But it only works on basis of volantarity, of course. Mandatory, i still am fuming when I think about it.
Having exhausted myself, and after stopping for a nice omelet! I started to enjoy my walk. The weather was beautiful, wearing a T-shirt for the first time while walking in Spain. It was one of the special days without clouds or fog around the O Cebreiro. The views were spectacular. Not as many snow cladded mountains in the distance, but the variety of fields and forests was amazing.
While having lunch i had a short chat with Anette, a dutch woman, living in Switzerland now. We met again on top of the O Cebreiro and had a nice talk. She’s having a sabatical of three months from a busy job. She’s writing a blog about many of the same subjects I’m writing about. It was one of the moments to meet a real soulmate, the same thing that happened with the Norwegian Dag. I suppose we could have walked more, but I wanted to walk another hour and a half. The second night in an Aubergue. A completely new one this time, with a delightful hot shower with ample of water. Such are the delights of a walker’s life.
Santiago is getting closer. 144 kilometres to go.