Having waxed lyrical about the beautiful flatness of the Meseta it began to wear thin after a few hundred kilometres. Some pilgrims resorted to Ave Marias or Buddhist mantras to get them through the monotonous landscape, I just kept my eyes on the horizon, knowing that at some point the distant haze would reveal the towering peaks of the Aquilianos mountains. In hindsight I think prayer would have been the easier option as the days dragged on and there was still no sign of them. There were however interesting diversions in the form of historic little towns and engaging pilgrims.
For example in Hospital de Orbigo a medieval knight sought to show his devotion to fair maid by wearing an iron collar to display the strength of his attachment to her. She however was less than impressed with his sartorial statement, so he decided on another tack. He invited all of the knights of Europe to joust in a tournament on the (still standing) narrow bridge leading into the town. After a two week carnival of fluttering pennants, majestic horses, glistening armour, and gored knights, our amorous nobleman finally emerged triumphant to win the hand of fair lady who begrudgingly accepted his advances. History doesn´t record whether they lived happily ever after, but I have my doubts. He sounds a bit needy and she seems high maintenance.
I also met another pilgrim who was my French doppelganger. As well as bearing a slight resemblance to me, he has been working in Palestine this year, specialises in NGO work in conflict zones and is called Gregoire. I almost asked him for a job but thought networking wasn´t a very Camino thing to do.
Anyways, the mountains duly arrived after the ancient city of Astorga. From there I climbed to over 1600m (the highest point of the Camino) and was greeted with a dawn over the Meseta that left me with a feeling of ecstasy all day. Am currently at the foot of that mountain in the small city of Ponferrada and still blissfully happy to be back in the hills for the last 200km.
Maybe part of this exuberance is the knowledge that in 9 days time i can have a celebratory glass of Rioja and an espresso in Santiago after nearly 2 months off the smokes, booze and caffeine. Am feeling ridiculously fit and wake up every morning with a terrible hangunder and a nagging feeling of purity. I know it won´t last so am determined to make the most of the last week and a half which Seth and I will be walking together from tomorrow onwards.
Thank you so much to everyone who has sponsored me, it gave me a real lift during the hard times and will go a very long way in the small Tanzanian communities that both Seth and I have worked in and know well.
Love to everyone and look forward to seeing most of you in October.
Greg x
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