My Camino
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Part 2 - Meeting Angels & The Madonna
Cruising The Riviera | Miracle of Plastic | The First Step
The First Step
THE FIRST STEP IS THE HARDEST
It’s two o’clock when we haul our surprisingly heavy packs onto our backs and set off. Camino stage one has begun - although the weather isn’t looking too promising.
According to reports, the first day is the hardest. You have to climb a 1600 metres high mountain, then descend to 900 metres, just to arrive in Roncesvalles 
, Spain.
Water is of key importance throughout the Camino. For much of the route there are drinking fountains at regular distances but these cannot be relied upon. Usually it is safe to drink from streams but discretion is needed. It is recommended that all walkers take water with them. It is worth bearing in mind that almost everyone’s water requirement is greater than they think it is.
It’s recommended that pilgrims set out early on each leg of the route but I’ve never been good at doing what I’m told. After a few kilometres, the mountain gets very steep, so steep that we have to stop every fifteen minutes for a short rest. It’s not easy to put your backpack on again. The Sun is behind clouds but we are soon sweating and have parched throats and need to drink a lot.
Though the going is surprisingly tough we’re enjoying being on our way. Climbing ever upwards, we follow the trail which pilgrims have tread for hundreds of years before us. Like us, they must have sweated and they must have cursed the high mountains, and hoped that it’s not going to be this hard throughout the whole of the trek.
WALKING, WALKING, WALKING...
We pass enormous numbers of cows grazing on the rich grasses. They calmly sit and stare at us as we struggle uphill. If you look directly into their eyes they somehow look like very intelligent beings who cannot comprehend why we’re putting ourselves through this physically demanding journey. “Are you crazy? There are railways. There are buses! Why are you walking?”
What do you think of the idea of walking 500 miles? What advantages do you suppose walking has over other modes of transport? If you were to consider such a challenge would you prefer to tackle the walk alone or in a group?
Their shrewd, cognisant looks spark a conversation between us about why it’s so important to walk all the way to Santiago de Compostella. In the old days there was no alternative to walking. Even the wealthy, who could have used horses and carts, put on their best sandals and walked.
For some, pilgrimages were a sort of penitence. It wouldn’t show much contrition if you simply bought a railway ticket and read your favourite magazine while you waited for the train to arrive at your destination. Many previous pilgrims who have published their stories speak of the camino as a major event in their lives - one that recharged their spiritual batteries.
THERE’S GOING TO BE A STORM
The weather is becoming a little windy at about 4 p.m. We decide we deserve to sit down and have a picnic. Very quickly we attract a herd of sheep who watch us with great interest. I feel like an actor on a stage - though it’s a big stage because the sense of space around us on this mountainside is truly exhilarating. The air is wonderful to breathe.
A woman in a jeep comes hurtling along the track. She’s obviously in a big hurry to get somewhere but slows down along side us and announces - more in sign-language and urgent gestures than in words - that there’s a big storm looming. It turns out that she is the shepherd who owns the sheep and she speeds off to herd them downhill, leaving us more amused than grateful for her tip-off about the weather.
We pull out our wet-weather gear from our backpacks but it’s with a sense of anticipation. How interesting and exciting it will be - travelling across a bald mountain top in the middle of a storm.
MEETING THE MADONNA
Continuing up, we reach a very famous landmark - the Madonna. We’ve been anticipating this moment for a long while but the experience is nothing like how I had imagined it would be. The landscape is so austere, so remote and the Madonna is small, with a very strange-looking baby Jesus in her arms.
I think the child’s head is a porcelain head off a puppet or a doll. His eyes are very cold. He doesn’t seem interested in us pilgrims. He isn’t impressed that we are now officially spiritual searchers. The Madonna ignores us too, her gaze directed only at her baby.
We check the map and see that we’ve walked 14 kms and there are another 13 kms to go before we’ll reach a refugio. It starts raining very heavily. There’s no shelter around, no trees, just the bare mountains and not another human being in sight.
DARK CLOUDS ARE GATHERING
The rain stops for a while but then strong winds blow up, almost knocking us off our feet. It isn’t long before the rain is back, much heavier than before and soon we are all soaked to the skin! It’s not fun anymore.
It’s 7 p.m. and the sun will go down at 9 or so. It’s becoming very difficult to keep up a good walking pace and I’m beginning to think we risk not getting to the refugio before nightfall. A thick mist is sweeping across the mountain.
SPOOKY SKELETONS
Csaba spots the skeleton of a dead animal. It could have been a dog. Nothing but the bones remain. A bit later we see another skeleton - a bigger one - maybe a sheep. It’s all very spooky. Things can die here. I remember reading that some pilgrims did die here - but decide not to mention this to the group. No point in worrying them as those pilgrims died in mid-winter of exhaustion and exposure when they got lost on the mountain.
We know there’s nothing and no-one behind and ahead in the radius of 10 kms. All the other pilgrims are already in Roncesvalles, because they observed the instructions to start out early! Our route continues in the bed of a former stream, where we have to tread very carefully. It’s getting really cold and the rain transforms into the most miserable hail we’ve ever seen. Ice cubes from the skies are literally battering us. We protect our faces as much as we can but it really hurts.
Suddenly, Andi slips, and slams her foot against a rock. She’s clearly in great pain but there’s nothing we can do but carry on. Here we are, one day into our camino but already we feel helpless and fed up. We wanted to get away from civilization but not to this extent. The mist has turned into a pea soup fog - we can only see about 15 metres in front of us. It’s suddenly much darker. We are all trying to sound cheerful but I’m only too well aware that it would be so easy to wander off the track and get lost. We are already freezing cold and wet and not properly prepared for a night on this bare mountain.
End of Part 2. Back to the Main menu.
LINKS
Part 2: Cruising The Riviera | Miracle of Plastic | The First Step