A hundred million

Russ Oct 4 -

We have finished our second day of walking since leaving Burgos. We are in Hontanas, about 470 km from our destination Santiago and have been in the Meseta two days. Yes, it is dry and somewhat featureless just like they say.

So far my sprained ankle has withstood a 13 km day and today 18 km. Hopefully the ankle will improve - so far it has just not gotten worse. Tomorrow we hope to go about 28 km.

There's lots of time to think as you walk along. We have been able to walk without a lot of other pilgrims around us. Combined with the perfect clear cool weather it has been lovely to be back walking again after our time in Burgos.

One thing I was thinking about this morning is that it takes me about 65 paces (130steps) to go 100 meters on level ground. Taking into consideration that hills tend to shorten the stride somewhat I reckon I take about 140 paces per 100 m and therefore about 1400 steps per km. To go the full 800 km I expect to take about 1.12 million steps. Now, although we won't have statistics for this year for a while, there has been an increasing number of pilgrims on the Camino Frances each year, in excess of 100,000. So, this year there will probably be more than 112 billion steps taken by pilgrims. (someone should check my math on this - right now I'm whacked out on Ibuprofen)

Other stuff I think about on these morning walks is how lucky I am to be on this adventure, and to have Linda at my side. We see each sunrise shortly after the day's walk begins. Our walk usually ends each day around noon and we check into the day's accommodation. Today, for example we are staying in a private albergue. It is clean and up to date with nice showers and laundry facilities. We got lucky today - the proprieter asked if we were a couple after we checked in and gave us a little room with two beds that we get to ourselves. This is a bonus bit of privacy for us. No Internet in the whole town, though, thus the delay in posting this last entry.

That's all from me today.

Russ

From Linda

As Russ mentioned, it has been so wonderful to be walking again, and Mother Nature has blessed us with perfect weather.
Our spirits were lifted yesterday when we were reunited with a good friend we had met on the first day of our camino, and had not seen for about ten days. This type of thing happens often, and is one of my favorite things about the camino. You connect with people but may not see them for sometime, then have these wonderful reunions! Our friend is still just ahead of us, but we will likely see her again.
Due to the fact that we are currently walking shorter distances than the guidebook recommends, we are spending the nights in small villages, which I much prefer to the larger cities. The population of Hontanas is 80, and it is described as "a classic pilgrim village tucked down in a fold in the Meseta". The church steeple is often the first sight we see from the Camino, and a welcome sight many times too! Although the scenery here consists of mostly rolling fields of cut hay, there are wind turbines to break the monotony, and the odd clump of trees. We see evidence of sheep or horses on the trail, but no sign of the animals themselves. Although we did see some birds we think were pheasants this morning, there are very few birds in general.
Tomorrow we pass through Castrojeriz, with castle ruins on a hill which sound interesting.
Adios for now!


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