Hi all, and sorry for the long, long gap between posts! For the last week almost we've been staying in Xunta hostels (since Sarria) and they had no internet and only once did Charlie find a wifi connection. I started typing this long post about everything from Christmas in Sarria to Palas de Rei, but then his computer downloaded  virus with a movie and went completely beserk, poor guy. He's had so much trouble fixing it.

But anyway, to kep things brief in the twenty minutes I have left: We spent the 23rd and the 24th of December in Sarria, had a massive Christmas Eve dinner complete with pumpkin soup, asparagus and smoked salmon, ratatouille and desserts of various kinds, and set out the next morning in glorious weather to reach Portomarin and the 100km to Santiago marker, where we took lots of photos! A couple are here, which the computer luckily saved before the virus hit.

There's me balancing like a tree... a slightly wonky an entirely unflexible tree due to me wearing too many clothes to do it properly.

There's me and Ariel posing with arms and legs (haha Jet, get it?)... yes, we went a bit nuts.

And there's my mud encrustd foot - I couldn't help this one because of all the speculation on the forum of Gareth's boots being so clean. Let no-one say that mine are!!! They even had mud on the inside. It was very, very muddy and there were creeks all along the camino. We had to detour across the fields at some points.

Yay for photos. The days between Sarria and Ribadiso (wonderful albergue there!) were a dream, with sunshine and lovely temperatures. After that... It poured. And poured and poured. The creeks rose a meter overnight, we got absolutely drenched, my sleeping bag got wet inside my pack, everything was wet. In Arca the dorm stank to high heaven because we all had our boots on the radiators inside to dry! Didn't really work that well. Going into Santiago was a little better, we had some really sunyn spots in between some heavy showers, and even a Rainbow getting into the old city! Very nice indeed. It's very strange, the last two days' walk, because there are so many eucalyptus trees everywhere. Made me feel like I was back in Australia... in some of the photos, you'd think I was!

Arriving in Santiago was a stange experience. In one way, completely relieving and wonderful and amazing, and in another quite sad, because the camino life and rhythm truly is amazing. That said, I'm very happy that now I can relax, put my feet up and just chill - my feet really were at the end yesterday after going to the pilgrim office (not a single person queuing!!!) and back to the albergue, 3km from the city center. (Grr.) They were soaked and the tendons were being really annoying and painful again. Did I say that I met a physio in Ponferrada who said that I had several inflamed tendons (something like that) which actually needed time not walking to get better? Well, that wasn't going to happen, so I just kept walking... as you do. Just walk it off, is my philosophy. But now I think I really do need to let them heal a bit before stressing them out again.

Some really good news from today at Frank and Ivar's travel center - the one box that did arrive had my down winter coat for Germany, my books (books!) and my favourite long skirt in it - yay for comforting home things! It brighteend up the whole albergue when I wore it. Luckily it's warm and I can! And I'm so glad my warm jacket was in there too - don't have to wear thirteen layers anymore now. Today was a bit sad too, though, because I had to say goodbye to a pilgrim I've become very close to after the mass at the cathedral (which was very elaborate, very spanish and had very nice choir music), who walked on to Negreira that day on the way to Finisterre. I think I'll have to go there by bus anyway after a few days here in Santiago - so maybe, just maybe, we'll see eachother one more time. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, that's all for now because I have to go and buy shoes. This camino experience has truly been an amazing one and I may even have picked up a few wisdoms along the way. I'm so, so very happy that I went through with it all! The last month has just gone by so quickly and amazingly, and the people I've met I will hold very close for a long time.

Adios!

I can't believe all you people in forty-degree heat. It seems as surreal as the whole snow thing probably still does to Ariel, though after a couple of days of it I think she's seen all there is to see. We've now seen and experienced the whole transformation - fresh snow to dangerous ice, back to more snow, and then to slush and creeks that have taken over the whole camino coming down into Triacastela today from the mountains. No matter really - our boots were already soaked from the rain, so a few ventures into 5cm rushing water from the melted snow made no difference, really.

The day's walk from Villafranca del Bierzo to Vega de Valcarce was one of the most amazing, wonderful and beautiful days on the whole camino so far. I don't miss the Meseta - especially not that 17km stretch of yellow road that just went on and on with no change whatsoever - in the slightest. I'd much rather climb up the mountain passes and tracks looking out over the Valcarce valley. It's magical. The first ascent was the steepest, probably making a 45 degree angle of ascent, but once it evened out a little to become just a gentle climb the first 500m were so, so worth it. There's something amazing about walking along mountain ridges. It's perfectly quiet when you stop and sit down on the path and look out over the valleys, so very quiet. I wonder if that was the same sort of quietness that Coleridge felt in the opening of his poem Frost at Midnight. It must be very close.

The albergue municipal at Vega that we stayed at was nice enough to have a heater in one of the small bedrooms, while the rest of the rooms, including the bathroom were as cold as it was outside. The kitchen was also out in the open, under the patio roof. While it's probably quite charming in summer, it was a bit of a test in winter, snow and ice and all. We huddled mainly in the heated room (which made it all the way up to 17 degrees) and I tried to spend as little time as possible outside and as much as possible inside!

Leaving the next day we were met with 30cm of fresh snow, at least on the tracks that we followed towards the end. We started out following the roads - the falling snow and fog were so thick we couldn't see 50m in front of us - up to La Faba, a hippie village if ever I saw one (the municipal albergue had a Ganesha holding up the sign and Indian motifs on the curtains on the inside of the closed door), from where we had to take the camino trail that ascended steeply for the last 4km. The snow had stopped falling, but was 30cm thick, and we followed mainly in Thomas' (the German pilgrim - he and Charlie were walking with us) footsteps. Don't know how he did it, walking in front. From Vega to O'Cebreiro the change in altitude is something like 800m, and takes about 8km. Those 8km took us four and a half hours of slogging uphill through snow.

Funnily enough, I felt brilliant while walking. It was only when we got the the albergue (heated, thank god!) that I started to feel the cold and the wet of walking in snow all day. In the evening I got the sniffles and today I have a proper cold - nothing serious, just sneezing and a runny nose. Took some Rhus Tox last night and this morning, mum, it's what you wrote down for colds brought on by exposure to wet and cold. Actually helped a lot, as I managed to get to sleep, so I'll have to take a bit more tonight. (Sorry for that digression, folks.) This morning the snow has also turned to slush, and all the rain that Galicia is meant to be famous for occurred all day. I'm surprised at how warm and dry I did manage to stay. Tomorrow we're heading to San Mamed del Camino, where the albergue has been described as 'a veritable haven of peace' by my guidebook. If that ahven turns out to have hot showers and heating, that's where we'll stay for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We'll venture into Sarria the morning of the 24th and find all sorts of food for our feast - I sent out messages to all our pilgrim friends telling them where we are planning on being, and that that should try and join us!

Anyway, that's all for now, seeing as I have to eat my pineapple and then go to bed, should try and get some sleep. (Once again there is a mattress that leaves a Jo-shaped hole in it! But no bother.) Taking the shorter, steeper route to Sarria tomorrow, not via Samos, I think I'll spare myself the extra 7km and take it easy.

Much love to all!

Yesterday's walking (I mean the route above, as I am typing this in the morning while waiting for Ariel to finish her breakfast) was wonderful. The snow was melting becase the sun was so warm and everything was blue and white and green, except for the pigs being roasted in the streets. We saw three in three different villages - must be a pre-christmas thing? At one point we sat down on a bench in the sun and didn't want to get up becase we were so warm!!

Which is more than I can saw about this morning, because I'm cold and it's -4 degrees outside and the heating isn't really that powerful (another run-down, friendly albergue with a great dinner last night). We actually had to change albergue, because the municipal albergue had no heating whatsoever, which is probably why the guidebook says it is only open until November... But here at least had hot showers, real hot showers (albeit in a freezing bathroom) that almost were too hot and so, so wonderful. My first hot shower in at least a week. The downside to winter walking is that the only time you're actually warm is while walking. Sonja, you really should consider waiting until April or May...

And that's why I'm off now! Walking keeps you warm. Heading to Ruitelan, the albergue has been reccommended, so we'll see how that goes.

I think something has gone wrong with my day count, because it's not matching up with the count in my journal... It says today is day 22, not day 23. Hmm. I don't have the time to fix it though, too much bother.

Today we are in Ponferrada, and the albergue finally is heated so that I am not freezing as I have been the last two days in Astorga! It's a bit of a leap, due to all sorts of things happening (well, just one or two things actually) which most of you already know about from the forum or from me telling you. In short - after walking all day in the ever-increasing snow to Astorga, we left the next morning, walked to the next village and were promptly told to go back (to Astorga) by the locals on the street (who were shovelling snow and literaly would not have let us pass) due to the amount of snow (gesturing a meter's depth) on the mountain up at Rabanal del Camino and Foncebadon. So we turned back and stayed another night in Astorga before catching a bus to Ponferrada today, seeing as the snow was still as thick and Ariel was actually feeling rather sick in the stomach and had a bad headache. She's been sleeping since we got to the albergue here - I think she's a bit better now. Tomorrow we will try ad walk to Villafranca del Bierzo and from there to O'Cebreiro and onwards in a few shorter days, following the roads if necessary. We'll see how we go.

This morning was a miserable affair, as I was feelig overwhelmed and upset by having to miss a stage on the Camino, this time not really by choice. Although some other pilgrims pushed on up the mountains in the snow, we chose not to on advice of the locals, which still didn't stop me from feeling like the worst pilgrim wuss in the world this morning, stopped by a bit of snow on the road. A test of the Camino and I had failed to overcome the obstacle for the first time. On top of that, my parcel of clothes went to the post office in Santiago instead of Ivar's Camino center and has now been sent back to Australia after not being collected in 16 days, which means I won't have clothes for a long time, probably not until I'm in Germany in February. As well as no ipod (which I was lookig forward to) and no other shoes and no warm down jacket and no jeans. The same for Ariel. But after talking to my mum and another pilgrim from Belgium (one of the only girl pilgrims I have met so far) I felt a little bit better. And back at the albergue, writing in my journal while Ariel was sleeping, I figured out some more things that made me feel better.

Excerpt from journal:
The marker in the courtyard of the albergue reads Satiago - 202km. I want to walk every one of those 202km now, because after a day of not-walking and those two days in Leon I already crave it and feel like a cheat, a non-pilgrim, without it. Tomorrow I will walk to illafranca del Bierzo, then Vega de Valcarce, then over the mountains through O'Cebreiro. I hope the weather allows it, ad if not I'll simply take the road; after all, I'm bound to get somewhere. The closer I get to Santiago the more I crave the walking, not just to get closer to the end of my camino but for the physical exertion (I feel weak and lethargic on rest days), the exhaustion, the sore feet and the wonderful, wonderful doing of the Camino. It is, after all, the Way.

I believe in the Camino now. I know that it is inside me and that everything is a part of it, the obstacles, the weather, the people, the landscapes, the delirium, the euphoria and the depression. I can understand it now: the bus, the snow, they aren't there for me to question my worth as a pilgrim, but to show me that I am a pilgrim. The snow is not a test of whether or not I can brave the cold and wet and slogging, but whether I can make the decision not to and still be a pilgrim. After all, this is my camino, and every decision I make will be the right one to make. Knowing and realising that makes all the difference.

And on some other news - despite the crappy marks, I still managed to get a ATAR (a percentile rank put together from final exam marks and used as cut-off points for university courses) of 96.15, which, looking back at the marks themselves, I'm rather surprised and quite happy with. It also means I can still get into my Arts/Laws double degree at the University of Queensland (which had a 96 cuttoff). Not quite the 98.95 I dreamt about... but not bad all the same. So yeah. No more having to think about school now!

That's all for today. Going out to the opening of the Christmas markets now, I love that sort of thing! Have to bundle up though... still pretty cold out there.

PS - Rebekah, I think I'll catch a bus and train back to Moratinos on Christmas Eve morning from wherever I am and spend Christmas with you and then go back the next day... Kidding. Would be nice though. Ah well... I'll just have to buy some baklava somewhere along the way.

Yesterday was one of those days that make the camino a pilgrimage and not simply a long-distance walk. I'm not going to go into details, because it's my thoughts and contemplations and they can't really be shared, but I worked some things out, thought some things through, contemplating the whole idea of why I was here, what I was doing and what I had achieved after almost three weeks and 500km of walking. I guess it was time for something to happen on an emotional-spiritual level. 

And today I'm happy. The sun is shining even though the temperatures are in the minuses and the streams have been encased in a good centimeter or more of ice, the albergue is decorated with pilgrim drawings, sketchs and quotes all over the walls in a wild, free, organic, creative mosaic of people and nationalities and lives (although the computer room isn't heated!), and we're cooking potato goulash together for dinner. I'm happy, really happy. Nothing can get me down today, because I'm completely and utterly at peace with everything: myself, the camino, the place of here.

After my contemplations (the teary part of them), I discovered at dinner that Attila had photos of the whole pilgrim poem that was written on the wall along the camino between Logroño and Najera - if you recall, the day where I was completely finished with the camino. As I walked past the wall I only managed to read a couple of sentences before I began to cry in frustration and pain and anger at the camino. Yet yesterday, the day in which I am confronted with questions of purpose and meaning and motivation, Attila shows me his photos and I find the whole poem in German (it was only written in German, Spanish and French). This is the way the camino works.

The poem in German:

Staub, Schlamm, Sonne und Regen
das ist der Weg nach Santiago.
Tausende von Pilgern
und mehr als tausend Jahr.


Wer ruft dich, Pilger?
Welch' geheime macht lockt dich an?
Weder ist es der Sternenhimmel,
noch sind es die grossen Kathedralen.


Weder die Tapferkeit Navarras,
noch der Rioja Wein.
Nicht die Meeresfruechte Galiziens
und auch nicht die Felder Kastiliens.


Pilger, wer ruft dich?
Welch' geheime macht lockt dich an?
Weder sind es die Leute unterwegs,
noch sind es die unendlichen Tradizionen.


Weder Kultur und Geschichte,
noch der Hahn Santo Domingos.
Nicht der Palast von Gaudi
und auch nicht das Schloss Ponferradas.


All'dies'sehe ich in Vorbeigehen,
und dies' zu sehen, ist Genuss;
doch die Stimme die mich ruft
fuehl ich viel tiefer in mir.


Die Kraft, die mich vorantreibt;
die Macht, die mich anlockt;
auch ich kann sie mir nicht erklaeren:
Dies kann allein nur Er dort oben!

My Translation:

Dust, mud, sun and rain,
that is the way to Santiago.
Thousands of pilgrims
and more than thousand year.

Who call you,pilgrim? 
What power calls you forwards?
It is not the starry sky,
nor the giant Cathedrals.

It's not the bravery of Navarra,
nor the wine of la Rioja,
not the seafood of Galicia,
and not the fields of Castilla.

Pilgrim, who calls you?
What power calls you forwards?
It is not the people travelling,
nor the unending traditions.

It is not culture or history,
nor the cockerel of Santo Domingo,
not the palace of Gaudi
or the castle of Ponferrada.

All this I see in passing,
and to see it, is bliss.
But the voice that calls me
comes from much deeper inside me.

The strength that pushes me onwards,
the power that calls me forwards,
even I cannot explain it - 
only He above can do that.

You know how people always say that it's the intention that counts? It's not. It's just doing it.