On Sunday the 28th of April 2013, I walked from Poblacion de Campos to Calzadilla de la Cueza, a distance of 34 kilometres, all of which I walked in bitter cold with a strong, freezing wind as my closest companion. Calzadilla de la Cueza is not a village or a town. It is a location along an ancient Roman road across an area called the Meseta. The Meseta is a wide plain with no features or landmarks apart from the green crops.
In the diary entry I made on this day, I referred to texts I received about my friend who had a heart attack and had a completely unexpected quadruple bypass operation. The friend I was so worried about was Nes Fernandez. Ten years after I wrote this diary entry, Nes had cancelled me and refused to come to Margaret’s funeral. Nes had cooked dinner for Margaret the evening before he had his heart attack. He has refused to ever tell me what I am supposed to have done.
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Dinner at the albergue at Calzadilla de la Cueza. My dinner companions were excellent company –
like the albergue itself.
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The Camino followed a main road when I left Poblacion de Campos. It was hard walking that day.
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Yet another long stretch where the Camino followed the main road on the 28th of April 2013.
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This stretch of the Camino crossed the Meseta in a completely straight line. Natural features were infrequent. When it crossed the Meseta, the Camino followed an ancient Roman road about 2,000 years old.
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Another stretch of the Camino as it crossed the Meseta. The wind was howling as I took this photo; if you look at the trees, you can see them straining against the wind.
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The albergue at Calzadilla de la Cueza was completely invisible until I reached the top of a hill I barely noticed was even there – and suddenly, I had arrived at the albergue – at last.
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Diary Entry Made on Sunday 28 April 2013 at 4.45 pm
I arrived at the albergue in Calzadilla de la Cueza at 1:55 pm today after leaving Poblacion de Campos at 6:30 am in the dark. The distance walked was 33.4 kilometres [Note: The distance was actually 33.8 kilometres.] This was easily the hardest Camino day I have yet had. The first 15.5 kilometres were all on a gravel track that followed a major road. The temperature was freezing - 0 Celsius or less. I know it was freezing because the plants along the way were covered in frost.
After passing through Carrion de los Condes, the Camino passed through 17.5 kilometres of Meseta - a wide plain with no features or landmarks apart from the green crops which stretched as far as the horizon. There were no shops, no villages and no houses as the Camino followed the ancient Roman Road (Via Trajana) straight to the horizon. While walking through this, there was a constant, freezing wind at my back (I think from the east). The wind was so strong that the sleeves of my rain jacket flapped like clothing on a clothes line and made the same snapping sound as flags on a flagpole. This was extremely hard walking. Yesterday I got a text from Nes saying he was in hospital with "a mild heart attack". As I entered Carrion de los Condes I received a text from James saying that Nes has had surgery and is in the Intensive Care Unit. I didn't want news like this but somehow it is appropriate that it arrived today on this bleakest part of the Camino.
The walk today came on top of a depressing afternoon yesterday. It was bitter cold and there was no heating in the albergue at Poblacion de Campos. I stayed inside the sleeping bag all afternoon. I got a meal of fries in a bar for dinner. It was adequate but not appetising. An Austrian man who was also staying in the albergue coughed all night, making sleep difficult.
Day 14 of the Camino was hard work but this albergue is very good. My bed is right in front of a heater. The hospitalier took one look at my totally exhausted and frozen face and made sure I got a bunk on the ground (not an upper bunk) and he insisted that I take the bed in front of the heater. Hopefully, I should do much less walking tomorrow.
Distance Walked Today: 33.8 kilometres.
Total Distance Walked So Far: 366.5 kilometres.
Total Distance Covered So Far: 387.7 kilometres including the 21.2 kilometres by taxi.
Soul Song Number 18 - Wind Worn and Foot Sore
(28 April 2013)
You walked into the albergue at Poblacion de Campos yesterday.
You thought the day's work was finished.
You were only partially right.
The Camino wanted to test your cold weather endurance.
So you curled up inside your sleeping bag,
Glad of the extra warmth.
Your thoughts were gloomy.
A text from your friend said that he had suffered "a mild heart attack".
What did that mean?
After an uninspiring meal,
You retreated to your cocoon of warmth..
In blackness, next day you resumed your walk.
It was bitter cold.
Frost engirdled the plants.
Even worse than the cold, for fifteen kilometres the Camino followed a major road.
You plodded along.
Burdened by cold.
Burdened by concern.
At last you came to a town.
That is when the next text arrived.
Your friend was now in intensive care.
The surgery had been successful.
What surgery?
What was meant by "successful surgery"?
No other information was available.
Soon after that you started to cross the bleakest part of the Meseta,
A 17.5 kilometre hike with an unrelenting, bitterly cold wind at your back.
A 17.5 kilometre hike over a flat, featureless plain with little to relieve the monotonous terrain.
Your feet plodded, one foot following the other.
This was a world like no other.
Here, the pilgrims were all strung out,
Harassed by the wind and numbed by the cold.
Onwards. Onwards.
Across the Meseta the line of pilgrims moved.
Lashed by the twin troubles of wind and cold.
There seemed to be no end to the day's walk.
There seemed to be no end to the erosion by wind and worry.
Then unexpectedly, the Camino dipped below a ridge,
A ridge you had never noticed was even there.
All at once, you had arrived at your next bed.
For a wind worn and foot sore pilgrim,
This was the only thing that mattered.
Warmth, shelter and the vision of a hot meal.
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