Homer's Travels: Camino De Santiago - Terradillos De Los Templarios To Bercianos Del Real Camino

Monday, September 19, 2011

Camino De Santiago - Terradillos De Los Templarios To Bercianos Del Real Camino

Today's stage was dominated by tendonitis on my left foot.  It progressively got worse as I walked on.  At one point I was having pain that felt like a knife being jabbed into my lower calf.  It was worse than anything I'd felt in my right ankle.  I had to stop several times to take weight off my ankle.

Today was the half-way point for my entire Camino (not just to Santiago de Compostela).  I still had a long way to go but at the time I didn't know this.  I wasn't keeping close track - how unlike me.

There are two things along the Camino that it's incapable of avoiding.  The first I've mentioned before and those are hills.  The other are old churches.  On this stage the Camino jogged a quarter mile to pass by a nice little church/sanctuary called the Virgin of the Bridge.  It was closed for renovation but it was still a nice little 13th century church.  The Camino then jogged back to the main road.

I reached the town of Sahagún and I looked for a pharmacy but it was too early and most stores were still closed.  I took a pilgrim's picture in front of a church (I didn't turn down the request for a picture after that time on my way to Frómista).

This town was also the half way point of the stage so I reached around and tried to pull an apple out of my backpack pocket.  I tugged and out popped the apple.  Unfortunately I was on a steep hill and the apple, being a round fruit, did what round fruit does when it's on a hill - it rolled.  I ran after that apple for half a block before I was able to catch up with it.  I picked it up, looked at it closely, and decided to heck with it, rubbed it on my shirt (yeah, that would kill all the germs, Heh) and ate it.

As I got closer to my destination my tendonitis got worse and I had to stop more frequently.  I arrived in the town and ran into PR and LS who were looking for the albergue.  We searched together and found it on the other side of the small town.

This albergue, located in an 18th century building with a very cool mosaic floor, is a donativo.  It is run by volunteers and the albergue does not have a fee but is run totally on donations.  Grañon was a donativo as well.  I always tended to pay private albergue prices at donativos as they were always so down home feeling and they needed all the help they could get.  I never saw anyone put money in the donation box but then I assume most people put money in as they left ... at least I hope they did.  Some considered the Camino a cheap vacation and were a little stingy with their donations.

I spent a lot of time in my bunk here.  My leg was bothering but it bothered less once I removed my blister padding.  I wondered if the padding was making the tendonitis worse?  I decided to walk the next stage without any blister padding.

The two brothers who were volunteering to run the albergue when I was there served a communal meal of paella.  Unfortunately the dinner was served at 8:00 PM.  By the time food was served I was exhausted and my right leg started to ache (I think this is when my right leg really started to feel the effect of the twisted pelvis).  PR laughed when he saw me nodding off at the table.  The paella was good but the ache in my leg made me excuse myself early to take some acetaminophen and go to bed.

You know when you are just falling to sleep and your leg jerks?  Why is it that the leg to jerk is the one with tendonitis?  Hurts like heck.

Day twenty-one was a painful day.  I was concerned my adventure was becoming an ordeal.  It didn't help that I wasn't synching with anyone around me.  Thank you PR and LS for keeping me from going too far over the edge.


Total Distance: 14.61 Miles (23.51 km)
Total Time: 4 hours 41 minutes
Total Elevation Up: 1,685 ft (513.59 m)
Total Elevation Down: 1,765 ft (537.97 m)

[Click on map for a larger version]

2 comments:

  1. Oh MY GOSH! You're making MY feet hurt! I'm glad that things are starting to look up moodwise by this point. But your poor poor feet!

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  2. Miss McC: Don't worry. It will get better soon.

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