A First And A Third - The End Of Our Caminos

From the thirtieth of May to the fifth of July, the Wife and I walked across northern Spain from Burgos to Fisterra, completing the Wife's first Camino and my third.  I think the Wife had a similar experience to what I had on my first Camino.  Doing anything that you thought you couldn't do is life changing and I think I'm right to say the Wife's life was changed.  My third Camino, for me, was very different, and this post will dwell on that a bit.

When you leave Burgos you start the meseta.  The meseta is a region of Spain similar to Kansas – flat, featureless, and covered in farm fields.  Some pilgrims skip the meseta, but that would be a mistake in my opinion.  It is a part of the Camino where your mind is allowed to wander.  For the nearly two weeks we were on the meseta, I felt two things: "Been there, done that" and "My second Camino had completed my experience. Why was I doing this again?"  My thoughts went to more sad things I associated with the Camino, namely G_v's death.  It was a rough time for me.  I tried my best not to let my feelings interfere with the Wife's experience but I have never been very good at suppressing my feelings.  Even so, we managed to visit some of my favorite spots on the meseta and the Wife has said the meseta was her favorite part.

By the time we reached the unofficial end of the meseta in León, I had come to realize that I was looking at this Camino wrong.  This was not my third Camino, it was the Wife's first Camino.  From that point on I thought of it solely as that, the Wife's first Camino.  My role was to support her and ensure she experienced the whole Camino.  From then on I felt better and the Camino experience felt right.

I was in charge of planning the daily stages.  We were walking shorter stages, averaging 10.2 miles (16.4 km) per day – I averaged 14.3 miles (23.0 km) per day on my first Camino.  Shorter stages allowed us to visit more places along the Camino.  We visited places that I'd enjoyed before as well as places I'd never been to before.  We had the albergue experience (pilgrim hostel experience) as well and the private room with/without a private bath experience (we indulged in more private room experiences than I'd had on my previous Caminos combined).  We had short days and inadvertent long days (I took a wrong turn leaving León and added 3.4 miles to an already long 13 mile day – our longest day on the Camino.).

The Wife handled the walking like a pro.  This was her first multi-day, multi-mile hike.  We were concerned with her feet as they had stopped us in 2023, but with a wider shoe, the Wife had no issues at all.  Well, she did have very large blisters on the outside of each big toe, but she said they didn't hurt at all.  After consulting a pharmacist, we drained the fluid.  We had to do this twice, as I wasn't aggressive enough in my treatment the first time, and the blisters refilled.  After doing it for a second time, the blisters were gone and didn't return.  As for my feet, I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't lose any of my toenails. This was the first long hike without losing any.  I credit that to the shoes I was wearing.  I may post about them later.

I have to say that I am very proud of the Wife.  Even on the hard days, days when it was hot, humid, or cold, she never complained.  Having said this, we both have concluded that this will be our last multi-day, multi-mile hike ever again.  We still have a lot more things to see in the world that don't require us to walk ourselves into the ground.