A Little Off The Beaten Path

For the last several days, much of the Camino has been along paths next to highways. Although the paths are separated from the road surfaces, you still hear the cars and trucks zooming past.  It can get quite boring and is not the serene walks that are characteristic of the Camino. These gravel paths, known as sendes, are part of the unwise modernization of the Camino by the Spanish government. 

Today's walk gave us the option of following the ancient Camino pathways, actually old Roman roads. Most of the peregrinos decided to follow the new route which has more towns and places to stop. But Therese and I decided to follow the original route. 

Once we got away from the main route, it became much quieter. We entered a tiny little farming village and I asked one of the locals for directions (like I really needed them for this one-street town). I pretty much understood him (derecho - straight ahead). But he kept going on and kept saying pregunta, pregunta. I kept saying si, si and he kept looking at me expectantly, shaking his head.  Finally, we said adios and were off. Only when I was down the street did I remember that pregunta means question -- do you have questions. I kept saying si like I understood what he was saying. He must have thought that I was nuts. 

For the final 10K of our walk, we saw no other people, except for one farmer in his fields. It was grand. 

Our 27K walk today took us through Sahagun, a medieval powerhouse city of 10,000. Now it's a sleepy town of 1,500. The entrance bridges and gates to the old city are spectacular, however. 

Today's good intentions are for our adopted Irish son, Gerry, his family and the woman who keeps him straight, Eithne. Gerry's spirit and sense of adventure makes him a model and excellent traveling companion for all sorts of trips.