HALFWAY!!!!!! (Day 18)

Well, I’ve officially made it past halfway. I’ve got three more days until I’m in Leon and out of the plains and back in the hills. I’m not sure how I feel about that yet but at this stage I’m really happy that the Meseta came when it did. The hikes have been easy although hot. The flatness has been perfect to give the legs a rest and my distances have felt really short. Last night there were crazy thunderstorms. I guess it would be appropriate to call them lightning storms because there was very little thunder involved. I had my windows thrown wide open to try and catch the breeze (it was a hot bastard when I went to sleep) and suddenly there was a light shining in my eyes. Each room (I found out after talking to fellow walkers in the morning) had a high powered emergency light IN THE ROOM. It was one of the ones you’d see in a commercial building that has the two spotlights mounted on either side of it and the big “SALUDA” printed in the middle (mine lit the word up in red because it’s fancy). I’m all for safety but this thing could’ve lit a God damned runway and it was in my room. Did I forget to mention that my room was roughly the size of a walk in closet? I could reach the entry door from my bed with one arm and the bathroom door with my leg. When the power went out, the light came on. The power went out 8 times in two hours. When the power was on I could watch the lightning storm through the window and it was something to behold. It seemed almost constant and the lightning seemed to go sideways through the clouds. Beautiful. Then the power would go out, the interrogation light would blind me, I would immediately confess to something I didn’t do and just wait for the eventual waterboarding.

I woke up extra early (0500) to meet my new Australian friends Mick and Jaqui and start our long day in the dark to try and beat the heat. The forecast called for either thundershowers or sunny and really hot (?). I got ready and left the room. The hotel was an absolute tomb. I got downstairs, left my key at the desk and realized I was locked in. Yeah, the place with all the emergency lights had a locked lobby with no egress. I did eventually find the keys to the front door on the front desk and let myself out.

Let’s light this candle!! Except not in my hotel because if a fire starts everyone will be locked in and die.

I met my friends and we ventured off into the dark. Their headlamp (or torch if you’re from anywhere other than the US) sucked like a Hoover factory. It cast a beam about the size of a quarter and it cast that about two feet. Finally, my fancy headlamp that I’ve packed around for over 250 miles made it’s debut. And it was glorious. Perhaps it was inspired by it’s overly bright brethren in my hotel room but it cut through the darkness and illuminated the entire trail.

The camera actually lightened this picture up quite a bit but you can still see my impressive headlamp at work. Photo credit to Jaqui.

Walking in the dark was a welcome change of pace and scenery and I think I’ll try and do it again before this whole thing is over. I’ve got some 32km days coming up so I might leave really early again and give my light another chance to shine (see what I did there?).

Eventually the sun rose.

See above

Look. Fields.

We crossed a Roman bridge and came upon the pillars that mark the halfway point. I must say it was pretty cool.

Pillar dude. This was either the abbot who helped establish Sahagun or Terence the Tolerable, a knight known for never being the life of the party or really contributing to the conversation but not really being a prick either. You invited Terence because you didn’t want to hurt his feelings but you never missed him if he wasn’t there. My money is on it being Terence.

It did eventually heat up but we made it to Sahagun in good time and it was a great town. There you could get a certificate for completing the first half of the camino. It was free and you went to an ancient monastery (now a museum and super cool) where a really sweet lady checked your pilgrim credentials (a book that we all carry and get various stamps from places we visit and stay to prove we were there) and then printed the certificate.

That’s a dragon on top. A f*@king dragon.

I’m far from finished but at the end of the day today I felt like I’ve got a pretty great shot at finishing this thing. So I’ll be off again tomorrow. Just keep walking……….

Mick and I heading off. Photo credit to Jaqui.