Still Walking | Day 18

I started out real early this morning from the hotel in Astorga. It was dark and I used my headlamp again as I worked my way out of the city.

I met a fellow pilgrim from South Korea named Songsu, a software engineer for Samsung. Super nice guy, and we walked together for a very long time and talked about just about everything you can imagine. We stopped for coffee and he introduced me to his wife back in South Korea via a video call.

Continuing the walk up the hill, there were a lot of very old Roman ruins, look like fences or foundations for buildings. We are pretty much walking uphill for the next day or two.

I got to our destination for the night, Rabanal Del Camino up on the side of the mountains. Super nice Albergue, lots of other pilgrims and the town buildings are very old stones, but really well cared for.

We’re sort of walking along with some of the same people. We don’t necessarily see them during the day, but at night everyone sort of comes together in the small towns.

Walking up the hill by myself today, I felt again a powerful force that helped me to stop thinking (mindless useless thoughts) and focus on my surroundings. It seems like my human senses are more and more sensitive and aware.

I’m still having a hard time believing that my body is walking these distances every day. Ask yourself a question. When is the last time that you walked 15-20 miles in a day? And then did that every day? It’s really bizarre and incredible with the mind and body will do when you set out on this type of adventure.

There’s an old saying on the Camino. If you’re not in shape when you start the Camino, you certainly are when you finish! I truly am feeling better and better every day. I’ve got to be careful what I say though. I do like going uphill. The reason I need to be careful is that we have some very big climbs ahead of us over the next week and a half.

It’s also hard to believe that we will be in Santiago next mid-week!

Spent the end of the day with these two guys and the dog. Yes, the dog is walking the Camino with them from Leon to Santiago.  Really fun dudes. I haven’t laughed that hard on a very long time.