Thursday, 19 October 2017
Hospital de Orbigo to Astorga
14 km today - 521 km on Camino Frances – 1,256 km from Le Puy - 263 to Santiago
I first rise about 01h and then 02h, and finally about 05h:Delhi Belly has struck again. Activity begins just after 06h and I am ready at 07h. As things seem settled I decide to push off: I don’t have much choice, as we must leave by 08h. And saying I am ill may, or may not, produce a response adequate to the needs.
At about 08h30 (about 7.30 pm NZ time) the sky is lighting up and I check the RNZ website for news. And surprisingly there is some: Winston has just made a queen.
About 10h I reach a town about 4 km from Astorga and can see the Cathedral in the distance. A drink of fresh orange juice beckons first however.
On entering the town, using the N-120 road that started in Logrono I photo the red distance marker for 350 km. From Astorga it becomes the N-VI (N-006) but the distance from Logrono is continued.
By 11h I am in the Cathedral and begin to feel faint. I realise I have not eaten properly since the weekend and go and check in at a nearby hotel: Trivago says E 71 and the hotel says E 55 including breakfast. First order is to lie down and rest.
I rise about 16h and walk about this compact town of about 12,000 people. I pass a Farmacia and buy some tablets for the Delhi Belly. And about 100 metres on a Pelequeria, but it seems to focus on women. I stand at the door and a hairdresser beckons me in and another hairdresser sits me down and puts a cape around my shoulders. I point to me beard and hold the index finger up: numero uno she says and I smile. Five minute and E 6 later we are all trimmed. I find a promenade about 400 metres long built atop a cliff facing west. The south and east sides have steep roads now but previously had ramparts etc. I am sure the more vulnerable north side had such defences also. Even though only writing four days later, I do not recall having a meal, though I must have eaten something: but Delhi Belly does enter my calculations
I am feeling terrible and not sure whether to continue walking or not. I email a friend: his reply is the old vaudeville song “keep right on to the end of the road”. The end of my road is Fisterra, or Finisterra or lands end: beyond here “be dragons” said the ancient maps. So I am not certain what to make of this.
I return to my room well before sunset at 21h30
And so to bed
PS: Cathy was born 71 years ago this day to John Henry Raphael and Catherine Elizabeth (also known as Kay). Cathy told me when her father’s parents presented him for baptism the priest opined John Henry was not sufficiently Christian and, on the spot, added Raphael. I have reflected on Cathy both today and yesterday. Yesterday was 18 October, the Feast of Saint Luke (the gentle physician and author of a large proportion of the Christian bible) and was the name Cathy took when she was professed as a Religious Sister of Mercy (Sister Mary Luke) and under which she dedicated 33 years of her life. And this day, her birthday, as she is the principal reason why I am on this pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.
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