Early AM refugios, rising, noise: a paradox

[john rogers]

My wife and I are also early risers. We were occasionally first up (5:30 -
6) and found the key to being prepared - the fireman mentality noted before,
was the answer.  All was laid out / prepacked that could be and we finished
the packing outside the sleeping area. We spent some nights in hostels and
chose those where the next day was longer and we wanted a specially early
start. There, you could bang around with lights on and bothered no one else.
This was especially true when we started off shortly after 4 am on the last
day to make the pilgrim's mass in Santiago.
We saw the early walking period as free time with few walkers, more birds
than later in the day and in fact, the best time to walk. Watching the
countryside wake up around you was wonderful.
One humorous note. We occasionally were asked by faster walkers who passed
us mid day, for several days in a row, "did we bus"? Seemed they were always
overtaking us. The answer was, no, we simply are slower walkers but early
risers. On the other hand, we got to know a number of these faster walkers
because they passed us daily and chatting with them was a bonus.
Comment:
Being a just retired, type A personality I had to learn that one must not
fuss about:
     being passed on the camino by faster or more fit walkers,
     the possibility of no room in the refuge
     the people who did bus routinely and took first beds in the refuges
     people who came in late from a party after lights out, in the refuge,
then determined to repack their bags on the bunk above yours
    etc. etc.
You get the point. There are lots of things that one can fuss about if one
chooses. Forget the rat race, the camino is not a competition.

A Dutch traveler advised three of us in the refuge in San Juan de Ortega as
we were debating the best places to stay and which climbs would be more
difficult over the next X days route by saying, "don't worry - the camino
looks after the pilgrims - enjoy"!  He was right.

I have been able to retain some of the learning of the camino but not all.
We are going again this fall and I have a number of  things to reinforce and
look forward to the new paradigms to be discovered.
Buen Camino to all





----- Original Message -----
From: "Frank Metcalf and Mary Doherty" <redtailaTELUS.NET>
To: <GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2004 3:11 PM
Subject: Early AM refugios, rising, noise: a paradox


> Claudia's vivacious reply to Deanna (Re: Oh, how I love packing lists!)
> reminds me of a paradox of the refugios which I've struggled to resolve.
>
> I fully sympathize with those who want silence in the early morning, and I
> have a cultural bias (might be Canadian, but not necessarily) of placing
> the group before the individual. In plain English, I bloody well hate
> selfish, thoughtless noise wherever it appears. Mary and I have worked out
> a system (using net bags) for decamping silently from sleeping quarters
and
> then packing beside the outside door.
>
> However . . . speaking as one myself, I hope that early rising, as a
> genetic mutation, might be regarded more highly than pond scum. Here's the
> problem. In refugios, we are effectively locked in around 10 PM. Like the
> majority, I'm fully armed for sleep, so to speak, by 10 or 10:30, 11 at
the
> latest. I drop right off, sleep my normal amout or a bit longer, and awake
> spontaneously at . . . 5AM. Now what?  My CO2 and methane receptors are
> blinking red danger. Wagner is booming from a host of soft palates. I lie
> in marmorial quietude, except to peer glumly at my luminous watchdial,
> which cleverly mimicks the hue of the atmosphere.
>
> I want to burst out like a raging bull through the wall of the refuge, and
> stalk away toward the Apostle in the pure cool silent air of the beautiful
> dawn. There is bad karma mixed up here with the good, so instead I remain
> interred. At 5:30 I tap Mary, and we steal away like benevolent thieves in
> the redolent night.
>
> Honest, the dog ate my breakfast. So I'm left with the half bar of that
> thick Spanish chocolate which appears in my pocket every morning,
vanishing
> square by delicious square in the lightening mist. To lighten that mist,
> there's a full water bottle to wash down an ibuprophen and that shameful
> pink pill which only a convicted caffein addict would recognize were he to
> go ultralight and grimly suspect that the first open bar might cross his
> path some 20 Km closer to the Sacred Tomb.
>
> Aside from all that, the question is: If you need 6 or 7 hours of sleep--a
> fairly normal amount--and more or less have to go to bed at 10, and
> considering the atmosphere and ambiance, should you just lie there
> impersonating Westminster Abbey, or can you reasonably and honourably be
on
> your way in the beauty of the rosy-fingered Dawn?  Surely Mary and I
> couldn't be the only pilgrims who want to hit the road quickly after a
> decent sleep in our well-packed precincts?
>
> Frank
>
>
> Date:    Fri, 19 Mar 2004 11:12:15 +0000
> From:    claudia castellani <claudietta67aHOTMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: Oh, how I love packing lists!
>
> Great letter!! For a while, I felt back on the Camino!!!
> I used both earplugs and ibuprofen in order to try to sleep.
> The earplugs because the hostels at night are quite noisy. Moreover there
> are flocks of pilgrims (especially German ones) who wake up at 4 o'clock
and
> noisily pack their backpacks (oh, those horrible noisy plastic bags in
which
> they wrapped everythiing......) while you try to sleep......
> The ibuprofen was essential to try and reduce my leg-pain, which at night
> was unsustainable (even if I stretched!). I think the reason for such a
pain
> at night is that laying in a bed in silence (more or less!!!) makes your
> senses more attentive to whatever happens in your body.
>
> Claudia