Rest days and making up the time lost

[wanda]

Thanks Robert....one must march to ones own drum beat and you told it
beautifully.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Spenger" <rspengeraEARTHLINK.NET>
To: <GOCAMINOapete.uri.edu>
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2004 10:32 PM
Subject: Rest days and making up the time lost


> On Mar 25, 2004, at 12:59 PM, wanda wrote:
>
> > Thanks....rest is good, but one would have difficulties finishing the
> > camino...right?  Wanda
> >
>
> Wanda,
>
> The only solid rule is that walkers must walk the last one hundred
> kilometers to SdeC. Any other limitations are those you set for
> yourself and are no one else's business. If you lose a day for any
> reason - health, a side trip, spending time doing the tourist bit, or
> whatever, you can make up lost days by taking the bus or train. Just
> make sure that you have the time, health, and strength to do that last
> hundred kilometers. Even that is not necessary unless you are
> determined, as most of us were, to properly earn the compostela. On my
> last trip, in the Fall of 2002, I spent a miserable night in the
> refugio in Astorga with a bad cold and an infection in a large blister
> on the ball of one foot. The next morning, once I got all my gear on,
> poncho and all and stepped out into the heavy rain, I had the feeling
> that I could just keep going. However, good sense prevailed and I
> walked only until I found a cheap hotel and checked in. It took quite a
> while at the clinic, but eventually the blister was thoroughly swabbed
> with betadine and I was given a prescription for the cold. I got a good
> rest in the hotel that night, but in the morning I decided that it
> would be better to take a bus - both for additional rest and to bypass
> having to go over the highest point on the route in miserable weather
> when I was not yet really recovered. The bus took me to Ponferrada and
> I had plenty of time to do an easy 15 km to Cacabelos.
>
> As a side note, I met a fellow California pilgrim on the road that day
> that appeared to be about my vintage. I had just celebrated my 78th
> birthday back in Navarette and he told me that he was 75. Later he
> mentioned that he had been a glider pilot in WWII. My thought was: "No
> way!" I was not quite 21 when the war ended, which would have made him
> no more than 18, if that. He certainly could have been in the service
> in the war, but it didn't seem that there would have been enough time
> for him to have gone through glider pilot training. Eventually I heard
> that some one had spotted his passport and that he was really 85. The
> thought was that he lied about his age because he was afraid that he
> would not be allowed in the refugios. At any rate, I got to Cacabelos a
> little earlier, but there was plenty of space at the refugio and he was
> assigned to the same two person room, so we had plenty of time to chat.
> We started out together again on the next day. After a while I went on
> ahead again, but he showed up at the restaurant where I stopped for
> lunch and joined me again. Eventually I stopped for the night at
> Ruitelan. I didn't see him that evening, so I assumed that he had
> stopped a bit earlier at Vega de Valcarce. On the following day I took
> the now almost deserted highway route to O Cebreiro, stopped for lunch
> at Alto do Poio, and continued on to Triacastela. Late in the afternoon
> I was surprised to see him across the field from the refugio having
> coffee with a friend that I had known back in Southern California. She
> was the one that later fold me that someone said that he was really 85.
> She also told me that he had been at O Cebreiro the night before!
> Instead of stopping at Valcarce or Ruitelan, he had gone all the way up
> to O Cebreiro, arriving at about 7 P.M. That was well after dark, since
> it was a week into October and he was in really bad shape with a
> severely swollen leg. He had made it down to Triacastela O.K., but
> everyone was getting on him to get some medical attention for his leg.
> We never did know whether or not he did. The next day, I walked to
> Sarria, with my SoCal friend and met up with her again after we reached
> SdeC. It turned out that she had gotten sick as well and had spent a
> day in Portomarin to recover. She also reported that she had spotted
> our 85 year old companion in SdeC and that he had apparently recovered,
> At least he had a big smile on his face and was talking with an
> attractive young woman.
>
> regards,
>
> Bob Spenger