Day 25: June 2, 2016 Boente to O Pedrouzo

 O Pedrouzo, Spain

June 2, 2016
O Pedrouzo
En Ruta SCQ
19.52 miles, 44950 steps, 43 flights, 6:44 hr

 

I am embarrassed to admit that I am not good at Where's Waldo, the children's game books where the character Waldo is hidden in a crowd. As a radiologist, you would think that my trained eyes could pick him out immediately, but it takes me hours. Sometimes following the trail markings for the Camino is equally frustrating, and occasionally downright confusing.

I remember the first Camino trail marking I saw, on a day trip with our friend and Burgundy/Chablis wine expert Brendan Moore (look him up if you're in the Chabis/Burgundy area, he's on the Internet). We were in Vezelay France, and I noticed a scallop shell symbol embedded in the road. Brendan explained that Vezelay was one of the traditional starting points for the Way of St James, and that if you followed the scallop shells, they would lead you to Santiago Compostela in Spain. I had heard of the Camino before, but this was the first moment when I thought, it would be really cool to do that someday, "someday" being an abstract future day that would never come.

Since then, I have seen scallop shells markers in Paris, and recently on our trip to Bordeaux, all indicating the way to Santiago. There are many roads that lead to Santiago. The path I am walking is called the Camino Frances, because the several paths in France converge at St Jean Pied de Port to cross the Pyrenees, and then travel across Spain together. St Jean on the French-Spanish border is where I joined the trail, and where many Pilgrims start.  But I have met many Europeans who started from their homes in Geneva, or Germany or even Rome making their way to the main Camino routes at various junctures. The different tributary roads are marked and maintained to various degrees. But all of the trail markings traditionally use the scallop shell symbol, not only because it is the symbol of St James, but because the radiating grooves in the shell are said to represent the many different roads to Santiago.

From a practical perspective, the symbol is clear and easily recognized. Conventionally, at least in my mind, the converging lines point the direction to Santiago. This convention would be great if you could depend on it, but not everyone got the memo.  Many employ the symbol, without the directional indication (converging lines pointing random directions). One Camino marker was actually a weathervane: imagine using that for direction.  This tells you that you're on the Camino, which hopefully you already knew, but not which way to go to stay on the Camino.

 

Fortunately, there is a second Way marking system which employs painted yellow arrows.  This is where Waldo comes in. Most of the yellow arrows are obvious... painted on a variety of surfaces: pavement, buildings, lamp posts. But, some are quite hard to find, and some of the critical junctures are very easy to miss. When you are at a major cross roads, you know to look until you see a marking, but sometimes, when it is a small path branching off to the side, looking as if it goes nowhere, the marking can be easy to miss.

In the course of this adventure, I've taken 4 wrong turns so far. Fortunately on two occasions, other pilgrims yelled at me and I heard the warning and redirected. Once a truck driver pulled over and told me that I had missed a turn 100 meters back. Once, I wondered aimlessly through a town asking old locals where the Camino was, but they didn't seem to know. I mean seriously, the Camino passes through their town and they must see hundreds of backpacked pilgrims passing every day, you would think they would know where the Camino was! When all else fails, you can simply follow the sun, or if nighttime, the Milky Way.  In any case look at the photos and you'll see how confusing it can be, and how subtle some of the markings are.

The occasional frustrations aside, I have to say that marking and maintaining the trail is a monumental effort, and whoever does it, does it very well.  I think this ease of navigation contributes to the popularity of the Camino Frances, as opposed to other paths, which are less well-marked/maintained.

The Camino Frances trail infrastructure includes the Way markings, but also hostels, bars and guidebooks. More recently, there are baggage delivery systems, so that you can walk the Camino without a pack. This enables hikers who would otherwise never dream of putting on a pack and trudging across Spain.  But the popularity is also a problem.

This final 100 km segment of the trail is congested with pilgrims.  Of course, the pilgrims who started in France have come this way, and other tributary routes merge with the Camino Frances, increasing the number of pilgrims like a growing river.  But there is also an influx of new pilgrims who start in Sarria and are only walking this final 100km.  This is the minimal distance required to qualify for a Compostela certificate.

Many if not most of the new-comers have taken advantage of this baggage delivery option. As you might imagine, this results in some thinly veiled contempt from those of us who started in St Jean a month ago and have carried our packs the whole way, and smell like it. It is difficult to now share the trail with a new infestation of Lulu Lemon-clad walking pole carrying centipedes: click click click clatter clatter clatter babble babble babble ooh la la Lulu Lemon! They crowd the few available bathrooms and throw their empty juice boxes by the tailside.... Grrrrrrr.

But I now realise that the scallop shell has another lesson for me, one I should have learned long ago, on my initial backpacking trip through Europe with Lisa: different is different, not better or worse. The converging grooves of the scallop shell represent the many different roads leading to Santiago in a figurative sense as well. Everyone I have met on the road is making this journey for a different reason, with a different goal. For some it is purely religious, for some it is an adventure, for some spiritual or athletic.  For most, I think it is a combination of deeply personal motives that are difficult to articulate.

The new travelers are frustrating, but they have their own paths, and their own reasons for walking. Their road is different, but also leads to Santiago.

Here in Galicia, the trail is well marked with large stone markers. Each marker gives the distance to Santiago (30km from here tonight). Now, the distances are no longer taunting three figure numbers, but real, practical and achievable.

On this final day, most pilgrims will start very early with the hope of arriving in Santiago in time for the noon-time pilgrims' mass. For most, this will involve some walking in the pre-dawn darkness. In the dark, it will be very easy to miss a scallop shell or a yellow arrow way marking.  But tomorrow the path will be marked by a line of pilgrims marching forward, all sharing the same crowded road, but each alone on his own path.

I'll write tomorrow, hopefully from Santiago.