The Way-Slow Way

Charlie. Quite plain, prettier in different light. The main square in front comes alive on Saturday night. We’re hearing it now.

Charlie: We charged our phones on the Madrid airport and left behind the adapter. It is so easy to do, the plugs are recessed and you pull out the USB charger like you always do. We did the exact same thing last trip, in the first place we charged, and replaced it in Pamplona like last trip.

Charlie: Our last Camino was in the spring and everything was green. Now the fields are yellow and brown. Walking the same paths today we discovered they were lined with blackberry bushes with close-to-ripe berries, popular with pilgrims but still basically a prickly invasive weed.

Charlie: Slowpoke Camino couple Wynette and Charlie set out this morning intending to stop at a bar for coffee. Nearing the business district they encountered a friendly Spanish gentleman on a bicycle carrying pampas grass and wildflowers. “Camino de Santiago?” he inquired. He insisted he knew a better way and the polite couple followed, wanting to be open to new Camino experiences. He gave them flowers and they found out that you tug someone’s ear when they turn 70.

He asked where they started the morning and where they were stopping tonight. On hearing “Uterga” he assumed the worst of their Spanish pronunciation and said “Estella?” or surely “Puenta la Reina”. On hearing it was really Uterga he was dumbfounded. He held out his hands and moved them together indicating a fish far below the legal limit and counted on his fingers to emphasize the small number of kilometers involved.

He led them over to a shortcut guaranteed to avoid any establishments that might serve coffee. It was shorter though and they had fried eggs and excellent coffee just three miles down the way. All’s well that ends well. The distance- challenged couple can be reached at their albergue in Uterga, which they reached just after noon (after walking 8.36 miles total) and where they spent a relaxing afternoon.

Wynette: Last year we started in Roncesvalles (near the French border) and ended in Santiago. Because of my uncooperative right foot, we skipped (via bus/taxi/train) a total of 100 miles here and there between Logroño and León. This year we plan to start in Pamplona and hope to walk without a break to a little past Ponferrada and then catch a bus to Santiago, then from Santiago walk to the ocean (Finesterre and then Muxia). About half the miles this year will be new to us and the other half will be old friends. The above map shows last year’s route and this year’s planned route. (You can click on it to get a bigger version.) The red parts are places not walked. The light green is 2013 actual. The dark green is 2014 planned. Here’s a live map. We’ll post the actual 2014 progress as it happens.

Here’s a map of the camino and the whole of Europe! Whew! That makes it look big. But we plan to do it at the rate of 8 miles a day. One step at a time.

Wynette: In Spring of 2013 we reached the Alto del Perdón pilgrim’s monument, a long uphill climb from Pamplona, on our fourth day of walking, but, since we are starting in Pamplona this year, we will come to it on our first full day of walking.

Charlie: It is usually a bad idea to try to recreate an experience. We will try to avoid that on our second Camino. We hope to make this a related but new experience. We have some ideas of how to do that that we will be reporting as we go.

The second-system effect was first noted by Fred Brooks in “The Mythical Man-Month”.