Today we walked about 7 miles from Castro Urdiales to Islares. The first half wasn’t wonderful: very close to a noisy highway, etc. But the last half was quite nice — see above photo. It rained most of the first half and then cleared enough for us to take off our rain coats.
Someone on the camino forum had suggested that Altus raincoat/ponchos can just hang from your backpack while they dry out. So, that’s what each of us did. At first I tied my sleeves in front in case it fell off but I had it tucked down behind my backpack and thought it would be fine without tying the sleeves. Charlie did the same. Every once in a while I checked to be sure each of us still had our raincoats. (Believe me, in this weather they were crucial equipment to have with us.) See how I was carrying it in above photo.
Well, we got to our walking destination, Islares, around 1:15. We planned to hang out in a bar there and then catch a bus an hour later into Laredo. (The walk there sounded horrendous. Either along a dangerous noisy highway or a very-too-long way around. We decided to skip it.)
As I was ordering coffee in the bar, Charlie said to me “where is your raincoat?” I looked and it was gone. After the initial shock I said, “Oh dear we are going to have to retrace our steps.” We went back a ways and met several pilgrims coming towards us and asked each of them if they’d seen the coat, but they all said “no”. They would have seen it if it were still on the trail. Clearly it was gone.
Of course, I felt terrible about losing it. These Altus raincoats are wonderful. Light as a feather and so easy on and off and they keep us and our backpacks dry.
We went back to the bar and I was still feeling upset and regret that I’d not been careful enough with it. I said to Charlie, “I guess someone saw it and said ‘Wow, what a nice raincoat. I can really use this.'” I added “I hope they needed it more than I did.”
Then after a while I thought, “hmmm, if a pilgrim found it, they might leave it at the next albergue.” I looked at the map and the next albergue was only about a 5 minute walk away. Charlie stayed with the packs and I walked there. As I got near, someone out front waved me over — a man we’d asked on the trail about the raincoat — and he said “I think someone found your coat. They left it in the albergue.” I went inside and the very nice woman at the desk had it.
Now I love that coat even more and I’ll never let it hang loose.
I’m so grateful to the kind pilgrim who took it to the albergue. I’ll probably never know who they were.
Charlie was amazed and thrilled to see me return with the coat. He had thought it was pointless for me to check for it at the albergue.
We were able to catch the 2:15 bus into Laredo. From there we took a taxi to our hotel in Santoña. (We had planned to catch a ferry from Laredo to Santoña but it had stopped running for the day. So taxi ride was longer than we had planned.) But, we got here in time for a nice menu del día.
Now we are sitting in a bar in Santoña, drinking decaf, listening to 60s rock (Pink Floyd), and blogging. It’s not a bad life.
How lucky you are! So glad you found that coat. There are a lot of kind and caring people in this world even if it seems otherwise sometimes. I’m wondering if you could fix it onto your pack with a carebeener (sp).
You are right, Ella. I think the vast majority of people want to be helpful. The only complaint I have about these raincoats is they are so lightweight and “sparse” they don’t even have a loop for hanging them — so no place to latch on a caribiner (sp 🙂 . I’ve been thinking how I can do some kind of homemade loop onto them for this purpose. If I think of a way to do this I’ll post about it. 🙂
Losing you raincoat would have been somewhere between a huge inconvenience (find a place to buy a rain poncho, which you wouldn’t like as well) and a catastrophe (okay, maybe a “tragedy”).
P.S. it must have really affected you; I’ve never seen a post from you with such emotion or relief.
Henry, you said it so well. Yes, it did feel a little bit tragic (but that does sound a little melodramatic doesn’t it?) In the rainy weather we’ve been encountering, one MUST have decent rain gear. And hard to find something that works so well and isn’t heavy to carry when not needed. Of course, I’d already started thinking what to do. Maybe buy a cheap light plastic raincoat in the next town where they had a china store. Then go to a sporting goods store in Santander (next big town) and get a good one. But, trouble was we’ll be in Santander on Sunday — all the shops closed. So … I guess stay there two days. That’s where the thinking went. So fortunate to have found it.
I have a theory about it. Both rain coats are blue because we couldn’t find a red one to order in time. The day before Wynette and I were talking about how we might sell it before the next Camino and get a red one. I think the rain coat heard us, felt unappreciated and decided to just drop off her pack.
So glad you found your raincoat.
It takes a village! Glad your raincoat reappeared thanks to another pilgrim who probably had experienced the same thing.
Good travels.
You are right, Ann. Since this has happened I’ve thought, what would I have done? (Leave it on the trail or carry it along hoping to find the owner and if not, leave at the next albergue.) I just posted about what happened to the Camino Forum we read and asked what the protocol is. Will be interesting to see what people say.