Translation: After hardship comes relief
Day 8-Tui to Porriño
Day 9-Porriño to Arcade
Yesterday, ‘it’ happened. The revelation/epiphany/thunderbolt/whatever that happens when you walk the Camino. If you’ve done a Camino, you know exactly what ‘it’ I am talking about, and if you haven’t, then this will all sound very hippy/new age-y, and that’s ok.
The previous day, I collapsed into tears as soon as I got into my room in Tui, the rain having completely soaked into my soul. I couldn’t get warm, I couldn’t get dry, the cheap yellow poncho was torn and sitting in a heap on the floor glaring at me like a neon ‘failure’ sign. The parcel from the agency finally arrived and seeing the shell with a cross stamped onto it just made me feel even worse. I didn’t even bother with dinner and just curled up in bed wondering what I had gotten myself into and making plans to end the whole thing.
The next morning, I took my suitcase downstairs for transport collection and went back to my room. I watched the rain falling outside my window, deciding that there had to be a way to stay just a little bit more dry without the poncho. I remembered seeing a sports shop over the road, and off I went. 10 minutes later with the help of the very kind shopgirl (who saw my stick and said ‘oh! Camino de Santiago!), I left with a neon green XXL rain jacket that fit over me and my backpack and swinging my stick, I led my invisible marching band out of Tui.
15 minutes out of Tui, my Jawbone UP24 band started vibrating. I’ve been an UP wearer since May of 2013, when I got one to help me retrain my habits to get better sleep. Unfortunately they have had battery issues and I have gone through 9 of the bands. The battery started acting up about a week ago, and I thought if I could just get through the Camino with this one, I’d switch to Fitbit. Anyway, the band vibrated like crazy for a few minutes and then died. This sent me into a panic, as I’ve been so dependent on the thing to validate not just my sleep, but if I was keeping up with the Joneses in how much I moved during the day. Within minutes of it dying, the rain started pouring down. Again. With absolutely no road or town in sight, there was nowhere to go but forward. And so I went, one foot in front of the other until I found asphalt and finally saw another pilgrim shuffling along in front of me.
I caught up with him and tried to ask why he was out there in the rain, but he just turned his nose up at me and ran off into the grass. So I continued on.
At the 109km mark, a sign marked a detour due to river overflow, and by that point, I was once again wet all the way through, but still trudging on. My gut feeling said don’t turn down the pathway at the 106.888 mark where the arrow was, but I did anyway, and 500 metres later, I realised I should have listened to my gut.
Completely flooded over and impassable. So backtracked I did, pulled out a sharpie and wrote ‘flooded’ with the date on the arrow. If there are any pilgrims behind me, they’ll see it and be spared the surprise.
It was a few kilometres later, while walking on a bridge over the motorway that ‘it’ hit me. I can’t explain what exactly it was, but I was laughing like a maniac and the tears were streaming down my face. It was the relief after hardship, and I had to stop and just let it flood over me. The remaining steps into Porriño didn’t go any faster, the rain didn’t let up, and my achilles tendon ached, but it didn’t matter.
Once in the hotel, I dried off and went to dinner around the corner, indulging in pizza and watching all the life around me. Took a long bath and decided that the next day’s journey would be partially by train and partially walking, because after days of walking along rubbish filled trails (really, the rubbish is awful. I’ve seen everything from energy bar wrappers to used condoms to broken commodes to bottles to shoes…) and more or less the same landscape with my head down to keep the rain out of my eyes, it was time to actually see things again.
The Camino is now about my spiritual journey, rather than the physical one. I slept last night soundly and peacefully, not shackled by the UP band or the dread of having to get up early to walk in the rain.
The decision was the right one. Porriño is a lovely town, with fantastic architecture. The rain was just a drizzle, and a stroll along the pedestrian street in trainers rather than hikers was just what my swollen ankle needed. Treated myself to my favourite Clarins body lotion, new socks, a few other bits and bobs, and a bag of strawberry licorice. Admired the town square and the creepy virgin mary statue in a church before wandering down to the train station.
Having never taken a Spanish intercity train, that was an adventure in itself, but well worth it and watching the landscape roll by in the rain during the short 13 minute trip to Redondela made me feel content in my decision.
It was a fairly quick walk from Redondela to Arcade, and finally I saw an actual patch of sunshine once I got to my room. I have a lovely view over the bay and for three whole minutes, the sun was shining on the other side.
Tonight I shall sleep, and tomorrow continue on to Pontevedra.
Notes about Tui-Porriño-Redondela
-I fully understand why there are so few pilgrims walking the Camino Portugues in winter. Rain, rain, rain, flooding, complete solitude (which i prefer anyway), rain, and more rain.
-The section from marker 109km to the outskirts of Porriño is flooded here and there. From 109, I’d just stay on the asphalt roads or paths where there is no descent.
-Rubbish is everywhere. Most of it is surely local dumping, but the energy bar and other wrappers are in English, which means pilgrims are contributing to it. It’s really a shame, and makes one easily distracted from enjoying the landscape.
-Brierley’s calls the industrial outskirts of Porriño ‘soulless’, but I found it to be interesting and a nice sign of ‘real life’ after all the little villages. However, different things gets people’s motors running.
camino de uchuujin 