Tag: cows

Monte de Gozo – Peregrino holding pen

5km from the end of my 750km #MyLongWalk2019 and I am staying in one of the more surreal places of the whole walk. It is now called Benvido Monte de Gozo but many experienced pilgrims refer to it disaffectionately as ‘prison camp’ or ‘refugee camp’. It is currently undergoing a massive overhaul and I am staying in one of the first refurbished Pabellons. The whole complex was built in 1993 for a Holy Year (this is any year when St James’s Day falls on a Sunday. It is July 25th. and the next one is 2021, these years are known as Xacabeo, hence the massive overhaul and obras). The creation of this auditorium and accomodation complex was also to co-incide with a Papal visit and the hundreds of thousands extra that this attracted. In a Holy Year there will be up to 3 times more pilgrims than a normal year. This may be over a million in 2021.

Monte de Gozo is the last hill before Santiago and translates as Mount of Joy, ancient pilgrims got their first thrilling glimpse of the cathedral as they walked down it’s slopes. Now you have to struggle to the very top to peer round the trees and development to make out the three spires in the hazy distance.

The pabellons or blocks as they really are, strike me as somewhere between a POW camp and Butlins – must add never been to either! Be assured my particular block has been refurbished and is fine. Work is ongoing on many of the other blocks. Four of them will remain Albergue Municipal rather than the privately run Benvido ones. Currently it’s facilities run to an ATM, a lavanderia (automatic laundry) and a very nice Estrella Galicia Bodega bar.

There is also a swimming pool complex and a massive auditorium, which was the venue for shenanigans on Lisa and my last visit to Santiago. To avoid Reading Festival we flew on to La Coruña and drove down here only to be kept awake by a full-on music festival at Monte de Gozo, headlined by Muse, light show, fireworks the lot!

It will, no doubt be much better when it is finished being renovated. The manager told me that will be in time for 2020 season, then the Holy Year onslaught that will follow in 2021. There are already signs of more on offer for future pilgrims who decide to rest up here at the ‘holding pen’, so they can walk the last 5km into the Praza do Obradoiro the next morning.

As for today’s walk…. it was the longest of the Camino for me. Most of the Turismegrinos stayed at Pedrouza which means a 20km+ walk tomorrow. I’ll be done and dusted, with Compostela in hand, well before they arrive. I set off well before dawn and a sneakily walked behind a French couple who were wearing head torches! Today’s odd stuff included a bar decorated entirely with Peregrino branded beer bottles; discarded shoes used as plant pots; a nice hierro; a bar proudly showing off the cross of Galicia; a massive frog; a caged pilgrim? and of course some cows.

The shell

Other than the flecha amarillo the most common symbol on the Camino is the scallop shell (or it’s diagramatic equivalent). They dangle from 99.9% of peregrino’s rucksacks for starters. Even the Decathlon kitted out Turismegrinos have theirs, all bright, white and new.

Mine hangs from my bag too, slightly irreverantly and seemingly quite unique on the Camino. Being black, rather than white, as is the norm. In Estella/Lizarra – way back in Navarra – a man who sold scallop shells, walking sticks and other Camino paraphernalia, chased after me to ask why I had painted my shell black. I told him I found it on the beach in Doñana and it was that colour naturally. He did not seem convinced. I am however, very pleased to have a shell that stands out from the crowd.

It is the other manifestations the shell takes as I walk the Camino that fascinate. Local councils use it with aplomb, private individuals decorate their homes with it, and obviously businesses that thrive on it, show it off proudly. It truly shows how much the people who live and work on The Way love the Camino.

As for today’s walk … long and busy. 34km. But now I am so close to Santiago it is just a case of getting the kilometres done. 34km more tomorrow and I’ll be virtually within sight of the Santiago cathedral towers. Today’s random assortment of unexpected things the Camino threw at me included; a strange piano keyboard to illustrate chemistry’s periodic table; a much more pleasant road sign for Santiago; more cows; the Guardia Civil’s mounted cavalry keeping the Camino safe; some amazing pulpo gallego in Melide that lived up to guidebook claims plus a house that someone is very lucky to live in.

Faith in humanity

Before setting off to St Jean Pied de Port to start my Camino, there were a few things that worried me. The feet one has been raised before – (just a note on the state of my feet – they are doing great right now, still tired, but just tired, no blisters or sores!), I was also worried about not being able to find anywhere to sleep … with a week to go the ‘It’s so busy in July and August, you’ll have to race for a bed’ hype has been totally disproven. Even without reservations I would have been able to stay in town or village of my choice.

My biggest concern, not a worry, was that the litter created by thousands of pilgrims would make it like walking through a giant basura – municipal tip! Spain, for anyone who has driven or cycled much here, is a pretty filthy country when it comes to roadside trash. Bottles and tins of water, soft drinks and beer/wine are biggest polluters. Cigarette packets also blight the landscape. However, much to my surprise, and excluding the urban sections, there has virtually zero litter. Excepting the masses of tissue paper that, as mentioned in an earlier post is like a back up waymarker, I can hardly remember seeing any deliberately discarded pilgrim trash. Just the occasional shred of wrapper from something and the odd water bottle, more likely dropped by accident than jettisoned. Well done peregrinos you have done the Camino proud. Whether this is the Camino population being more environmental or the clear push to be cleaner and greener by the regional government, it is certainly working. The Camino is a beautiful, natural place, often a wilderness, and as pilgrims we are just passing through. It is our duty to leave it as natural as possible for all the plants, critters, birds, lizards and all the elusive larger wildlife. I saw a piece of street art/graffiti on an underpass that sums it up. ‘Leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but memories’ …. here, here.

As for today’s walk… this was certainly the toughest day since Day 1 to Roncesvalles. 18km uphill to the Galicia frontier. In that 18km there were over 900m of vertical ascent. O Cebreiro was at 1286m! Add in the heat and some pretty tough surfaces underfoot, and I am one very tired pilgrim tonight. The views at the top made sure the all the sweat and effort was well worth it – that real top of the world feeling. I head further into Galicia tomorrow and hopefully see my first horreo.