Fonfria – My Long Walk 2019

One of my true highlights of Camino has been the many fantastic ceña communal I have been privileged to attend. These are basically when pilgrims staying at the albergue choose to eat together, and share a meal prepared by the hospitaleros. They are great chances to meet new people who have usually walked many of the same kilometers as I have that day. It also, absolutely knocks the spots off the ghastly menu Peregrino that lingers at bars and restaurants along the Camino de Santiago. Just before I wax lyrical about some of the best ceña communal I have shared – let me just explain the pilgrim menu. Usually €10 – €12 it consists of three courses – mostly something like this

Green salad or soup
Chicken, pork or ‘fish’ with fries
Yoghurt or ice-cream
Wine and water

And this is the same from St Jean Pied de Port to Santiago. Even if you are lucky enough to get good menu Peregrino it is boring. Some people eat it every day! Back to ceña communal – price about the same as pilgrim menu, although some albergue ask for donativo for dinner. This means leave what you can afford as it helps to pay for the next day’s pilgrims. The bell rings at 7 and the showered and relaxed travellers head to the comedor and sit down. Sometimes there are familiar faces, other times there may be not one face you recognise, these are the best as you get to hear a whole new set of stories. In some albergue the hospitaleros will join and sit for the meal. There is often a very informal introduce yourself round-the-table session, fortunately the common language of Camino is English. Sometimes a brief blessing is given, if the albergue is run by a faith-based organisation. Or even a song!

The food is often from the garden of the albergue and is surprisingly, mostly vegetarian. The environmental conscience of the Camino again shows in this. Fresh fruit and vegetables dominate and local wine is served. Each one has been a unique and enjoyable experience. I expect tonight’s will be equally nice … although there are chickens running freely round the garden!

As for today’s walk … it was a relatively short day – 24km – and mostly downhill from Fonfria. I started a little later than normal, just 10 minutes before sunrise and was welcomed by a wonderful light as the morning sun lit the wooded mountains. Then, as I rounded the hillside, I was treated to the incredible sight of a valley cloaked in cloud below me. Awe-inspiring. I walked down through the mist to the valley floor and the relentless sun soon burned off the cloud … normal hot sunshine was resumed. I passed a 200 year old chestnut tree, my first horreo, some tiny chapels as well as many, many cows.

Tomorrow I head for, and through Sarria. This is the starting place for many Spanish pilgrims, as it is the minimum distance required to get a Compostela in Santiago – 118km. I expect the Camino to get much, much busier but as an antidote to this I have booked into tiny albergues for my last few nights as I get closer to Santiago.

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.