Camino - The Road To Leon

Thank you for all your kind words and encouragement and kicks up the bum. It meant the world to me. I hit the road this morning with a song in my heart. Funnily enough it was my old high school song - Kia Whakatane Ahau. Whakatane was the big smoke over the hill from Ohope Beach. The correct Maori pronunciation is Fakatane. Yes, like that. 

My friend Steph sent me a note saying You can do this, you're from Whakatane. Our role model was Wairaka.  We were told she was in the canoe when the Maori discovered Whakatane. The men put down their oars because they were terrified of a huge rock shaped like a monster. They would go no further. Wairaka grabbed a tapa (sacred) oar, forbidden for women to touch, and called: " Kia Whakatane ahau!!" (I will be a man!" ) And rowed them all safely to shore. 

Well anyway, it was great to hear from you- Some people get angsty about social media but after all its just newfangled penfriends and all the Greats had pen-friends didn't they? Some Italians cyclists call our Quebec friend "Pilgrim 3.0" because he facebooks and he facetimes his new wife at every break. 

By the way, I'm writing this on a blogger app on my i-phone, Naomi told me about it. Apologies if I haven't returned bloggy comments, I've tried with minimal success, the comment boxes shut on me very quickly. Any app for this?

Today we walked 35km, the last 17km were a straight dirt road with no shade. Kevin spent the day trying to remember the words to "My Way" Kevin is what Sister Bernadette at my primary school, St Joseph's, Whakatane would call a droner (tone deaf). Its a testament to Kevin's parents and church choir mistess that he was not appraised of this fact until he met moi.

I hung back ...out of earshot. It was a good time to think about people we've met. Salvatore who is Italian but lives in Germany and his 14 year old son Julan who had always wanted to do the Camino and persauded his father to undertake it for two weeks. Julan was wearing an Icebreaker t-shirt. Its a kiwi no-stink brand. Julan is not washing his shirt for that whole two weeks! He bet his mother it would not stink! 

We ate a real Gout- arama of a meal together -  fried eggs, fries and veal.

The chef kept slicing more and more cured meats wanting us to taste. Veges look away as FF would say, the jambon is still wearing his hooves

He then bought us plums...

I noticed Anka, also from Germany, because she walked so fast without any breaks ( she eats one banana an hour) and she was so cheerful, laughing all the time. We caught up with her for dinner. 

Anka has a sign-making business with her husband and they have three children, the two eldest were foster children. Two of her children have disabilities - her nine year old  son is in a wheelchair. She is such a strong walker because they hike all through the mountains in the weekends. She carries her son on her back. "C'mon Mama"  he'll say to her as she hits the steeper bits "c'mon mama!" She laughs at the thought of him saying that.

Why is she walking the Camino? "My husband says I give 150 percent all the time. For me that is becoming a problem."

I point out she is giving 150 percent to the camino. "But now I am sitting down enjoying talking to you. " she said "I would never be doing that at home. I do not sit down, I am looking after the children."

We set out early the next morning, I was hoping we would see Anka so we could talk more. But she was well ahead of us.