Crazy Coot Kate

The walk from Villafranca to O'Cebreiro had 3 options- the easy road way, the going into the woods way and the 'path less travelled way', which I am re-naming the 'complete insanity route'. But ignorance and high spirits are bliss. The night before I am mustering support for 'the road less travelled' and peoples response is 'Oh Kate isn't 800km enough without making life even harder?'. The Camino is not a difficult path to walk as walking goes. Certainly not compared to the walks I have undertaken in Britain, so I think I am up for a bit of a challenge, so am a little disappointed by the lack of enthusiasm by my fellow pelegrinos, but 3 of us decide to 'go for it'. Little did I know!
All starts well but with a steep ascent albeit along a country road. It doesn't take long before we have to get out a compass and start triangulating but at this point the walking path is reasonably clear. 1 hr into the walk we need a scythe each and in a couple of weeks this way would be completely impassable. But that is not all. There are no waymarkers and the 'route' is up 3 mountains and down 4 valleys. When I say 'up' I mean it. My legs are torn to shreds and the patches that are not, are stung by copious nettles. By 12.30 pm I am knackered- we have been walking for 6 hrs and have only covered a third of our journey for that day. We have ascended and descended 1100 metres and there is still a climb of 600m at the very end of this walk. Dan, bless him, has offered to carry my food and water and paclite jacket but I am on an 'independent Kate day' so I refuse. Lance is a 27yr old bean pole from America, who has bought with him precisely 1 breadroll for this mega-hike. The bread roll is just that- nothing in it, just bread. I have bought nuts and cereal bars and Dan has bought 'the supermarket'.
I start having grumpy thoughts about Lance such as ' I cannot eat what I have bought, whilst he just eats a piece of bread. I really resent this feeling of responsibility towards this completely inadequately prepared MAN- he is 27 yrs old, why should I bail him out? Gnas gnash, nark, nark' Then the other side of the argument gets a voice- 'you are in this together Kate' and I think of the memories that have flooded my mind all morning of my sons, my own biological sons and the fun we have had around the world, camping, hiking, playing football etc. Then the oh small whisper comes- 'This is your son for today. Treat him as you would if he were Josh' Well I would lay down my life for any of my children, so this completely changes my attitude towards Lance. Really it happened just like that and it felt so good, so liberating. Mean-mindedness is so life sucking. So at lunchtime we spread a 'table' by a fountain and had a feast of cheese and fresh bread (an artisan panneria van turned up at this moment!) and fruit and nuts and cereal bars and we all had our fill and it was like Jesus with the loaves and fishes that feed an entire crowd.
We still had a hell of a walk to complete and were so grateful to hit The Camino again, knowing that in comparison to what we had just walked it would be easy. Lance was desperate not to miss the Barca vs Man Utd match so took off as soon as we reached civilisation, but Dan was bushed so at 2km outside our destination he asks if I will bail out with him as the Alburgue owner here will let us stay up and watch the entire match (Alburgue lights out are normally at 10pm).
So it is with great delight that evening that I find myself in a bar in a remote country area of Castilla, watching the match with not only the local farmers, but a representation of men from across Europe (other pelegrinos), a few gnarled and aged Spanish grandparents and a handful of Spanish children. Outside the door a herd of beautiful bovines pass, leaving a lovely country aroma. All these Spanish people want Man United to win as they hate the Catalans! This English Pelegrino wants Barca to win because she nominally supports Liverpool and so we all laugh together because the Spaniards are chanting Man U and I am chanting Barca and you know it was just as 'HOLY' a moment as the service for pelegrinos that I had shared in a week ago.
Much love, Kate