...pilgrimage has gained momentum

a funny thing. i was walking passed a vending machine in the mid day heat in the small spainish village we arrived in today when an ice cold bottle of water dropped out. i looked around...no one there but someone seemed to be looking after me.

we´re on day 3 of actually walking on our pilgrimage. we started walking from st jean pied de port on thursday morning.....early.....too early. it was dark and raining. we made it over the pyrennes about 30km, with a little stop in nice little town called valcarlos. the climb up to roncevalles yesterday was a real killer... the thunder storm didin´t help. luckily we found a derelict house to get some shelter from the storm (thanks for the song bob-going through my head the whole time).

so yesterday we reached Roncesvalles where many spainish pilgrims start. it´s kind of a pilgrim factory, stamp them in, bless them, let them sleep in a big (converted barn, quite nice actually) then kick them on their way in the morning.

so 22km to the next place today, Zubiri. nicehostel with free internet. although as i write numerous peregrinos (pilgrims) are asking me in a variety of languages whether i have any beds. some little spanish kids just booked a girl in while there mum was out when there wasn´t a bed left. that´s got to hurt after a long walk.

so onwards to pamplona and a hotel/day off. maybe tomorrow if we can make it .....or the next day. lisa and i are still getting into our stride

....to be a pilgrim

so we are just about reading for the off. all is amazingly packed into our small walking bags. not really sure how, but i'm sure we will appreciate the lack of weight while we are walking. As i said a few posts ago we are off walking across spain towards santiago de compostela. it's been a bit of a dream of ours to do the walk ever since i heard about from my aussie/new yorker friend lisa did it back in 2001. see had just walked for a month before digging the bones of some long dead cisterians on the dig i was on in spain ( with that crazy guy, mark horton off Coast on the tele).

to make it more interesting one of the monk skeletons we excavated had a shell around his neck- i sign that he imself had done the pilgramage back in the 12 century. i suppose this is now a quite modern adventure but the connection with the people how have been treading these paths over a millenia is quite something.

so we think it could take 4-6 weeks ( we may take it quite easy) . we think we might be doing 20 km a day (it 780km to santiago)

apart from that i all quite unknown.


Just returned from Green Man Festival. Apart from having a great name ( and now having a green man tshirt) ths is the real credible festival of the summer. none of those obvious charty line ups of glastonbury and V. havent got time to go into all the bands which you will be thankful for, but i few highlights:

• Euros Childs and Richard James- always great even Gorkys is no more
• Battles- amazing new band- where music is going apparently ( though that sounds quite pretentious ), i have never seen a drummer go so fast- there was steam coming off him.
• the folky stuff- Devenra banhart, men an tol, vetiver,
• Hearing Stephen Malkmus interviewed and witnessing a less than obvious finale to the festival.
• Gruff rhys (SFA) performing a 20 minute redition of SKYLON!, his epic telling of how he diffuse a bomb on a plane ( with acting and props)
  

apart from the music lisa and i had a great festival, bit muddy but its all part of it i suppose.


right better put my sandals on and hit the road.......

look at my carrots and courgettes!

im so amazed

mainly because i had let them for dead after i had cared for them so much in the beginning but then i had no more pots or compost to replant them and spread them out and my garden is made from concrete, but then yesterday i just went to pull up some of the leafy bits for the rabbit and a whole baby carrot emerged, and then i had a look at the pot of courgettes, removed 12 snails, and there they were, three baby courgettes, just growing, against all odds, all on their own. i am amazed.

and we have started getting in shape for our walk and this is our local stretch of coast that we get to train on. almost as amazing as my veg.






such joys were short lived after the exhaust decided to fall off our beast of a citroen on the busiest stretch of road in town yesterday. this wasnt so bad, what was worrying was the stupidity of people. i dont even care if that sounds rude because those people were so rude! rude and stupid. we were sat on the verge by the side of the road for over two hours waiting for the rac, and not one person offered help, just a whole bunch of toots and insults and pointing. the high point was when a cropped trousered topless bald doped up man approached us and told us 'you cant park there'. steve wisely ruled out sarcasm and told him we were broken down to which he suggested we should put on our hazzard lights then. steve pointed out the flashing orange lights on the car. the man looked skeptical then walked off.

i love swansea.