Camino, Day 13/14 - Sun, sun, sun and more sun...

“Don’t be afraid of embracing the disappointment you feel, old or new. Don’t be scared of the unreasonable joy either. They’re the highway markers home.”

I was so disapointed with myself and felt so bad, but won´t jump the cue and get to the story right now...

On the day 13 of our journey (I don´t remember exactly the date but it was two days ago) we had to say good bye to one of our German friends Lisa. She was living the Camino going back to Germany to study to her exams. So we had a late start.

Breakfast @ the foot of the Burgos Cathedral nad than we all had our last walk together along the Camino, and Lisa left us near the Burgos University.

The walk out of Burgos was hard, but nice in a way. Sl0wly but surely we arrived @ Hornillos del Camino, having a couple of brakes on the way for breakfast coffee and so on. When we arrived at our destination there was no spaces in the Albergue, we had two options either sleep in the Town Hall or walk another 10 km to the next Albergue...

It was past two o´clock and the sun was burning.

Anyway, after everybody relaxed in Hornillos had some drinks, refreshments, food and some fruit we all decided to go on another tenner.

Little did we (or maybe just I) know how bad experience we´ll face in the immediate furure.

All together it happened that we walked 6 hours in an open sun wit not so much place to hide, not so much of a shadow on the way... Blessed are the trees under which we were able to catch just a bit of a cooling space...

The temperature was about 40 - 45 degree Celsius, and I learned the Spanish saying goes "only a mad dog and and Englishman gous out on the highest sun" (sorry Dave...).

Well I´m not English, neither of us is so we must have been a horde of mad dogs at the time. We arrived in the next town Hontanas, and thankfully Tonia (our Belgian friend that walked all along from Antwerp) had booked us a space.

I was totally done.

I had a shower, washed clothes and booked in for a dinner, and after dinner all the trouble started.

First I wasn´s able to fall asleep untill about 3 am, I was burning hot. I wasn´t able to go down from my bunk bed either to get any water... I fall asleep around 3 just to be woken up by a screeming Spanish woman. Fall asleep again to be woken up (again) by a snoring woman from the bunk under mine. She snored in a way as if she´d be dying.

So I got about 3-4 hours of sleep and in the morning I was completly wasdted. I realizes I got a wee bit of a sun stroke. Anyway, I motivated myself to walk to the next Albergue, being (only) 20 km away. It was about to be a wonderfull experience because that Albergue was run by the Italian Cofraternity with no electricity only candlelight. So candlelight dinner, breakfast... outdoor toilets.

However every step closer to the place, less that I wanted to be there, all I wanted was just a simple bed.

Won´t write to you all the thinks, but when we arrived to the Italian Albergue it was shut and we´d need to wait 2,5 hours for it to open. I was a walking dead, I couldn´t wait... I decided to walk an extra 1,8 km to the next Albergue and simply lay down. And so I did, my friends (thank God for them) came along with me.

We checked in, and all I did was to put my ear plugs in, open the sleeping bag and simply slide in and immediatelly fall asleep. Just before that I asked to to book me in for the Pilgrims Dinner and wake me up before.

Woke up 15 minutes before dinner, and felt much better. Had a dinner took a tablet, and ... went to bed again.

Through the night I was sweating a lot having fever after fever, finally around 1 am and lot of water drinked and sweated out the feaver was gone.

Woke up arounf 7:15 am feeling good, not perfect but good. I knew the worse was gone.

Now when I´m writting this words I am after walking another 20 km, and my stamina, my humour, and everything else is back. I´m so happy I didn´t ended up in the hospital or something.

I looked after myself, drank lots of water, and put lots of sun screen on me, still... the sun got me.

Even though I had thast experience the Camino is wonderfull, and people are just so so great.

God bless you all, thanks for the prayers.

God speed, Buen Camino!

P.