The Axe Man and The Pretzel Man

Day 30  Melide to Arzua

Miles today:  9.4

Elevation gain:  846’

Descent:  1070’

Walking miles:  367.2

Total Camino miles:  481.7

Fill your life with adventures, not things. Have stories to tell not stuff to show – Anonymous

It has been 30 days since we started our adventure from St Jean, France. That includes 24 days of walking, 4 days of biking, and two rest days. What an adventure so far! The time has passed quickly, the memories are many; yet some things are just a blur. The passage of time and reviewing our photos will help sort out many of the blurs...we hope!

Today begins with a stroll through the streets of Melide (pop 7000 and declining, as are most rural villages and towns in Spain—the youth are moving to the cities and the rural population is steadily declining). We soon leave the city streets and enter into lush farmland interspersed with dense forests of eucalyptus, oak, and chestnut trees.

An hour or so into our walk, Judy and Eileen are leading the way, with Blaze, Chum, and me walking a short distance behind, engaged in conversation. We notice a local gentleman standing in the road ahead of us waving an axe. As we approach he becomes more animated and waves his axe more vigorously and begins saying something to us in Spanish. We are unsure of his intentions when he finally shouts “Camino Santiago” and points with his axe in the direction from which we had come. It dawns on us that  we have missed a turn a short distance back and are no longer on the Camino path. Fortunately, thanks to the axe waving man, we avert a potentially long detour in the wrong direction.

My pace today is greatly slowed, as I have become the “Pretzel Man”. I was diagnosed a few years ago as being severely gluten intolerant. For me it is not celiac disease, but rather manifests itself as joint pain, primarily lower back pain. At home I am very strict about not eating gluten—wheat, rye, and barley. 

However, I have learned from trail and error that I can eat wheat in Europe with no ill effects. I seems that in Europe they grow no GMO wheat, which results in a much lower gluten content than US grown wheat since one of the intentions of GMO wheat is to increase the gluten content as gluten is a binder that is beneficial for making bread products.

This morning for the first time on this trip—and the first time in several months—I awoke with some serious lower back pain. And I have eaten (or imbibed as in beer) wheat every day of the trip. 

Today my back inflammation has me walking all bent over to one side, a condition I refer to as Pretzel Man. The culprit is most likely a pizza that I ate last night for our “Pizza Rotation Night”. Every fourth to fifth night our dinner choice rotates into the pizza realm. I suspect the pizza crust was not locally made, but possibly a pre-made frozen crust from some place like Canada or the US. And it was a very large pizza! Luckily my bent over hike today is just nine and a half miles, not 20 miles.

The day is mostly sunny with cool temperatures but very nice, starting at the upper 40’s with a steady breeze and ending at about 59 degrees with light breeze. It is certainly a pleasant switch from our days of cold, rain, and snow.

Since yesterday was a national holiday, almost all businesses were closed including all grocery stores. As a result we had no food for self made lunches, so we eat a great meal in a roadside cafe. We walk gentle ups and downs through farms fields sporting freshly cut hay. It is only May 2nd but the first cut of hay is already taking place.

Since we did only a half stage yesterday and stayed in a town where few pilgrims choose to stop, we are blessed today with a very small number of walkers near us. The large boli (or boloses) of pilgrims are either far behind us or far ahead. 

It is a wonderful day for walking the Camino!