Camino Primitivo: Kairos

15 May 2022 Thom Camino Primitivo, Pilgrim Reports, Ruminations

Today we crossed from the principality of Asturias into the province of Galicia, which was itself a kingdom of old.

We had planned to be out the door by 6 AM, and had prepared accordingly with prepackaged breakfasts and a handle on where the coffee maker in the albergue was. In the event, it was 6:40 before we made it out the door. Still much better than the 8:00 or 8:30 of the past few days. It was, in any case, that magical hour between first light and dawn.

By the time the sun rose over the mountains, we were well away from town and walking through fields lined with oak and birch trees.

Much of the day was on paved surfaces, although there were some long stretches of pleasant walking across wide pastures and through woodland.

After climbing a rocky ascent and cresting a ridgeline dominated by the ubiquitous Spanish windmills, we came to a delightfully grassy, flat path, almost as though we were walking in a garden.

This ran for a while, before becoming more of a typical hiking trail that eventually morphed into a gravel road. It was here that we crossed the border into Galicia. If there was any sort of sign or marker, we did not see it, but the GPS didn’t let us down.

We took photos, one foot in each region. Because of course we did.

Soon afterwards, we encountered our first Galician Camino marker, just before the bar where we stopped for lunch. There we met Alice and Amy from Portland (the double A’s), who are walking a slow Camino, their stages generally about two-thirds the length of the ones we are walking.

After lunch, mostly up and down hill walking more or less parallel to the highway, for a while into a beastly cold driving wind. Still, it beats the heat! Storm clouds threatened all afternoon, but like yesterday we only had a couple of rain squalls.

I’m convinced that whoever laid out today’s route didn’t like pilgrims very much. There were a number of completely pointless detours off what should’ve been the obvious main path that seemed to do nothing except add distance for no reason. The most egregious was at the very end of the day, and we made the decision to walk the last 2 km into town on the road instead. I do not regret this decision at all.

We arrived in A Fonsagrada early in the afternoon, but not quite early enough to make the only Sunday Mass at 12:30 PM.

Callie and I ran into the Double A’s and had some beers while waiting for the restaurants to open for dinner.

Dinner with some new Minnesota friends, Art and his daughter Brooke, walking their first Camino. We first met them several days ago and kept crossing paths. Today we walked the last section of trail with them, talking and laughing all the way.

Since yesterday‘s message that “the present is a gift“ was apparently not sufficiently clear to me, the Lord saw fit to send me another sign. Last night, the battery in my watch stopped being able to hold a charge. I am choosing to interpret this as a reminder of the timeless quality of pilgrimage: a gentle call to embrace the Kairos and not just the Kronos.