Day 4: A day Late | Murray Morrison

It's not that we have been very undisciplined recently. We are as disciplined as they come. Posting has just been difficult because of some false Wifi advertising by some our recent albergues. We promise to be better. Here is our post from yesterday...

Today (May 14th) was quite the day. We woke up in our private accommodation at 6, looked at each other, and quickly decided to reset our alarms for 6:30. After hitting the road from Pamplona, we started at a pace neither of us could keep up for long. It turned out to be a very poor choice, as the Alto de Perdon, the hill of forgiveness, stood looming in the distance. We decided to rename it the Alto de no Perdon shortly into our ascent. Once we arrived at the peak, we found our beach and stayed for quite a while admiring the Spanish landscape. The descent from the peak was steep, as we continually avoided sprained ankles in the rocks. A sprained ankle is something people on this trail like to call a “mal camino.” Luckily, we avoided this sad fate yesterday. After arriving in Puente la Reina, our albergue master showed us into our dormitory where our bunk was situated next to this very friendly couple from Chile. Like every day, I quickly switched into my flip flops, while Alex changed into his multi-purpose crocs. They are stylish and comfortable. You can’t teach style. We moved to a nice patio outside the albergue that was nicely shaded and calm. I think Alex and I both agree that we also had the best showers of our life at this albergue. It had water dropping from the ceiling and a built in radio. I finally heard music again for the first time in about a week, and there may or may not have been a couple dabs thrown in the shower. Yes, we are at that point. Alex swears he did not have the same reaction to the music, but that is fake news. We ended the night with a hearty pilgrim meal in downtown Puente la Reina with our friend Jack from Colorado and stayed up way past our bedtime of 9 and finally made our way to bed around 10:15. Might be a 6:30 reset again tomorrow.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

About The Memphis Pilgrims

Image
Hello, our names are Alex Carruthers and Murray Morrison.  We are from Memphis, TN, and attend the University of Georgia (go dawgs) and Vanderbilt University (anchor down), respectively.  Alex is a sophomore in college, and Murray is a freshman.  We have created this blog so that anyone (probably just our families) can keep up with our trip in Spain as we walk the Camino de Santiago. ​ ​ Our plan is to complete the walk in 30 days (this estimation is slightly ambitious and does not take into account break days and injuries) so be praying that we will be able to finish it.  We have chosen to do the Camino Frances, which is the most popular route to Santiago de Compostela.  The head of the trail is in St. Jean, France, and on the first day we travel over the Pyrenees Mountains.  We will pass through cities like Pamplona (Hemingway's favorite city) and Burgos. ​ We are very  excited about this journey we are about to embark upon.  It is going to be a trip to remember for a li
Read more

Day 18: Prison Break | Murray Morrison

Image
This is a monster post so strap in. The meseta has thrown a lot at us. But we had never seen anything like this before. Our albergue tried to keep pilgrims from doing the only thing we know: walking. This morning as we attempted to head out into the streets of Leon, we were stopped in our steps at a locked albergue door. We tried to open it any way we could, and even our Korean friend who did not seem to trust our attempts started trying the door right after us. Of course, he had no more success than us. We then heard that the only exit to the albergue would be unlocked at 6:30. It was currently 5:45. There was no thought to sit idle for 45 minutes. We immediately searched for an escape from this prison-like alburgue.  A high-end hotel is next to the albergue, and so we squeezed through a nook in the fence to get to the hotel’s back patio. Then we walked inside to escape from the front. The albergue had considered this route.  It too was locked. We then spot the hotel elev
Read more

Day 30: The End | Murray Morrison

Image
We have a confession. We told a little white lie in the last post. We told y’all we were going to take 2 days to get to Finisterre (trans. “end of the world”), but we had already booked our accommodation in Finisterre for last night. Confidence is key. The plan was to get there last night, so we would have a night to watch the sunset at the end of the world. And the Memphis Pilgrims execute their plans. So against our better judgement, we headed out yesterday morning for our 90 km half road, half mountain biking trek. We only brought the essentials, which included the clothes we were wearing, tooth paste and toothbrushes, phone chargers, and phones. My computer did not make the cut, which is why we did not post yesterday. Alex though believed his crocs were a necessity, so he strapped them on the end of his bike. What a sight that was. At one point during the ride, we were passed by a guy in a biking suit and biking shoes who looked like this wasn’t his first rodeo. I was ou
Read more