Media (22)
Shells, distances, and stories that stay on the Camino.
On June 12 I kept walking: arrival at the parish albergue of Zabaldika.
I still had one last shell to leave for Talia, so the mission was not over yet: I hid it behind the removable stone of a column that supports the little church of Ermita de Santa Lucía, also known as Ermita de La Abadía, in Ilárraz, a small village in the Esteríbar valley in Navarra, Spain. In the meantime I walked much more than the small group met in Orisson: Carla, Isabel, Mark, Andrius, and three other guys stopped in Zubiri, in an Airbnb apartment, while I went on for another 10/15 km up to Zabaldika.
That evening I also still had a small open account with Carla: the day before she had lent me some coins because I had no change. Not knowing whether we would see each other again, I prepared a shell for her too, to use it as a small saucer for the coin I was going to leave hidden in a very specific spot, and I left her instructions to find it along the route.
This dynamic struck me: knowing you are ahead of someone who will pass on the same trail the next day. Even if you are far apart, you can still communicate and give something back. While I was explaining this kind of Hansel-and-Gretel game to let her find the euro, Carla sent me a voice message with another story: farther ahead there is the Cruz de Ferro, near León, one of the symbolic points of the Camino at about 1150 meters, and tradition says to carry a small stone for days and leave it right there. A simple gesture, but full of meaning: you walk with a weight, then choose the right moment to let it go.
Long stage, beyond the pace of the Orisson group: they stopped in Zubiri, I went to Zabaldika, with the last shell for Talia and a new promise to keep at Cruz de Ferro.
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Day notes