Media (11)
Viana, a long pause and rituals born while walking.
June 17: setting off again toward Viana, with different times and personal rhythms.
We started walking again each at our own time. I left at 7:00 with Matteo, one of the guys from the Italian group, while Catherine would leave later. It was nice to walk together: lots of chat and light company. Matteo walked with a gigantic, very heavy stick: even today I do not know how he managed to carry it for hours.
Around 11:00 we arrived in Viana and separated there. At 6:50 Ginger had written to me on WhatsApp: before leaving she had left a plastic bag for me at the reception of Hotel Mercure Carlton Rioja, in Gran Via del Rey D. Juan Carlos I, 5, in Logroño. At reception she had said that I would come pick it up "probably on Tuesday."
In the message she also explained what was inside: a letter and the recording of the New Testament, which she wanted me to listen to along the Camino. Ginger was a very religious woman, married to a Protestant pastor. After our meeting at the exit of Pamplona, when she was taking the wrong direction and I redirected her, she had started seeing me as a presence "sent by God," someone who had arrived to help her not feel alone.
At that moment I was still undecided: stop in Viana or push on to Logroño, about ten kilometers farther. Logroño, as a bigger city, was the more sensible choice; but Viana was really very nice. In the end I chose to stop: behind the little church there was a perfect meadow to lie down and recover. And I also wanted to avoid stressing the tendon again: I had understood that breaks are as important as walking.
Since Catherine and the others from the Orisson group were still farther behind, I decided to wait there and take the rest of the day to rest. Around 14:20 Catherine arrived and we met again; meanwhile the others from Orisson were still farther behind. She had already eaten a sandwich; I had lunch there, then we stayed chatting and drinking beer. Catherine, as a good Belgian, is an excellent beer drinker, and by then it was becoming one of our small rituals too: a beer in the afternoon to break up the day, and then again in the evening. It was nice.
Stage managed calmly: early departure, arrival in Viana in late morning, long recovery stop, and restart more internal than in kilometers.
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Day notes