Camino ’24: Day 18


On the Camino you have to listen to your body. That’s one of the most important rules you either trust to respect from the beginning, or learn to do so at your own expense sooner or later.

But what can one do when his body sends him mixed signals?

That was the case for me today. We decided to stay on the conservative side and walk only for about three hours on a fairly plain ground.

It went largely OK. I sported my brand new knee cap and walked with the hope it would help with the pain I felt a few days ago. When going downhill, however, the pain came back. Low at first, but I could feel it was getting worse and worse if the descent was longer than a few meters. Fuck.

Coffee and a pincho de tortilla are a must have on the Camino

So yeah, I don’t know what to expect tomorrow. We want to walk a full 20+ km stage from Navia, where we are tonight, to Tapia de Casariego.

Hopefully we’ll be able to spend some time at the beach. The last few days the weather was pretty poor for taking a bath, but excellent for walking. Too bad I was too broken for walking, and it was too cold for going to the seaside. Tomorrow the clouds should open up a bit.

It will be one of our last shots at taking a bath into the Cantabrian Sea, before crossing the border into Galicia and turning into the interior of the country, towards Santiago.

Some people like to decorate their houses with Camino signs, among other things

Given the circumstances, today we decided to deploy a special weapon. His name is Guillermo, from Luarca, and he’s a specialist masseur who often deals with pilgrims on this stretch of the Camino.

He got recommended to us by a fellow pilgrim with knee issues, a Spanish man named Josè Luiz, whom we met at the train station yesterday. José has been walking with a very friendly Belgian guy named Dominique since last Monday.

As Ww bumped into them several times yesterday afternoon, we started talking about all the different issues we’ve had, and that’s how Guillermo’s name came up.

Tasty soups as well here in Asturias

As I write this, I’ve just finished a one-hour long massage session where Guillermo tried to solve the Gordian knot that my left leg has become over the past four days. I’m always left amazed at how much a massage can both hurt you and relax you at the same time.

Guillermo has already warned me that tomorrow will be painful, but it will get better from the day after that. I truly hope that that will be the case: the day after tomorrow we are supposed to finally enter Galicia, and I want to enjoy every step we take there, as they will be the last one on the Camino.

On this particular Camino, at least. Who knows if we’ll walk another one in the future.

I hope we will, with better pairs of knees (if that’s not too much to ask).