Day 24

Met up with our Kiwi and Welsh companions and had a chat over some ‘tapas’ with them and a Canadian couple in the village in isolation and even more so at night. The Restauranteur informed us that when eating a small piece of bread with savoury on, people used to put it on top of their drinks to keep the flies out, and, top means tapa, thus the word.

When you leave in the dark, it’s vital the night before to check where the Camino goes so you don’t get lost, and also how light the area is and how long so you can leave accordingly. So the street lights were our moon as we followed them out of town on to the longest extant Roman road in Spain, 25kms without a coffee shop and for the second day in a row, without people. It was a great time to reflect on present and future decisions, and also the all important voice exercises. Across open plains with the odd little oasis of trees, not one house or person, just large irrigation ditches, healthy looking crops and us. We crossed a railway line, had lunch in a tiny deserted railway station then continued ever westwards until my first ‘field of poppies’ in 400kms. I love poppies and  ciguenas, so this road less travelled has been the road just waiting for me, and I thought it time to post my poppy poem, ciguenas one day, poppies the next

Ran into a Sydney man who is doing the walk very quickly with his daughter. He is an athletic guy and hearing him talk of the importance of water and salt, has given me a new understanding of my muscle spasms I am getting so I’m going to acquire a greater taste for water and understand that at the right time, salt can be a good thing. We also solved the psychological problems of the world in fifteen minutes, and he’s going to follow my blog

Poppies – a sonnet

At first I saw you standing by the road

Just one, to let the world know: ‘I am here’.

That glance that stole my heart and really showed

The power of that beauty when it’s so near.

Soon others then appeared in similar flush,

I loved you all, I knew not how to choose,

You spread to fields afar in one red blush,

Not one of you could I, afford to lose.

Yet was not love that needed to possess,

To share it with the world was my intent,

That greater love would make it more, not less.

Your flower that lets the others know they’re meant

To show their beauty too, in peace they’ll die,

The poppies burning love still makes me cry

The Roman road

The Oasis

The girl at the station

A Poppy field

Poppies and friends