Walked pilgrim track from Santillana del Mar towards Orena.

Just to revise, we are going back and forth along parts of the pilgrim track which are the most thrilling to travel on, and because we had trouble early we were late with everything and a little disorganisation goes a long way. The reason we are not walking the full track is because we recently changed to account for my first day which scared me. Travelling to villages and then walking about 10-15 kms each day allows us to walk a fair distance all up and that will be about 400-500 kms. We also only use the time that we purposefully walk, by taking off 1km daily for general walking..

Because we catch public transport a lot to get to our hiking places, that mostly exist on the routes we make, we meet walkers and locals so I will tell you a story that happened yesterday. As we were preparing to alight from the small train that travels along the north coast or nearby, I dropped Corrie’s phone down between the seat and the carriage wall (remember I was the one who lost my phone earlier on in that hailstorm), it was not looking good for our future relationship.

Seeing the look on her face had me roll under the seat and begin to pull apart what I could. We were a minute away from the station so I jumped up, ran to, and knocked on the driver’s door. The conductor is always in there at this time to help newcomers get out. I told him in my broken sign language what had happened and ran towards yet another of my recent disasters. A relieved Corrie still contemplating our relationship future gave me a ‘third chance smile’ when she said – “we’ve found it!”, or rather this man did.

She was pointing to our only carriage mate – a disturbed looking man who then reluctantly told me it was he who found it. He looked like a regular on this train and he was as he usually fell asleep and missed his station, I imagined. I thanked this mean looking man and he offered me a dead fish hand (my country cousins would tell me never to trust a sloppy handshake man) and often left me with a rubber ball with which to strengthen my hand – guess why?

We had arrived at the station and I had 30 seconds to write my name and address and blog for him. He then wrote a few words quickly because he was non verbal and thus could not speak. He had written this – “I am homeless, and I spend time helping people in need of any sort”. I gave him the euros I had and wished my new friend, the self employed aid worker, well.

I will go back to the beginning of this story to inform you of the reason we were on this train in the first place. A big American was being shown how to pay for a bus ticket by a mean looking man who seemed to be angling to rip him off. The latter’s other job (!?) was to guide all the buses in and out of the bus station. This was pure fantasy, but not for this man. As he was guiding yet another bus out, another came out and there was mayhem. This big American, who was being ripped off, said as a true Trump supporter — I told you, too many chiefs.

We had little to lose so we followed the big American, we had 2kms to walk and run.
The bus guider then informed the Trump man that the buses had stopped running, little did he know that this man lived in fantasy land. We had little to lose so the two of us followed our new leader to the train station. The station master convinced our former leader that the bus had been cancelled so bad luck and there were no others.

This huge Marine at last got his head together after being unable to talk to the lost property people. Eventually it seemed that the bus guider had been on the phone and had found out a train was leaving soon for his station but not ours. After a short while the man trying to rip the marine off and bus guide, told us that our train, would stop at the marine’s station where we could alight and walk 4ms to our lodgings. No-one had told us about the bus that we caught that dropped us at our new home.

The marine was with us from the start, because CORREOS, the luggage transporters who carry the luggage, had lost his and he had to collect it now it was found.

And then I dropped Corrie’s mobile!!