9TH AUGUST: Bed bugs, flechas blancas and a baby jumping festival

Saint James at Yahoo and GoCamino

I have joined these two because it seems that whenever a member posts on either one, they copy the other as well.

The Saint James at Yahoo Group was started on Sat Feb 20, 1999 at 4:52 am.
Since then there have been 5085 posts.

Grant Spangler posted a link to an interesting article about el camino wherein a farmer who converted his cowshed into an albergue was interviewed. He used to have 30 cows but he could now sleep 45 pilgrims in the converted stable, "It's more profitable and more satisfying to engage in this work than in the dairy sector," said Angelo, the owner. Peregrino cattle? asked a member.

In the same article, someone said, The Camino is a bomb that's going to explode". Maybe, maybe not.

Acacio Paz – a former long-haired, beaded, beatnik and now proud albergue owner - responded to a query about whether a donation from Brasil had been used to improve the buildings at Manjarin.

“I inform of that Coelho helped Takes by Manjarin with 8.000 kg of firewood so that all only travelling and Takes could pass the 2007 winter. This year we go to speak with Coelho so that it the same repeats gesture of affection and all to peregrinos of winter.” Cool Coelho keeps camino catholics warm!!

Seems Paz was the subject of a hacker who used his email to advertise a commercial website on the St James Group.
Acacio – Spamerifico was the subject of the post and the man sent an apology.

Sorry my friends. This is my big problem actual. I have outlook but same times another use my e.mail. file. Sorry, please delete when see this mensages. Thanks so lot to pelerin Acacio

Grant also posted a link to a YouTube video of the St James Day fireworks in Santiago:
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=iCb6lH1uFm8

But, Rosina Lila advised that the 2008 fireworks might be the last:

I can only tell you that the "burning of the Cathedral" is grand..... and then some. I don't know the origins of this extraordinary feat.... or its purpose. Yet, in a way, I'm glad, and fortunate, that it appears that this year, 2008, will be the last one with such extravagantly lavish display of fireworks, rockets, flares, lasers, colored shooting-up electrical fountains, real flames and such, that go on for an incredible sixty minutes..... From eleven o'clock p.m. on the 24th of July to midnight. It appears that concerned archeological and cultural-historical heads have managed to prevail over public oooohs and aaaaahs to convince the powers that be of the inevitability of consequential damage to the structural essence of the Santiago Cathedral and its treasures.

Oh well … that’s a sight many peregrinos won’t get to see.

www.caminosantiago.com forum - 26 new posts in 3 weeks.

The one with the most views (284) was entitled "I am wondering". Enigmatic, what?
Now I'm sure it was because everybody was 'wondering" wtf is this post all about but it received not only the aforementioned 284 views, but 3 replies. Want to know what it was about? Go to: http://www.caminosantiago.com/way_of_saint_james/pilgrims_forum.htm

and the one with the most replies was - well it was a tie - "Trekking Poles" and "Crowds on the Camino" each drew 8 replies.

..... and my favorite for ambiguity "We are not now that strength which in olden days moved earth and heaven..."
This from a dude who has a ticket to Biarritz but .."..my 'plan B' is to make a note of points along the Camino where I could get transport to Santiago and rest up there for a few days. I'd then get the bus out to Sarria and walk back to Santiago from there. Can anyone suggest a few places along the Camino where transport to Santiago is easily available?"
Gees - what was Plan A?? Why not get a ticket to Santiago and rest up, full stop?

I've discovered that we have a Javier from Pamplona and a Javier from Madrid.
Javier from Pamplona is the one who posts photographs on the Forums.
Javier from Madrid posts information and advice.
Javier from Pamplona posted this photograph of the solstice sun shining on the Apse of the church in St Juan de Ortega.
On March 21 and September 21 at 17:07 (solar time) a ray of light enters through a small window and goes all illuminating scenes of Christmas for 10 minutes ending the solar beam at the centre of the apse the church".

Arturo Murias from the Godesalco.com website posted a message about GPS tracking on his website.

If you need so, Google Earth files can be easily converted into GPS files (choose GPX format as a first option, which is the most comprehensive at reflecting the GE files data) with a software called "GPS Babel". You might need to extract an xml file from the GE file if this is a kmz and not a kml. And to do this you might have to change the ".kmz" extension to ".zip". And to do this you might need to make the "known extensions" visible in your Windows... But it's really straightforward.
Be aware that a GE file, as it's the case of those generated in my website, might contain more (or many more) of the 10,000 trackpoints allowed by many GPS receivers. My personal opinion is that you don't really need any GPS to follow the Routes to Santiago that I know (Francés, Plata, Podiensis, Tolosana) as they are really well waymarked. I would just select the sections that you might hear that pose a problem for walkers due to aged or poor waymarking."

So - there you have it - really straightforward.
All you have to do to convert a GPS to a GPX is extract an xml from a GE if it is kmz and not a kml and change it to zip.

A load of GPS Babel to me senor Murias.


SANTIAGOBIS

What is going on with Santiagobis? 30 new posts in August.
I'm sure a statistician would make interesting assumptions from the message history:

Message History

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
2008	221	163	252	120	120	75	170	30
2007	264	361	399	406	319	316	212	306	173	183	148	75
2006	363	262	320	268	410	280	268	281	204	149	257	145
2005	258	206	242	223	213	183	228	205	202	156	167	218
2004	211	390	351	223	246	425	232	263	206	264	188	235
2003	417	740	676	438	349	376	233	132	125	189	359	175
2002	229	173	216	196	275	171	114	125	177	177	249	104
2001	427	328	196	372	292	190	319	301	264	230	278	130
2000										120	178	116

This year:
January 221 - lowest number in January since 204 (a Holy Year):
February 163 - lowest number ever in February
March 252 - Lowest in March since 2005:
April120 - 3rd lowest for all months since 2001:
May 120 - same low number:
June 75 - the lowest number posted ever - since the inception of the group:
July170 - second lowest July posts since 2002:

All of this makes one think that perhaps pilgrims are learning to search through the files for the information they need - or, that they have moved on to another forum.

The post with the most responses was one on the merits of ultralight backpacks - some were for, some were against - the usual to-ing and fro-ing - which must have left the original poster none the wiser about what to purchase!
A post about a pilgrim who put on weight after her pilgrimage elicited a number of replies about metabolism and water retention - riveting stuff!


The Forum that wins the Bouquet for the most posts- and the most interesting posts- once again is the Pilgrimage-to Santiago Forum.

A bit more constructive camino posting on this forum with important things like bed bugs, snoring, no-room-at-the-inn, and vegetarian food - interspersed with the odd oddity like – using a sun compass, a Baby Jumping Festival near Burgos and a 2,100 word dissertation (I’m not kidding!) entitled King's companions -1- George Edmund Street: WTF???

Bed bugs had 806 views and 18 responses:

Snoring 627 views and 18 replies:

Crowding 698 views and 12 replies:

Vegetarian food – 557 views and 13 posts:

King's companions -1- George Edmund Street ? 128 views, 0 replies.
What can one say – its all been said!

OK – bed bugs: They have been leeching their way through luckless peregrinos blood from Hontanas, El Burgo Ranero , Tardajos and Hornillos, Fromista and Finisterre.

Solutions? Rosemary, operation deep freeze, tumble dry or nuke them in a microwave. With or without the pilgrim? Not sure.

Snoring: The cacophony of sonorous serenades plagues every albergue more than the little beddy-bug critters do.

Solutions: Whistling, clapping your hands, drinking lots of vino tinto with your meal or stoning.
One (ex-hospitalero) commented: “Short of stoning the snorers, Earplugs are the only practical answer…”
Take that you snoring sod!!

Picture the scene: A group of nose-strapped, vino tintoed pilgrims with silicone ear plugs, whistling and clapping, throwing stones in the dark from their top bunks! Yeee-Haaa!!

And then…..(drum roll)….. Breathe-Rite Strips - available in large farmacias in Spain!!

A testimony from a user: “… they consist of an adhesive strip that you fix crosswise to your nose. The object is to open up the airways and therefore reduce snoring. According to my wife - who has spent many nights listening to my snoring, this product is quite effective and reduced my normal nocturnal roar to a soft purr (even after a few glasses of Rioja).”

(No wonder he was purring… he was lying next to his wife. Most of us have to sleep check by jowl with a stinking, snoring, bedbug infested, vegetarian sumai wrestler from the former USSR.)

There have been a number of posts on overcrowding including one from a blog where a pilgrim wrote, “The Camino is no longer a game. Suddenly the road is glutted with people who have just begun, and albergues fill up by 10am. Those left over are left to fend for themselves like dogs fighting for a scrap of meat in a cage. I’ve been warned not to let the final stages of my Camino disintegrate into a mad, pre-dawn dash for beds, but it’s a nerve-wracking thing now, wondering how far you can make it before it’s too late to get a bed.” She wrote in a later post that she slept on the floor in overflow accommodation for three nights near the end of her walk, in a person’s garage in Triacastela because ALL the albergues, hotels, fondas etc were full: with 200 other pilgrims in a gymnasium in Melide and a sports hall in Pedrouzo.

The moral of this story?

DO NOT WALK IN AUGUST.

The whole of frigging Europe is on holiday in August and half of them walk the camino - especially the Germans. Schools, colleges and universities are closed in August. Students looking for a cheap holiday hit the camino. So, if anyone reading this is planning to walk the camino at any time in August, don’t! If you have to, either book all your rooms ahead or be prepared to sleep on concrete and tiles.

Ho-hum...... another new book has been published, by a Canadian writer. OMG - I can just imagine the gist of it now:

“I started at St Jean, climbed over a difficult mountain, walked 800km in sun, mist and rain, got blisters, shin splints and sunburn: slept in dormitories crammed with snoring pilgrims: ate bocadillos and drank cheap wine: I didn’t look at any churches or attend mass because I am not a religious person but I loved all the old buildings; met Carlos from Brazil, Tom from the US, Ching-chang from China and we will be lifelong email buddies for ever after. I am now a different, born again, deeply spiritual person. The end.
PS: If you want to know anything about walking the camino, just ask me because I am now a camino guru. YECH!!

Via Francigena: 26 messages in July and about 17 in August - so far.
Not much on bugs, beds or boots on this forum yet. Most posts are about guides, maps and routes.
Alfred L. C. van Amelsvoort - aka Fred - is back on the Via after a an interruption in Switzerland.

Dr. Franz-Xaver Brock (smart names these VF pilgrims) mentioned maps he used to get to Rome.
The map: La Via Francigena - Cartografia e Gps issued by Monica D'Atti and Franco Cinti was a great help.
And one not to use - The OUTDOOR booklet "Via Francigena" from Birgit Götzmann (in German) could be helpful, but she often mixes up right and left and east and west so I sometimes went wrong following her instructions.
I'm not bloody surprised Dr Brock!

He also said: I met some persons who were just marking the way by painting arrows. As the VF can be used in both directions: for going to Rome as well as for going to Santiago they painted the direction to Rome in white and the other direction in yellow.
Interesting! flechas blancas a Roma - flechas amarilla a Santiago

On the other hand, it might be a ruse to get all of those crowd weary camino pilgrims who are crossing over to follow the yellow arrows again and leave the Via to Rome uncrowded!

The CPR (nah...nothing to do with mouth to mouth) are now "Friends of the AEVF".

"Sounds Good!" says Ed "But what exactly does it mean?"

"I do not know!" replies honest William, "But in the spirit of cooperation between pilgrim groups
it seemed like the right thing to do."

Other news:

Hiking in Switzerland, the main Swiss walking site, has recently been completely revamped, and the VF is now included both as one of the 2 international routes (the other is the ViaJacobi) and as no 70 of the regional routes
http://www.wanderland.ch/en/routen_detail.cfm?id=284505
Includes an overview of each section, height profiles, and links to the detailed Swisstopo mapping. The official length is 215km from Ste-Croix to the GSB.

Fidenza-Lucca - There is a detailed guide, what they call 'un road-book' split into 10 leaflets which you can download for free, with maps and detailed description (in Italian).
http://turismo.parma.it/page.asp?IDCategoria=265&IDSezione=1109&ID=144876

Gruppo dei Dodici are working on a guide to the route they've developed from Formia to Rome, based on the Via Appia Antica and dubbed the Via Appia Pedemontana.
http://www.romaefrancigena.eu/
And while on the GdD - they sent out an invitation to Walk to Rome - May 2009 - a yearly walk from Formia organised by Alberto Alberti and the Gruppo dei Dodici.

CamminaFrancigena - They're now setting up detailed maps/guides for Pavia-Rome with their GPS route overlaid on Google Maps. Includes downloadable pdf guides with description, height profile and detailed mapping, plus downloads of route in gpx and Google Earth formats. Only some sections are available at present, but as they only completed their walk last week that's not really surprising ;-)
http://www.itineraria.eu/wp-content/gpx-viewer.php?gpxfile=http://www.itineraria\
.eu/wp-content/uploads/francigena/gpx/Francige_index0.xml
or you can zoom to the 3 sections by substituting 1 2 or 3 for the 0 in that url. There's also blogs and photos on their site http://www.itineraria.eu/

Aftermath of WYD:

About 20 Catholic pilgrims, in Australia since the July visit of Pope Benedict XVI, have applied for asylum, a refugee support group said.

Experts say more visitors are expected to seek asylum as their visas, many of them valid for three months, expire. Applicants were mainly from African countries, including Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Burundi, Kenya as well as from Pakistan

More than 100,000 pilgrims attended World Youth Day led by the Pope.

"At this stage we've had about 20 people present to us as identified pilgrims indicating they're needing to seek protection in Australia," Ms Domicelj told reporters. "It might well be that at the end of those three months we see a spike in applications for protection," Ms Domicelj said "We are seeing utter destitution, we see malnutrition, we are seeing depression, we see homelessness. People are coming to us from a place of crisis."

Perilous Pilgrimages:

Hundreds of pilgrims around the world have died in various accidents so far this month.

India - Nearly 150 pilgrims, many of them children, were trampled to death at a Hindu temple in northern India on Sunday, after rumors of a landslide set off a stampede, local officials said.

Kota (Rajasthan - Fourteen people were rescued from the Gaiparnath Mahadev temple where 135 pilgrims were trapped when the ladder leading to the ancient shrine collapsed. The cantilever type of ladder, supported from one end, collapsed yesterday due to heavy rush of pilgrims, official sources said today.

Nepal - 36 Hindu pilgrims from Nepal were killed today when their bus plunged into a river in the mountainous northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, officials said.

Texas USA - At least 14 people died and 40 people were injured when a charter bus carrying a Vietnamese Catholic group to an annual pilgrimage slammed onto its side and then skidded off a freeway overpass in Texas early on Friday.

Baghdad - three women blew themselves up in quick succession as Shia pilgrims entered the capital for a major religious event, killing at least 32 people and wounding more than 100.

MADINA: Number of Pakistan Hajj pilgrims who died in Saudi Arabia this year reached 198 when a lady was killed in a bus accident.

Sri Lanka - At least 18 persons, mostly women, were killed and 51 were injured today, when a powerful explosion triggered by suspected LTTE rebels ripped through a bus packed with Buddhist pilgrims in a central Sri Lankan town.

RIP.

Stats, hiking with Mum and Lista Correos

So, what’s up Doc?

On the St James forum Rosina posted a comprehensive update on pilgrim stats for April and May. A similar, shorter post appeared on Santiagobis:

2006 2007 2008
Jan 314 350 306
Feb 351 666 703
Mar 1.093 1.680 5.327
Apr 7.438 8.112 5.655
May 9.992 12.898 15.98
19.188 23.706 27.974

NB: In 2007 they celebrated Holy Week (Easter) during the month of April, but this year it was in March. That is why they received 5327 pilgrims during the month of March this year compared with 1680 pilgrims received in March 2007

Well, the people over at Santiagobis are really bored. One posted the question:

“I've heard wonderful things about the "Yum Yum DODO" but don't know how to find it. Ideas?”

The temptation to offer an overlong, childish retort was too great for one of the moderators – who would not have been allowed such a flippant post a few months ago.

Ah yes! The great "Yum Yum Dodo" ! I'm old enough to remember it well. The Lesser Spotted Dodo was famed throughout the gastronomical world as the tastiest table bird ever. It's flesh, lightly roasted and surrounded by baked potatoes, peas, carrots and pumpkin, made a fabulous Sunday family dinner. It produced gravy that was the envy of the most sophisticated French Cordon Bleu chef. Accompained by a light and fruity white wine it became known as the "Yum Yum Dodo Sunday Roast". Unfortunately for the dodo this meal became so popular in the 1950's that the poor bird (which was very slow at the reproduction process) became extinct. As a result the chicken became popular and the turkey became the standard for big family dinners. But I digress. As regards the "Miao DODO".......... this is not a meal that I will touch upon, except to say that cat-lovers everywhere would rise up in horror at the thought of their feline friends 'sur la table', so to speak. My only comment is that most cats produce thin, stringy flesh that tastes slightly sour, even when sauteed in apricots and mushrooms. Never eat a tom. The smell will last for weeks.

And so on, and so on ……………….

Fortunately, someone who was not amused and did not even acknowledge the gastronomic garbage of the previous post, replied:

The Miam Miam Dodo guides are available from the Confraternity of St James bookshop. See this page of their website: http://www.csj.org.uk/acatalog/The_CSJ_Bookshop_Pilgrim_Guides_7.html

On the caminosantiago.com way_of_saint_james pilgrims_forum things have been somewhat busier – still with the occasional porn-post finding its way onto the forum.

There was a question about staying at Hunto.

The person who replied couldn’t make up their mind how to spell it so hedged their bets by using all possible spellings.

If you stay at Untto or Hunto (Huntto) the price you pay includes dinner and breakfast and you can buy a sandwich for lunch from them if you wish.

They still get the vague request for help such as this one:

I’m planning on taking my mum with me to do the camino santiago, we plan on doing it for about 7 to 10 days, and hopefully about 20 to 30 km a day, but I don't know how to start going about it. Any advice??

Well hellooo??? Which camino? What time of the year? How old is ‘my mum’? 30kms a day!!

This was the breathless, don’t pause for a comma, never heard of capital letter, response.

Hi, last year was my first time on the Camino-i looked up photos to see what sort of road -forest-mountain city-that i would be walking-you and your mum need to start training (walking) this is a must in my books-i dont like to ask the question but consider your mums age (i'm sure she is young) but not as young as you so take that on board-30k a day may be a bit much - you will be walking up mountains most every day PLEASE DONT OVER PACK there are shops in spain that will supply what you NEED dont wear new shoes break them in first-you may think this is scary info but its not like that-its just a bit of advice i overpacked last year and had to get rid of half the stuff-what felt quite light at first did become a burden a few days into my walking 10 persent of your own body weight is the recommended-watch what backback you use mine was heavy before puttong stuff in-i'm sure you will get lots more advice the pilgrims on this forum are one big Camino Family and will help you all they can - by the way you and your mum are goning to take a walk you will NEVER FORGET Buen Camino—

After three more replies regarding the camino frances, and a grateful thank you from the mother and daughter, some imposter with my name (scurvy scoundrel) throws a spanner in the works and suggests they walk the camino ingles.

Quiet on Grant’s site – with a few bouquets for The Man – who I must say has a brilliant website. A few members offered crash course Spanish phrases but Grant sent the link for his new, upgraded language page. I guess everyone is now busy trying to learn Spanish from the links he posted last week.

Uno, dos, tres, cuantro, cinco, seis ……..

Some people have never heard of Google. This guy asks:

A friend of mine walked part of the camino and started in Porto, now where is that? On which route is it?

If he pulled his finger out and keyed in the word Porto he would be 192,000,000 links for Porto.

The Pilgrimage-to-Santiago forum is by far the busiest, most up-to-date-ist forum out there at present.

Good old Bob has adopted the forum to post his last year’s daily blog posts. I’m surprised the moderators haven’t asked him to kindly provide a link to his own website so that those interested can read them if they wish.

But, this forum is very liberal and laid back when it comes to members’ posts. One veteran offers regular trivial pursuit info on everything from Hindu shrines to Austrian monks on the British hit parade, water expos and trains across the north of Spain.

This week there was a plug for Brandon Wilson’s latest book, dry bags, Ibofuren, drain plugs and tents from Wilikinson’s in the UK.

Then Gene McCullough of Denver, Colorado, aka webmaster for American Pilgrims, posted this rather disturbing up-date on the Lista Correos from a returning pilgrim:

I just returned from Spain, and wanted to provide some important information regarding mailing packages (lista de correos). I mailed a package from Pamplona to Santiago. I had read that the Santiago post office would hold the package for 30 days if you write perigrino on the box and your date of arrival. This not true. They will only hold the package for 15 days in Santiago, then they send it back to the other post office. So they sent my box back to Pamplona. I did not have much luck in trying to get it shipped back to Santiago, and only had a few days before my flight. Needless to say, my stuff is still in Pamplona. I met a pilgrim from Holland, and the same thing happened to her.

Someone asked if there was a timetable when the Botafumeiro is swung.

Ivar said: Next time I pass by the pilgrims office I will ask. (Watch this space)

And, a rather encouraging post from the road:

We´re having a great Camino so far. Weather has been wet, so bring that atmospheric poncho that Sil posted about and a hiking stick for all the mud. Albergues are not full, so relax. People were able to get a reservation at Orisson last Wednesday from SJPP. We went to Orisson from Bayonne and then on to Burguete. There is a nice private albergue there called Camping Urrobi which is part of a campground a long 2 km past Burguete. Four bunks to a room there for about E10, nice bathrooms with 4 sinks, 2 showers and 2 toilets in the ladies room- sorry, don´t know about the mens room. This was listed on the paper we picked up at the Office de Peregrinos in SJPP, otherwise would not have known about it. Also found a fantastic private albergue in Uterga for 10E. There were 16 bunks in it, new, very clean, very friendly and great food- ladies room had 2 sinks, a shower and toilet- again don´t know about the mens. There was only 1 other pilgrim there last night, so... I like to stay in the municiple albergues when we can for the Camino experience, but we are also looking for the quiet Camino and staging it the way we are, that is what we have found. Bottom line, there are many more albergues than the books tell us about so don´t panic about beds. If you want a quiet Camino, it is very possible- especially if you stay in the more obscure places!!!

A HORNY JENNET, A HEART ATTACK AND THE NOKIA RING TONE

The real news this past week is that a diabetic pilgrim crashed his bike and was taken to hospital, and that a 60 year-old English guy died of a heart attack crossing from St Jean to Roncesvalles. This was posted on most of the forums this week. Also, the weather has been bloody awful with cold and sleet and a prospect of hail in the Pamplona area.

http://www.caminosantiago.com/way_of_saint_james/pilgrims_forum.htm

Caminosantiago.com offers information on art, history, tips, a pilgrims’ forum, webcams, wineries, museums, natural landscapes, ecosystems, transportation, the route on horseback, bicycle route, restaurants, pilgrims illustrious ...etc.

It can now add pornography to the list! Someone, obviously pissed off with all the porno-posts asked: “I am just curious if there is anyone who can remove or block those annoying "posts" with links to all kind of por.nographic sites?....”
Nobody replied so sickos with usernames like Superman, Clerk Kent and Van Derm continue to post links to porno sites.

http://groups.msn.com/ElCaminoSantiago/messages.msnw

"Good, informative and balanced TV program on the Camino de Santiago."

Was the post with a link to this video. Yippeee!! I love videos on the camino.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3lsFaKsfHQ

The program is hosted by César Vidal, with guests Francisco García, a member of the Asociación de Amigos del Camino de Santiago, and Ana Echevarría, a professor of Medieval History at UNED.

Yeah, well, maybe…. but dude, its all in Español. How many peregrinos on the English forums can understand rapid Spanish? Daahhh!!

And something for peregrin trivial pursuit.

Spanish Classical Guitar and the Nokia standard ringtone ...

The Nokia Tune is probably the most recognizable ringtone in the world. It was also the first musical ringtone for cell phones. But the Nokia Tune wasn’t an original. It’s a short clip lifted from the classical guitar piece Gran Vals. It was written by Francisco Tárrega in the late 19th century. Tárrega is often considered the father of classical guitar playing.
Listen for it at 15 seconds, and again at 2:56.

The Gocamino and Saint James Forums are just ticking over with an occasional post by Professor Rosina Wachtel but not many others.

Santiagobis has been very quiet. This little gem was posted last week - or is it just another Hemingway urban legend??

At the Hostal Burguete you can order Ernest Hemingway Soup and have a look at the piano with 'E. Heminway,' and ‘1923’ carved into it. The novelist stopped here to fish for trout as part of his trip to the Feast of San Fermin in Pamplona in 1924. "The girl brought in a big bowl of hot vegetable soup and the wine,' Hemingway wrote. "We had fried trout afterward and some sort of stew and a big bowl full of wild strawberries."

God bless him!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/via-francigena/

The current discussions have focussed on the numbers of pilgrims who have received the testimoniam certificate in Rome. Seems that 850 have been handed out since 2001 - 235 since January 2007.
So bro, how do you earn one of these certificates? Well, one website says that you have to walk 100kms to Rome to receive it but another says 150 kms. 4COL can’t they make up their minds? That’s another two days walking at least. If I walked 100km and someone told me to go back and walk another50km for a piece of paper I would be really peeved.

Forum Flavor of the Month again this month is pilgrimage-to-santiago forum with a flurry of posts on all matters peregrinations including a couple of long posts on the hormonal high-jinks of a horny jennet called Dalie.

We have learned that when the jennets are amorous they indicate they are in heat by mouthing as though they are chewing, laying back the ears, posturing and urinating frequently. This is love language to the jack, letting him know that the lady is interested.

What has this got to do with pilgrims to Santiago? Well, Dalie's owner walked to Santiago with her femenino burro and had her shipped back to the south of France in her deluxe horse trailer where she lives in a pasture with another donkey. Altogether now................aaaaahh sweet!!

In the past few months some topics have had huge number of views.

9580 Topic: Is it safe for a female to travel alone
9063 Topic: Pack sizes
7969 Topic: Class of 2008
6985 Topic: To iPod or not to iPod (WTF?)
And, over 3500 views for a Raincoat/Poncho post. (Its obviously been a very wet season!)

There was a longish thread about a guy who was running the camino but most were not impressed. “We saw this guy go blasting through town and wondered what the heck he was about! What a nut!” said one poster.

So, I'll leave you this week with a picture of a bubble-gum chewing, pheremone enhanced peregrino of a different sort!

BIG BUCKS ON THE ROADS TO ROME

ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME
One day this week there were more posts on the Via Francigena Yahoo Group than on Santiagobis - 38 messages in 7 days - that must be a first! Most of the queries were about budgets, hotels and different ways of getting into Rome.
Budgets: An early post was from a member of the Famous Five who said that the average cost of their accommodation was 21.50 euro per night sharing: and that they budgeted 10 euro a night for meals which involved little alleys, tratorias with beaded curtains and Mamas in the kitchen.
Not too shabby, I'm thinking, only about half as expensive as walking el camino and staying in albergues for 8 or 9 euro a night.
But wait - another VF pilgrim posted and hey mon!! I'm learning that these are not all your average pellerinies.
He said, "The average cost of the hotels we stayed in was 71.4 euros per night. The most expensive was 95 euros and the cheapest 50 Euros." Woa!! This is big bucks!
"In relation to the more expensive hotels, if we had the time, weren't exhausted, and other hotels were available we looked for a cheaper alternative. But at other times when we were tired or it was difficult to find a hotel we just checked in regardless of the cost."
Nice! Very nice to be able to disregard the cost - not your run of the mill, backpacking, youth hosteling pilgrem. And what do these poor pilgrims pay for food? Menu del Peregrinos?? Mamas' 10 euro specials? Nah!!
"In relation to the cost of meals its difficult to give you an answer, as it depends on what's available. We sometimes had pizza and wine for under 10 Euros for the two of us; on other occasions we spent up to 85 Euros for a 3/4 course meal + wine in a really nice restaurant." EIGHTY-FIVE EURO FOR A MEAL!!! Nice? Michelin starred, I'm sure!

Q: So what does a walk along ye olde via Francigene cost?
A: Two-and-a-half times that of walking the camino.
"As was posted here a week or two ago whereas the Camino can be budgeted at about 1 euro per km the costs on the Via Francigena currently run at about 2.5 euro per km. This makes your 125 euro for two per day practically on the nail for two people for 900 km in 35 days. As ever this can be undercut or overspent depending on your circumstances and a look at an accommodation list such as the one by the Confraternity of Pilgrims to Rome will be useful to find the places that others have enjoyed and where there is cheap or expensive accommodation. I know people who have spent much more and also others who have spent much less."
Is it fair to say that at this time, the VF is for higher income 'pilgrims' rather than the younger, budget conscious pilgrim that you see on the caminos?
Do the math.
1€ per km on the camino X 900km = 900€ ($1388.97 or £712.843)

2.5€ per km on the VF X 900km = 2 250€ ($3472,44 or £1782,11)

MAY MADNESS and DEATH ON THE CAMINO

OVERCROWDING!! 350 - 400 PEOPLE IN RONCESVALLES!!

These are the most talked about posts on the forums this week.

From http://www.pilgrimage-to-santiago.com/

On April 30th nearly 300 pilgrims crossed the Pyrenees into Roncesvalles. . .so you can imagine what it was like on May 1st. too, they were overwhelmed.

3rd May:
Don't start your walk on a long weekend! Three days ago there was a post on another forum that Roncesvalles was totally overbooked with between 350 and 400 pilgrims. I read this post an a peregrina's blog: This weekend was a holiday weekend for Spain so there were a ton of Spaniards who had taken four days or so to do a chunk of the trail, which is what lots of people do. I continue to be impressed and amazed by the amount of older people and the distances they do each day. Got to an albergue a couple days ago and it was full, which I couldn´t believe, as it was only 3 in the afternoon. Got the last beds in a private one, and others who came later had to sleep on the floor or walk on to the next town.

But it got worse:

My daughter started from Pamplona on Tuesday 29th and by Thursday 1st May everywhere was absolutely packed - they had to work 14 km further than they intended before finding an overflow sports hall with mats on the floor and they have been wrecked ever since . . .

I seem to be in the middle of some kind of bubble of pilgrams and it has been very difficult to find room in the refugios. I had to rent a house in Los Arcos with some other pilgrams and a hotel in Logroño. I know of four people that have left the camino due to the stress of trying to find a bed.

I´m now in Astorga, a long way ahead of where I would have been if Id stuck tó the vague schedule i´d planned. this is partly because i have the flu, had very sore feet but a large part due to not wanting to rush for beds each day. its a bit like an episode of the Amazing Race - if you are not at your destination by about midday-1pm and have you pack in the line outside the albergue you will likely find trouble getting a bed, well at least an inexpensive one, or you may have to walk a lot further.I´ve decided to cut my camino short, laugh about it all and walk only 10-15km a day till i finish on 28 May, that way I can stay in smaller and perhaps less crowded places.

From what I experienced in my starting group, there were many Germans, some French, Italians, English , South Koreans, several Scandanavians,and only a few Americans. There seemed to be a race each morning at 4:30 to see who could get out the door and on the road, to be the first at the refuge at the end of the day. I was a bit surprised and disappointed at some of the rudeness displayed, but in any group ofpeople there will always be a few...

And, on Santiagobis:

Today Tuesday, May 6, a dead pilgrim was found outside Puente La Reina, on the steep slope climbing towards Mañeru. The Navarrese police had cordoned off the area and covered the corpse with a blanket, but itseemed to be a man. I could only see his hiking boots sticking out and his staff nearby. That made me sad. It will be hard to get over that sight for a while. I am reporting from Ciraqui.

News coverage in Diario de Navarra.
French Pilgrim Dies of Heart Attack in Mañeru
Early this morning other pilgrims saw the victim collapse and called SOS Navarra.- The victim was 60 yrs old and lived in the locality of Limoges.A french pilgrim of around 60 years who was walking the Camino de Santiago died this morning as he passed Mañeru due to a possible heart attack as reported by the government. At 8:20 other foreign pilgrims who were walking behind saw how A. G., from Limoges, collapsed as the crossed the rest area near that locality.After calling 112 of Navarra, the first to reach the area were police agents from Estella who were patroling the vicinity. They practiced resuscitation techniques but the pilgrim did not respond. A doctor in Puente de la Reina could only certify his death. His body is currenttly at the Navarra Institute of Legal Medicine where an autopsy will be performed.

Kids, geeks and more rain and snowon the camino

SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN??

Or, Bugger little children, let them stay at home.

Knight protecting a family of pilgrims:

Credit: Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki

On Santiagobis this week there was some heated (actually, petulant) discussion about taking children on the camino. A family with 6 weeks to spare are planning to take their two children, a 14 month old boy and a six year old girl with them on the Camino Norte. All they wanted was some advice on carts or carriages for the youngsters.

Some of the responses have been less than charitable! One guy started off with a rather sarkie ‘Good Luck’ message and another posted a sniffy warning about crying children disturbing other pilgrim’s meal times and disturbing their sleep in the albergues.

The parent advised the group that they are planning to spend as much time in camp sites as possible. When a member posted a link to a map with campsites and a free brochure on alternative accommodation, the same geek who posted the first reply got all huffy with this response:” Folks, is this a tourism group for Spain or info. about the pilgrimage? I think there is a ifference (sic). Seems getting to be the latte,r thus the issues that are discussed lately.”

OMG!! What a spiff!
This prompted an outraged reply that included Biblical quotes and a slap on the wrist for unkind pilgrims:
I'm really shocked at the attitudes some pilgrims have displayed on this subject -talk about being 'holier than thou'! Poor Dale and family must be feeling really rejected and excluded - not nice! Think about what Jesus said to the disciples when they tried to shoo the children away! (Luke 18:15, Mark 10:13, Matt 19:13)So encountering a young family on the Camino should add a spititual dimension, if anything! I would expect any pilgrim to respond kindly and helpfully if anyone was struggling with a crying baby - or at least, if they're not that way inclined, to put up with it politely, and regard it as any other mildly annoying experience - like pouring rain, people who snore or - shock horror - having to eat food they don't particularly like!
And who on earth (or elsewhere) decreed that it isn't a pilgrimage if you have children with you? What age do you have to be for it to count? What if you have learning disabilities? Or are from another faith or culture? That's ridiculous!
And why is it wrong to offer advice about where to find information about campsites to someone intending to use them, but not to give advice about silk sleeping bags, or train times, or food (again)?
Come on everyone - we all have different plans and motives and prejudices - surely the Camino is about travelling together kindly and unjudgementally and discovering new insights along the Way?
Dale - I apologize on behalf of my fellow santiagobis! I would love to meetup with you and your family whichever route you take!

An erstwhile ex-journo responded to the geek this way:

"I think it´s kinda wandering into the "What´s the difference between a pilgrim and a tourist" territory. Which is always good for a few rounds of invective. Or tinto. Just had a French family this morning with us at Mass. Their two children were ages 8 and 10, well-behaved but looking very worn-out from all the bad weather and walking. (And a noisy, drunken group of fellow pilgrims had kept them awake well into the night last night.)
The 10-year-old said he IS tired, but he still felt the Camino is much more fun than being at school!"

And then the geek responds - but offline, the coward!!

"Forget it. The Way is not a stroll in the Park. The alburgues are not places for screaming kids and diaper changing. There are so many things to do with small children. Why do the Way? I have done the way 2x. I have volunteered in the albergue in León. We had a couple from
Paris using a push cart with 2 very young boys. I was literally driven out of the place by the screaming and out of control behavour of the children. And there were all kinds of concesions that the parents wanted. ¡No! Take the babies to Disneyland or some such. The Way is a Pilgrimage. Not a stunt for parents who want to have been there, done that, got the T-shirt. And yes, I've been with children most of my professional life"

The father replies with admirable restraint:

"Thanks for this. However we realise the pilgrimage is "not a stroll in the Park", if you had read my message you would have seen that we have done the camino three times already from Arles, Porto and Oviedo. Again if you had read my posts you would have seen that we intend not to use the refugios etc but will camp, so there is no fear of anyone having to face our screaming children (I have never heard them scream once!) and or will 'real' pilgrims have to put up with 'diaper changing'. Again if you had read our post you will see that as faithful and committed Catholics we want to take our children on pilgrimage simply to go and worship at the shrine of StJames and
give thanks to God for all the blessings he has given us. It is not therefore a 'stunt' but a giving something back to God for all that he continues to do for us, so if you don't mind we will make our pilgrimage to Compostela and leave our visit to Disneyland for another year. We too have been with children for most of our life my my wife and I are qualified teachers and I have until recently been the RC Chaplain for a Young Offenders Prison for 15-18yr olds."

Does this pacify the geek? No, the arsehole then get's really shitty, racist and chauvanistic at the same time!!

"I stand by what I have said. The Way is not the place for very young children. Do what you will, you're just dragging your kids along as baggage. I did read your post. Why do you think I responded. But you go on and on about what "you" want to do. But what about the baby. Does she want to pray at the Shrine of St James? C'mon woman. You're just one more of these pathetic Americans who want to do what they want to do and how they want to do it. The Way is not a place for babies. 'Nuff said."

The father is a gem of indignant restraint. (Why not just call him a prick and get it over with - jees!) Ah - but all is revealed - he is an Englishman and a gentleman!

Dear Thomas.
First of all our son is no longer a baby but a toddler. Second I am not a 'woman' but a man and third I am not a 'pathetic American' but am from England. I am sure I also do not need to remind you of the place of children in Our Lords heart and ministry. There have been countless number of pilgrims throughtout the world who have gone to thank Him for the blessings of their children and we will be doing the same with or without your support.
You seem to me to be a very rude person, and I will certainly pray for you as we make our pilgrimage that you may have a more generous heart.

So, are the family any the wiser about coping with two children on the camino? Probably not. Has anyone given them any advice? Noooo. Has anyone offered any suggesttions? Not really. Perhaps its time for a guide book on ‘Walking the Camino with Children”. Mmm….. not a bad idea: any wanna-be camino guide book publishers out there?

On the Pilgrimage-to-Santiago website: there were more reports of bad weather, this time pilgrims were snowed in on the hill between O'Cebreiro and Tricastella.
Snow traps cars in Os Ancares and a group of pilgrims in Triacastela
Foto: Xesús Ponte)
The wind and heavy rains, which are in the form of snow higher up, are complicating much movement in the road network in the province of Lugo this Friday, which resulted in four pilgrims being trapped in Triacastela and eighty students could not go to class.
Incidents throughout Galicia
At sea, sources of fishermen's associations of Burela and Celeiro confirmed that the majority of ships of the coastal fleet remained moored at port. The trawlers of coastline dared to go out to fish in the morning, though gradually had to return to shore.
The storm is causing complications in the road network of Lugo. Morning needed the use of chains for driving on the high O Poio, in Pedrafita do Cebreiro, and municipal emergency services had to cut two roads this morning, in the top of Rubiais and in the area between and Rabaceira Veiga da Forca.
As a result of the snow, four pilgrims were trapped at dawn at the height of the statue of the pilgrim located at the top of San Roque, on the road between O Cebreiro and Triacastela. They were later rescued. In addition, several vehicles were trapped because of the snows in the estrada Cereixal O Pino, near the School of Agricultural Training Becerreá; and Cervantes, a truck responsible for the collection of dead animals became trapped by snow in the CP-1402.
Snow left college to eighty children in the province, in the municipalities of Triacastela, Navia of Suarna, Cervantes, Folgoso do Courel and Pedrafita do Cebreiro. The council has been concerned over the latter, where the college of the capital city, with 46 students, remains closed.
Moreover, the Civil Guard reported that during the night there were many complications with the wind on numerous secondary roads in the province, since demolished more than a dozen trees on different roads.
In the port of Burela, two boats with crews were to drift until one succeeded in tow to another. In addition, the fisheries of the fence 'Agarimo Dous' broke loose from their moorings, as a result of strong wind and collided with another ship. In this town mariñana saw one of the largest wind gusts of Galicia, of 126 miles per hour.
In the provincial capital, firefighters also had to act morning to remove a cornice that had been detached from the facade of the building number 8 Unidade de la Rua and threatened to fall on public roads, because of strong wind.

And, two more reports of heavy rains:
We are also having bad weather. The other night we had up to 120 km/h winds and poring rain... today, only "normal" rain and clouds. Just saw the weather report on TVE and I saw rain all over Spain for the weekend. Snow over 1300 meter was reported.

And: The same bad weather in the Madrid area, too, raining dogs and cats. ¡¡Wonderful!! water is very, very necessary here in Spain after a son dry autumn and soft winter.

And what's been happening on the other forums? The Caminosantiago forum has been fairly quiet with a hodge-podge of how-to-get-there, what-to-take posts.

On the Via Francigena site a fellow is making his 2nd attempt at reaching Roma:
As I mentioned some months ago, last year in September I had to stop may way from Marburg, Germany, where I live, to Rome due to problems with my leg. Now I am feeling well again so that I can restart in a couple of days from the point where I had to stop. On 24th of April I will go by train to Ivrea do do the final about 800 kilometres from there. Please cross fingers that I may reach my goal.

Just hope the bad weather they are having in Spain does not spill over into Italy. It won't be fun crossing the marsh lands or the Cisa Pass if the trails are mud and slush.