I could not include the details because it would have taken me a great deal of time to tell you what happened. I was tired, really tired when I finally reached Villafranca. I was not just physically tired but more mentally spent. Almost as much as I was on the Credential day. I said it was no big deal but it was actually monumental! So here is what actually happened yesterday.
I am going along at a very good pace, my leg after the first mile was as good as it was before I injured it. Yes, I was back to nearly full strength. That's good but it will come back and cause a huge problem.
I am about nine miles into Stage 26, or so I think. As it turns out I am a couple of miles ahead of that. This will now create a detour that may be a record. I am at a fork in the trail and I have a problem. Most of the Camino markings are stationary and permanent . You will see the Camino shell or more often than not you will see a hand painted yellow arrow directing you.
At times there will be yellow arrows on buildings,street signs, curbs, trees and lots of other permanent structures. But there are also these printed signs with the yellow arrow which have been produced on what looks like a twelve by twelve piece of styrofoam. They are not permanent. They are just set out leaning on a wall or any number of on other permanganate objects. Making sense?
Well at this fork in the road there are actually three different trails all going off in different directions and the styrofoam marker is just sitting on top of a bush obviously put there by the wind or the rain. It's pointing straight up. No direction. I stop, take off my backpack and get out my guide book to look at the map. There are zero reference points where I am standing. No other pilgrims can be seen in any direction. None. I need to make a decision.
What I don't know is that I have long passed where I think I am and based on that the map says I need to go left. So I go left. What will happen may be a Camino record for a "detour" taken by a pilgrim. Are you starting to see why I left this out yesterday? In addition to the time it would take explain what happened, I am going to dinner and I want to complete the basic Stage 26 blog. I can't do it after dinner because it will be to late and I need to leave early to face what will become my toughest day . That will be covered in my Stage 27 blog. I just completed astage 27 and it took me more than eleven hours! That's for later.
Back to my detour. I walk more than ten miles on my "detour" but of course I have no idea what has happened. I pass through a forest for more than two hours being attacked by all sorts of bugs. I pull up my neck scarf over he back of my head and my hat and I pull up the front up to my eyes. The net result is that I am now experiencing what it must be like looking out of a Gurkha . It's weird. What happens next will make this day my number two most memorable, second only to my Credential day. That can not be topped even by this.
Are you starting to understand why I left tis out yesterday. Well the best is yet to come.
I finally come out of the forest and see daylight for the first time in more that an hour. I know something is terribly wrong. I come to a small village. I have been walking down hill for a long time. The village is empty of people but there are a lot of cats. I reach a main road and stop to look at the map. There is a sigh that says I am in San Juan something or other and I cannot find it anywhere on my maps. Nothing. This is not good. Now which way to go? If left back there was wrong I will now go right. I don't have much choice.
I walk about a half a mile. I have been walking for nearly eight hours. Up ahead there is a fairly large building with a large sign that says BAR. Lots of cars in the parking lot. I will go there and try to get directions.
As I walk across the road I see two guys talking in the parking lot. I actually ask in Spanish, "question , please" and they both just look at me while I hand the younger big guy my iPad Mimi with the address of my hotel in Villafranca and the guy goes nuts! He's waving his hands all over the place speaking to the older guy in Spanish at eighty words a minute. I sense this is not good. I don't understand a word he is saying while the older guy is speaking to me at an even faster rate. I wait for an opening and I simply ask "kilometers". The young guy says a number I think I understand but I can't believe it. The older guy is agreeing with him as he continues to wave his hands all over the place. Are you sitting down ?
He tells me that I am 40 kilometers from Villafranca ! That's farther away than when I first started eight hours ago. I am, to put it mildly, stunned ! Speechless, completely speechless . My next one word question is simply "taxi" and they both go back into crazy mode saying only, "no , no , no".
I make that universal hand signal for telephone and they both just say,"no". I get it, there is no taxi service here, in wherever it is I am standing. I reach in my pocket and take out every Euro I have, 75.
Remember when I first left Javier's hotel and tried the ATM? Technical Difficulty's ? That's all I have 75 Euros. They both continue their rapid fire conversation as they turn and head for the bar. I am in shock. It's 4:00 and I am twenty miles away from Villafranca.
I need to think of a solution. This is not a good time to panic. Starting to see why this was not part of yesterday's blog?
I am tired, I need to sit and think. I follow them into the bar. I open the door and its a mad house of men screaming from one end of this very large room to the other. There are several card games in progress. I don't know what games they are playing but it appears that in order to play you must scream a lot at each other. No one notices that I have walked in. It takes a while but I finally get a beer and head back to the front porch which is completely empty and I sit at a little table where I know that I must figure something out. This is just incredible.
I am sitting there for about fifteen minutes while men come and go. It's like I am invisible and then out comes the old guy I first met in the parking lot. He starts speaking to me in Spanish and he can tell I don't understand him. He stops talking and points at me, then points at himself and makes a gesture like he is driving a car! I think he is saying that he will drive me to Villafranca! He then points at his watch which I think is him telling me when he can leave. He goes back inside.
Did I miss understand him? Is he going to give me a ride? I am not sure but I am hoping I am correct.
At 4:45 the older guy and the big young guy come out of the bar and wave at me to follow them to the older guy's car. Its looks exactly like the car that Peter Sellers drove in the movie the Pink Panther. I put my backpack and poles in the back, the old guy is driving, the young guy is in the back seat and I am in the front passenger seat. We start and the old guy points at my seatbelt. I understand.
So here I am in the Pink Panther car driving on a freeway at about 50 miles an hour with two complete strangers who I can't communicate with going I don't know where. I ask the young guy, in Spanish, his name. He tells me Jose. The old guy says the same, Jose. The young guy tells me that its Dous Jose's and that the older guy is his father. Jose and Jose junior .
We arrive in Villafranca in about twenty minutes. The son was correct, about twenty miles. I am in Villafranca. They both get out and in there own way I can tell they are happy for me. I offer the 75 Euros and they say "no". I insist and the son takes it.
They drive away and two hours later I am regretting that in all of the thank you's I can say to them, I wish I had taken their picture. Now you no why I did not want to try and add this to the Stage 26 blog.
In summary I should have turned right and walked about eight miles to Villafranca but I turned left and walked about them miles to the bar in San Juan something resulting in the nearly twenty mile "detour".
I have now been transferred twice by four complete strangers just trying to help me on my Camino. Two policemen in a patrol car with lights on the roof and two Jose"s in a Peter Seller's, Pink Panther car without lights on the roof !
This will be my second most memorable day on the Camino. I am exhausted. I will post my Stage 27 journey tomorrow.
Before I go I do want to tell you that today was the toughest day I have had thus far and that I did not leave anything at my last hotel and I did not take any "detours" today !
Good night.
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