Chapter 35
Hola Peregrinos, welcome to another ‘Tale from the Trail’.
It is Monday 27 April and for many people, the start of another Working Week’.
I’m working this week too: 😜
Flipping hard!
My work just happens to be a lot more ‘fun’.
Inverted commas for a reason.
The Camino is riddled with fun galore, but it is also a very tough physical challenge.
And there are definitely moments where you think:
“Really”!
And
“Do I have to!”
Somehow, most pilgrims manage to.
But there are injuries that can end a person’s whole Camino.
That happened to my Camino C’Amigo Glenn, 2 days out of Lisbon and to my poor sister Lizzie who tore her meniscus 3 days out of Porto.
She really did well to smile!
Sourcing a crutch gave her a lot of satisfaction.
She was super pleased with her €10 purchase online, which she got delivered to her hostel in a small Portuguese town …………
Via ‘Uber Eats’, 😜
Lizzie is a creative!
That’s a VERY creative bit of problem solving for sure.
Sadly for both Glenn and Lizzie, their Camino’s went more west than my ramblings.
But nevertheless, in the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger they have both said:
“I’ll be back”.
And if she wants me to, then so will I, and I’ll look to complete this Porto to Santiago walk with Lizzie.
Lizzie is Hannah’s mum.
Tragically her beautiful daughter was killed in a drink drive car crash, just 10 months ago.
Her devastated family are trying to move forward from this tragedy.
They have set up a charity in Hannah’s name.
The charity donates a ‘first reading book’ to young children in their locality, who are starting school for the first time.
Hannah loved reading: this charity is her public legacy.
The Jones family are also organising events to fundraise for it: events like the local Artisan’s market they hosted, just a week ago.
I’m walking over 1000 kilometres/600 miles to support that charity.
I’d be so grateful if you should choose to sponsor me.
You can do so via the link below!
Thank you so much.
Newsflash: my sponsorship total is now at nearly £2,800!
Unbelievable generosity!
£3,000 might actually be achievable!
🌻🌻🥾🌻🌻🥾🌻🌻🥾🌻🌻🥾🌻🌻
As I prepared for my day this morning, in the lounge area of the hostel. I noticed that most of my fellow pilgrims were paying very close attention to their feet.
Every one of them was administering their own particular brand of damage-limitation treatments.
Jenni, one of the Aussie girls was kind enough to let me use an iodine type ointment to drizzle over my sore feet.
I remember my mum used to give us something similar as kids, if we scraped a knee or grazed an elbow.
It was always a thing of dread: that ominous brown glass bottle on the bathroom shelf.
That stuff stung worse than any graze!
With that knowledge we would try and brush off the reality that the graze hurt, in the hope that mum would take pity on us and leave the iodine on the shelf.
She didn’t!
Not once.
Jenni reassured me.
“It’s an iodine derivative and it doesn’t sting.”
She was right of course.
I suspect Jenni is often right.
Jenni doesn’t get much detail wrong.
She’s the Aussie equivalent of Trishy, the school administrator from my old school, whom I shouted out in my blog yesterday.
‘Trish the Dish’ and ‘Mary Poppins’.
Cross either of them at your peril!
What a combination!
‘Mary Pops’ took our selfie this morning, as we left the hostel.
Yet more drug dealing on my Camino.
That solution has that same strikingly brown colour as the brackish water at home in the rivers of Yorkshire.
Laced with iron I guess.
But it really doesn’t sting thank goodness.
Don’t worry: it’s nothing worse on those tissues!
“Bless me Father for I have sinned!”
That hostel floor now has some slight brown stains on it!
I’ve left my mark unwittingly.
I scrubbed and scrubbed!
“P*** Poor Preparation leads to P*** Poor Performance!’ (The British Army).
I should have used more loo roll to mop up that spillage immediately.
Using that antiseptic this morning, did make me start to think about the so called ‘Placebo Effect’ in terms of pain management.
I’ve come to believe that by doing something, just anything, to marginally improve your pain, then you can at least make a tiny improvement to your personal situation.
I did some trail based online research.
According to the Mayo Clinic in America:
“Your mind can be a powerful healing tool when given the chance. The idea that your brain can convince your body a fake treatment is the real thing – the so-called placebo effect – and thus stimulate healing has been around for millennia. Now science has found that under the right circumstances, a placebo can be just as effective as traditional treatments.
The placebo effect is more than positive thinking – believing a treatment or procedure will work. It’s about creating a stronger connection between the brain and body and how they work together.
Placebos won’t lower your cholesterol or shrink a tumor. Instead, placebos work on symptoms modulated by the brain, like the perception of pain. Placebos may make you feel better, but they will not cure you. They have been shown to be most effective for conditions like pain management, stress-related insomnia, and cancer treatment side effects like fatigue and nausea.”
Maybe?
Maybe not!
🤷🏻♂️
All I know, is that every time I’ve made a tweak on my blister and sore care, it has eased the pain ……. at least a bit!
And at least I’ve managed to keep walking.
So I’m a convinced and convicted ‘Placebo-er’.
Interesting!
For me anyway!😜
I’ve come to realise that I am very privileged.
I don’t work anymore; a reality that opened the door to me planning this mad cap adventure that encompasses walking the height of Portugal as well as a decent size chunk of northern Spain.
That adventure started on 25th March, and will hopefully culminate during this working week, at the cathedral in the centre of Santiago de Compostella.
I’ve had various travel companions along the way.
I walked with my friend ‘Camiño Steve’, who supported me to reach the city of Porto after the first 3 weeks.
There I took time out to enjoy a city break with my wife Nicky.
It was fantastic: what a city Porto is.
Then I walked with my sister Lizzie: our plan was to walk together to Santiago.
Lizzie wanted tome out to try and process her grief.
She also wanted to support my charitable fundraising.
This is a sponsored walk after all.
I wanted to support her too, as she deals with the daily struggle of grief.
Lizzie is mum to 7 adult children.
In a tragic and avoidable accident, her 24 year old daughter, Hannah, was killed in a head on crash with another car driven by an intoxicated driver.
Lizzie grieves.
Every day has its challenges.
She keeps going.
She tells me that she has to.
But it’s not easy.
That path will never be easy.
Sadly, Lizzie was hit with another kickback.
She tore her meniscus in her knee and has had to postpone her Camino.
She actually had to hobble to her plane on a crutch she bought and had delivered to her by Uber Eats.
That is resourcefulness of the highest order.
Lizzie’s Camino is not over: just delayed.
She is planning to return.
If she does and she wants me to, I’ll return to Porto and walk to Santiago with her.
It’s almost certainly a ‘Mastermind Moment:,
‘We’ve started so we will finish!’
I’ve made some lovely friends on this Camino.
I’ve walked on a regular basis with Michael from California: a former Google executive.
I nicknamed him the ‘Yank with the Tank’.
He carries the biggest back pack I have ever seen.
At least 20kg in weight. He actually posted 6kg forwards to Santiago.
I know he has a laptop and a big barrel of ibruprofen in that sack.
What else?
I have absolutely no idea!
I’ve also walked with 3 lovely ladies from Australia: albeit on a slightly less regular basis.
Until now.
Meet Lisa ‘Lightfoot’.
She ‘glides’ along the trail. So languid in her stride pattern.
Meet Jenni: aka ‘Mary Poppins’
On account of that umbrella, which she uses to keep the sun at bay.
Meet Donna: aka ‘Blitzen’.
She’s very quick on the trail.
They all live by the ocean in Cairns, Australia, so for them, the Litoral (Atlantic Ocean) route had less appeal and less attraction than the Central route from Porto to Redondela.
We all all converged in Redondela last night.
Our collective plan is to walk a shorter 18 km stretch today, Monday, then meet up with Mike in a lovely city called Pontevedra: and then walk together, as a ‘Camino Bubble’ into Santiago together.
The plan has worked so far.
The girls and I walked a 31 km day on Sunday, on our separate routes, to make our rendezvous.
19 miles of our English miles if you are old school.
It was so nice to see them again.
I’ve actually loved walking some of the route by myself.
But I’ve also loved the company I’ve shared, primarily with the people named above.
The truth is that you can have a really uplifting conversation on the trail.
Often that chat may only last 20 minutes.
But you remember it.
I enjoyed such a conversation with Mikey and Nancy from Boston, USA, yesterday.
They are in their own ‘mother and son bubble’.
Our chat helped to divert my attention from my sore feet, and complete the last 3 hot kilometres into the town.
Placebo effect again?
Distraction, especially purposeful distraction, is good.
The day before, on my first difficult day in this trip, a day when I really couldn’t be bothered anymore, I had promised myself no more 30+ kilometres days.
I’d had enough of them.
That has been my daily average since I started on the Portuguese Algarve, and my feet were too sore to do it anymore.
But the lure of seeing those 3 friendly and fun Aussies, was too strong.
I broke my 12 hour old promise and did another mad distance.
We really enjoyed a kebab dinner: not a dodgy donner but a delicious donner!
It was great and really good value.
I met 2 of their newer C’Amigos, Christian, a peregrino from French speaking Canada and Marcus from Puerto Rica, who I had previously met near Lisbon.
It was a fun night
In true Camino style, we were all tucked up in bed by 9pm.
That’s quite a late night for pilgrims who rise and start walking before dawn.
Yesterday, Sunday, I was lucky enough to walk with 2 Italian students from Rome.
Irena and ‘Belia’.
They were such good company, bright, fun, articulate.
I loved our conversation.
I’ll see more of them Monday and Tuesday. We are in the same hostel
Newsflash:
Camino Steve has arrived in Santiago de Compostella!
A phenomenal effort by the old boy! (😂)
1000+km, 600+ miles and 1.5 million steps walked in exactly 5 weeks. Incredible 👏
I, on the other hand, was now taking my time.
The pain in my feet has ensured that I ‘slow down, you’re moving too fast’.🎵
Santiago remains a likely target for me on Friday.
On Sunday I did another big hit of 19 miles/30 km so I could meet up with 4/those lovely C’Amigos.
We hope to reconnect with ‘The Yank with the Tank’ on Monday afternoon.
We then have an exciting plan:
We will all then finish our epic walk together.
I’ve loved my solo times on this trip. but also the brilliant’Camino Camaraderie’.
But now things are hotting up on the trail:
The last few miles along the coast were wonderful.
A ‘CrocStop’ to give my poor feet some peace and quiet.
I eventually left the Atlantic after Vigo, and it started getting hilly,
Vigo was much nicer than I expected.
Even the yellow cranes looked cool against that skyline.
A late breakfast of toast and coffee, went down a treat.
€4.50: a bargain!
That fountain was a temptation to my toes.
I resisted!
The trail was filling up.
Peregrinos! 🙄
Actually: ‘Tourist Peregrinos!’
Where the heck did they all come from?
Very steep hills!
Where did they come from too?
There was suddenly scores of pilgrims (most are definitely Tourist Pilgrims🫣), and it was hot!
Ps NO JUDGEMENT! 😜
Luckily the trail led into the woods which offered some relief from that blazing sun.
A beautiful waterfall and a cooling fountain.
I stood in that freezing water for 10 minutes.
So lovely!
Beautiful wild orange flowers. What are they?
I’m no florist unfortunately.
And stunning views of the river and Vigo far below us.
More beautiful street art.
My screaming feet begged me to stop.
At 3.15 after another 31 kilometres, I finally obliged.
A lovely chicken pasta salad lunch with the Aussie girls was fantastic value at €8.
A perfect ending to a tough but satisfying day.
No more 30 Km days from now on!
Really? 🙄
Lizzie messaged me from her couch this afternoon.
Poignant as ever.
That girl writes superbly:
“The temptation to stay in bed is real this morning.
I hurt — physically and emotionally.
The sudden shift from busily organising the market on Hannah’s birthday, then heading straight to Portugal to begin my Camino, to this — painful, reduced mobility and too much time to notice the reminders of her absence — feels overwhelming.
When everything is busy, when there is purpose and movement, it is easier to keep going. There is less time to think, less space to feel the full weight of it all.
But when things slow down — when you are forced to stop — it catches up with you.
Grief doesn’t disappear. It waits.
And in the quiet, it finds you again.
This wasn’t how I had imagined these days. I thought I would be walking, putting one foot in front of the other, finding some kind of rhythm in the movement. Instead, I am here, learning a different kind of endurance.
The kind that asks you to sit with it. To feel it. To carry it without the distraction of distance or destination.
It is not easy.
But it is still part of the path I am on.
So I’ll get up.
Because that’s all I can do today.”
And that is why I walk.
Thanks for the read everyone.
Buen Camino.
Martin x
Martin Moorman is a 61 year old retired Headteacher who lives with his wife Nicky, daughter and her family in North Yorkshire, UK.
Happily married for 36 years, Martin and Nicky have 3 grown up children, all happily married too. In his spare time Martin loves walking, photography, football, renovating cooking and talking rubbish to anyone who will listen!
Martin Moorman 
those flowers are called birds of paradise – i learnt that on Maderia when I saw hem for the first time
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