DAY FORTY TWO,11 June 2015
Hospital de Orbigo to Astorga
Started @ 7.00am till midday~16 kilometres
Woke up with terrible stomach problems. I had been vomiting all during the night. Thought it might have been the fish I ate during lunch time, but as Lucia had exactly the same food and no problems, it couldn’t be that. This lovely man told us there was a stomach bug going around, and obviously I have caught it. The walk was hard slog. My stomach kept cramping, and it was hard to even enjoy the slightest bit of the walk or the landscape. I am normally a positive person, but it is damn hard to stay positive while in pain.

On the way, about six kilometres out of Astorga, we came across a little oasis! David, a lovely Spanish man, who lives off the  grid, and has created this “House of the Gods”. A wonderful, wonderful little refuge. He was making organic fruit juices, sold biscuits and home made goodies. He made me a lovely apple tea for my upset stomach. He lives all year round in this unfinished stone place. Made it incredibly cosy. He has no gadgets or belongings. People asked if the dog was his and his answer was that the dog belonged to nobody, it was a free dog! David did not believe in having possessions or in possessing anything at all. A young man from Russia asked him if he wasn’t terribly lonely? “Lonely” I said? “He has hundreds of pilgrims around his house every day!” David laughed, and told me that the young man was asking if he wasn’t lonely for a woman! Oops! What do I know! He told me that he would love to live his life with a woman, of course, but had not found one as yet who would be able to give up all modern comforts to live in these circumstances. I can imagine so. Although it is incredibly romantic to have no possessions and I am fully aware that we can’t take anything with us, I DO have an attachment to stuff! Although sometimes emotionally only, but even that is an attachment.

Just about 2 kilometres outside of Astorga I doubled over with cramps (I had eaten some dry biscuits at David’s place) I nearly cried. Felt like a total idiot, but couldn’t go on. Lucia went to the super mercado and rang a taxi, at midday we arrived at the Hostel San Javier, where I went to bed immediately, with a large bucket next to me, and slept the sleep of the dead for the next three hours and probably would have slept around the clock, but we wanted to go and see the museum, cathedral and the Gaudi Palacio. It was superb! Absolutely loved it, but was very quick visit as I was cold and miserable. Obviously needed more sleep! Lucia was so kind and loving, how bloody boring this must be for her! I seem to go from one thing to the next! I feel exhausted and worn out totally! I cried when she spoiled me so! To be nurtured like this while I’ll is a novelty for me! I am not used to it!

Today’s lesson: know thy self
Today’s gift: Lucia’s goodies and David’s serenity