From Anceis to As Travesas…
… to Dos Cervezas
“For every disciplined effort, there is a multiple reward.” -Jim Rohn
A stunning, breathtaking day!
I could have filled several blog pages with the photos from this stretch of road but chose a sampling instead. Because I’d pushed on to Anceis, this would have been too short of a walking day, so I kept going past Serandons to As Travesas instead. I’d never before - or since - tackled such a continual climb, however gradual at times. My smoking history caught up with me. I worried that I’d have to tap out - or worse. It was a challenging, stunning, sweaty, slog!
I’m actually choking up as I write this. Part of me relives this stretch in my heart and wants to go back and do it again. Expect the hilly bits. The wildflowers and groomed gardens, the shades of green, the winding roads, and different trees than the ones at home. The place signs and maps confused me on occasion and made me question my directionality - towns, townships, diocese - and the like. Some of the scenery felt a bit like Ireland to me, that quality or familiarity of beauty. Perhaps I just felt the need to anchor the experience to a few knowns, to process it all by comparisons, in hopes of remembering it better.
Some - actually much - of the terrain challenged me. I gave some of my huffs and puffs and worry about blisters to Farren who had never experienced anything like this on foot either. If I’d been walking with someone, anyone, I would have tested their patience with my lapses into self-pity. Because I was completely alone as the road rose to meet me, and I became breathless, I worried that I’d collapse and not be found in time to be revived. Honestly! I started a wee chant: “As Travesas, Cervesas!” the promise of a nice cold one - or two - if I survived. I’m a wine-over-beer person except when I build up a thirst in the hot summer sun. I attached a video clip of my chant for your entertainment.
I was curious about my first night at Casa Rural Costa de Egoa after the luxurious hotels. I’d chosen this casa from a list of offerings with the travel company I’d used, unsure if it would be a fit, particularly for several nights. It was far from the usual tourist amenities but I wanted the rural casa experience as research for Wayward. My fictional casa would be where Liam’s in-laws lived and where he and Dora resided when in the country. The casa, also used for his tour company clients, would be next door to Dora’s love interest, Pietro, who she hoped to marry and manage horse tours on the Camino with.
After the long climb and a successful transfer, beer never tasted so good!
Sometimes writing can be like an uphill slog where you just want to give up. What you do at that point matters. A lot.
What do you do when faced with that mountain called writer’s block?
Buckle at the wrists? Find a detour?
How do you rekindle that fire and faith in yourself and your ideas and skills?
Find your own way to persevere - to say to the mountain “move!”
Because if you do, it will.
Ultreia! Forward, together!
