Meseta days...

For the past several days we´ve been traversing the vast, supposedly-featureless ¨meseta¨ section of the trail that tortures the minds and bodies of many pilgrims on the Camino. The trail generally follows perfectly straight, two-lane roads across land resembling the Great Plains--there is nothing but green and brown on either side of you for as far as the eye can see. Much of the trail is actually situated on these long, flat two-lane roads, which might seem comforting. As was mentioned in a previous post, however, it is oftentimes hard, flat ground that often proves to be more troublesome than inclines or declines in elevation. For dozens of kilometers at a time, some say, there´s nothing to look at but wheat, dirt, and the behinds of the pilgrims strung out in a long line in front of you. As one friend mentioned, the tendency is to turn into something resembling a ¨zombie¨ as you move endlessly across the undifferentiated countryside.

I find the meseta pretty stunning, actually. It looks something like what I´ve seen of the plains outside of Grand Forks, North Dakota, but far less depressing. There are literally thousands of birds flying overhead and chirruping in the grass alongside the roadway and the trail. Next to the irrigation ditches bordering the roads, hundreds and hundreds of frogs can be heard. Everyone else thinks I´m crazy, but I keep saying that the persistent breeze and the smell of dew burning off as the morning warms up makes me feel constantly as if we´re near the ocean. Perhaps this is the effect of having a blue sky above oneself that is so vast that it must resemble the sea-like ¨big skies¨ of Montana back in the U.S. Wildflowers abound beside the irrigation ditches running throughout the surrounding farmland. Among others, the most striking are these purple spiny thistles, bright red poppies, yellow daisies, blue cornflowers, and there are many others. At points, the profusion of colors appears to have been arranged by something other than the sun, wind and rain. Far from being ¨featureless,¨ when you look hard enough, the meseta can be just as impressive as the Pyrenees or the forests in La Rioja. You just have to be willing to take a moment, relax, look around, realize where you are, and appreciate the little stuff that, when put together by your mind, makes for a pretty impressive and inspiring combination in its totality.

Tomorrow we have a short day leading up to Leon, the second major city on the route and the end of the second of the three ¨legs¨ of the Camino. It will mark the completion of approximately 500 of the 800 kms that comprise the pilgrimage. We´re looking forward to celebrating the acheivement a bit. Look at the interactive map on pocf.org, it´s pretty hard to believe we´ve come so far. It does seem like we´ve been in Spain for quite a while, but it´s amazing to think that we are now half-way to Santiago. It goes to show what you can be capable of when you keep your head down and just keep moving.