Competition on the Camino
The International Snoring Competition was held on Monday in Hontanas, Spain. Competitors from five countries gathered to see who could snore the loudest and longest in this nightly competition. France made a tremendous showing, but it was the Spanish entrant who provided the highest volume and most disturbing sounds. The USA competitor (me) was disqualified for never actually falling asleep.
Snoring isn´t the only competition on the Camino, it seems. I can´t quite understand it, but so many of these people seem to be in a forced march to Santiago. I don´t know what the rush is, but daily, as I am walking along this beautiful trail, the Germans, Dutch, French, Australians, and Spanish zip past me at a hurried pace. There are plenty of beds in the albergues right now, so that can´t be the issue.
Certainly some people have time constraints, as they have only so many days to get to Santiago, but then I see them at the end of the day at the albergue. We´ve covered the same amount of ground but in vastly different amounts of time. Reminds me of those math word problems I could never understand (if pilgrim A leaves town 1 at 6:45a and travels at 3.5 km per hour, and pilgrim B leaves the same town at 8:20am and travels at 6km per hour...).
The final competition I have declined to participate in is the competition to see who can carry the most stuff. My personal philosophy is that if I have to carry something - anything - for up to five hours a day, it is certainly not going to be very much. As I mentioned earlier, when I left Saint Jean Pied de Port, my bag was about five pounds too heavy for my taste.
I jettisoned the extra weight in Pamplona, which brought my load down to five kilos, or roughly 11 lbs. Of course this didn't include everything, like the clothes I was wearing and my trekking poles. But less really is more in this case. I routinely encountered pilgrims carrying 10 kilos and more - that's 22 lbs. and upwards. My only question is why? I am, again, happy to lose this competition.
So on we march...
Snoring isn´t the only competition on the Camino, it seems. I can´t quite understand it, but so many of these people seem to be in a forced march to Santiago. I don´t know what the rush is, but daily, as I am walking along this beautiful trail, the Germans, Dutch, French, Australians, and Spanish zip past me at a hurried pace. There are plenty of beds in the albergues right now, so that can´t be the issue.
Certainly some people have time constraints, as they have only so many days to get to Santiago, but then I see them at the end of the day at the albergue. We´ve covered the same amount of ground but in vastly different amounts of time. Reminds me of those math word problems I could never understand (if pilgrim A leaves town 1 at 6:45a and travels at 3.5 km per hour, and pilgrim B leaves the same town at 8:20am and travels at 6km per hour...).
The final competition I have declined to participate in is the competition to see who can carry the most stuff. My personal philosophy is that if I have to carry something - anything - for up to five hours a day, it is certainly not going to be very much. As I mentioned earlier, when I left Saint Jean Pied de Port, my bag was about five pounds too heavy for my taste.
I jettisoned the extra weight in Pamplona, which brought my load down to five kilos, or roughly 11 lbs. Of course this didn't include everything, like the clothes I was wearing and my trekking poles. But less really is more in this case. I routinely encountered pilgrims carrying 10 kilos and more - that's 22 lbs. and upwards. My only question is why? I am, again, happy to lose this competition.So on we march...
posted by No Day But Today | 4:13 AM
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