- Time of past OR future Camino
- VdlP(2012) Madrid(2014)Frances(2015) VdlP(2016)
VdlP(2017)Madrid/Sanabres/Frances reverse(2018)
I was just thinking that I should edit my details, which list the Via de la Plata as completed this year.
In fact it wasn't. I had to abandon my camino in Plasencia, when I received word that my older brother was dying. My brother lived in Portugal, and I had visited him, and shared many a glass of vino tinto just before commencing the camino, so this came as quite a shock.
By coincidence, my companion peregrino had an accident that same day; he came off his bike in busy traffic on the road into Plasencia. He broke a rib and injured a thumb badly, so probably would not have been any state to continue. I won't easily forget being flagged down by a passing vehicle, and turning to see several cars with hazard lights flashing and a group of people leaning over my friend prone on the bitumen, and his bike in the ditch. One of those moments you dread.
I returned to Portugal, and was there when my brother died.
He was my hero when I was younger. He went to sea when he was 17, and would come home on leave and dazzle me with wonderful stories of exotic places. He had been round the Horn about 20 times in his career; in his later years he was the captain of a container ship too big to fit through the Panama canal. At his funeral, an old, white haired, full bearded and rather scruffy man showed up. He had been a crew member on my brother's ship when it lost all power for 2 days in a Pacific typhoon. (They lost 120 containers thrown overboard, with 80 smashed on deck by the mountainous seas, some of which punctured the deck so the ship was taking on water. It's quite a story.) The "ancient mariner" told me "Your brother saved my life; no other captain I ever sailed with could have got us through that". Quite an epitaph.
In fact it wasn't. I had to abandon my camino in Plasencia, when I received word that my older brother was dying. My brother lived in Portugal, and I had visited him, and shared many a glass of vino tinto just before commencing the camino, so this came as quite a shock.
By coincidence, my companion peregrino had an accident that same day; he came off his bike in busy traffic on the road into Plasencia. He broke a rib and injured a thumb badly, so probably would not have been any state to continue. I won't easily forget being flagged down by a passing vehicle, and turning to see several cars with hazard lights flashing and a group of people leaning over my friend prone on the bitumen, and his bike in the ditch. One of those moments you dread.
I returned to Portugal, and was there when my brother died.
He was my hero when I was younger. He went to sea when he was 17, and would come home on leave and dazzle me with wonderful stories of exotic places. He had been round the Horn about 20 times in his career; in his later years he was the captain of a container ship too big to fit through the Panama canal. At his funeral, an old, white haired, full bearded and rather scruffy man showed up. He had been a crew member on my brother's ship when it lost all power for 2 days in a Pacific typhoon. (They lost 120 containers thrown overboard, with 80 smashed on deck by the mountainous seas, some of which punctured the deck so the ship was taking on water. It's quite a story.) The "ancient mariner" told me "Your brother saved my life; no other captain I ever sailed with could have got us through that". Quite an epitaph.
