So day 2. My legs were fine when I woke up this morning, much to my surprise. I was expecting cramp, swollen joints, maybe a missing limb or two but actually all was in working order.
Breakfast was wonderfully excessive. I did say I wanted a grande cafe con leche but the arrival of a full jug of coffee with a full jug of warm milk was a little over the top.
The warmth of the hotel owner then extended to my shirt. He approved of the bright blue camino shirt I was wearing but felt it could be improved; he brought out a large, equally bright blue shirt with Camino Invierno logos and gave it to me as a present. Can’t help but feel that these guys are a little short of customers at the moment; I was the only one at breakfast. Still, it was a very kind gesture and so I wore it to head off.
The direct route today was about 18km but I was keen to go and see the old Roman gold mines that are in this area – Las Medulas – so I did about 28. The engineers of 2,000 years ago managed to create an incredible landscape in their hunt for the precious metal. Of course this wasn’t done with JCBs. There is a sad pre-roman fort just outside Borrenes which was never finished as the population was “moved” to Las Medulas. Not hard to figure out what happened; the local Celts were furiously trying to build some protection but the legions turned up too soon and enslaved them.
The walk to Las Medulas was pretty – lots and lots of what I think is wild clematis covers the path. However, on arrival in the little town I saw a truly horrific sight – teenage Spanish kids on a school outing. And shouting. And screaming. And generally being teenagers. So as they headed off for a walk round the site, I took a different path and heading up a 3km climb to get to a Mirador that overlooks the site. Well worth it.
All this used to be a mountain. And then they found gold being washed out in the streams below. Pliny reckoned that there were some 60,000 slaves working here at peak. One could even go into a water tunnel of an old mine working which, even though it was lit, gave some impression of what it must have been like working here.
This would be the worst place on earth to be in an earthquake. I’m used to going into majestic caves that are generally limestone and look quite solid. This was some kind of sandstone and as I brushed against the roof, small stones fell off. I’m not normally spooked by enclosed spaces but this looked very fragile.
So basically a claustrophobic hell for the Romans’ slaves, working until death. Of course, our own dear Archbishop Justin Welby recently described the EU as the “greatest dream realised by humans since the end of the Roman empire”. Rather a surprising statement really – one can’t help but think that a man with a job title of Archbishop would be a little less enthusiastic about the guys who committed genocide, enslaved millions and, let us not forget, crucified Christ….but perhaps the good archbishop knows, like all good liberals, that the only thing in the world that really matters is the overall size of the economy. As mothers in Borrenes saw their crying children grabbed and sent to a certain death all those years ago, I’m sure that they murmured those reassuring words to their offspring, “be cheerful – just think what this is going to do to Rome’s GDP figures in the next quarter!” Which is basically an ancient version of what I’m seeing walking through this part of Spain. The hotel I’m staying in today is the only one for miles around near a major tourist attraction and has 6 out of 25 rooms taken. The only people doing well are those who make “closed” signs.
One of the nice things about being so high up is of course the views. in the picture above, one can just make out snow on the distant peaks which are the mountains that mark the Galician border. Snow in the middle of June tells you why they had to create a winter route to Santiago. On a smaller scale, I was accompanied for quite a way today by a friendly butterfly. No idea why it was hanging around me but it was charming and delicate company.
Arrived at the hotel and it took ten minutes while they worked out which of the 19 empty rooms to put me in. Fortunately I have ended up with a decent sized room and a balcony on which to dry socks and underpants. I dried some socks on the back of my rucksack today and I have to confess that it’s not the best look. There is a very thin line between pilgrim and tramp when it comes to fashion.
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