TRAVEL MEMOIRS
Am I Too Old To Walk Camino de Santiago?
It’s a valid thing to wonder at a certain point
“Hey, you forgot to pay your restaurant bill!” read the text message.
Damn. I was walking Camino in Portugal, and I was thirty minutes north of the hotel I’d stayed the previous night. I was well up the trail, on my way to Santiago. It promised to be a scorcher, and if I had to turn around and march back, I would lose walking time in the cool of the day.
The heat dome in Portugal in 2023 made long walks outside so hard. Every day, I struggled. Red, itchy heat rash covered both my ankles. My feet were swollen, and I was becoming like a person on one of those survivor TV shows. I was ready to shoot the flare gun!
“No worries, we can run your credit card over the phone,” the owner said. I set my pack on a big rock, entirely alone on the trail. When I leaned over to dig a credit card out of my 40L Osprey pack, my Ray Ban sunglasses (see photo above) fell off the rock. I didn’t notice. Gone forever. I hope some nice Portuguese person enjoys them.
