The Dragonte Route (Part 1)

The route less travelled.

I set off at 0630. Sleeping in an extra 30 minutes more than I had planned probably wasn't the best start, but I knew it would be a long day anyway and I was pleased to pay the extra money to sleep in a nicer pilgrim hostel. It offered free Internet with single beds rather than bunk beds so everyone would be guaranteed a floor level bed. I didn't realize how big of a deal it was to not get the top bunk. I never really preferred them myself, mostly due to fear of rolling over and falling onto the floor, but I think the Camino has made me much more comfortable with them now.

The bathrooms were clean and came with...hydro-massaging showers. It's exactly how it sounds. Equipped with more buttons than necessary causing one to not intuitively know what each button did, water came at me at all directions. I felt like Ross in the episode of 'Friends' where he goes to a New York City tanning salon to achieve a perfect spray tan.

Around sunrise, we left our hostel and headed toward the outskirts of town. There were three choices of routes to take, but there weren't clearly marked signs that we could see that would  eventually dictate our fates that day. My Spanish friend Diego walks into a nearby bar to ask for clearer directions. He returns with a discouraged look on his face. He knows which way goes where, but was again warned for what seemed like the tenth time that the Dragonte route was poorly marked and dangerous. 

He tells me he's taking the more popular, traditional and better marked route. Everyone else agrees with him. I look over my shoulder in the direction of Dragonte and take off with a quick goodbye and say, "Maybe I'll see you in Herrerias," but I already know that I won't. He'd pass it before me if he doesn't decide to wait, which isn't a reasonable choice anyway. The rightfully selfish part of the Camino is that you go at your own pace, choose your route, and hope that the Camino takes care of you. Still, the confidence of possibly linking up again was comforting for us, and with another stepI take off without looking back.

I'm now completely alone. I spent the entire morning without seeing a single pilgrim. The first stretch was along a steep and desolate uphill asphalt road and I start to think about how long it's been since I've really walked all on my own after having attached to different groups the last two or so weeks. Sunrise didn't really exist with the dark clouds above and the chilling wind coming at me in every direction. The main reason I felt confident about the route was because my guidebook had instructions, although obscure, of how to reach different points along the way and what one should see and where to approximately turn.

I pass through the first seemingly abandoned mountainside town of Dragonte with ease. The only sign that pilgrims once came through here is a village fountain marked with the traditional pilgrim conch shell symbol of St. James. Aside from that, I feel like any car that passes me by and other townspeople that see me are looking at me in astonishment or as if I'm crazy.  Had they ever seen pilgrims before on this route?

I take on my first set of obscure instructions of passing a rock quarry on my left and turning right after a grove of trees up a hill. The narrow path seems overgrown and I assume that I see fresh footprints of possible other pilgrims who came before me earlier in the morning. In the end, I think they were just from farmers moving their cattle through the forests. Then again, I'm not a tracker. I look at the dark clouds again and even though I don't think it'll rain that much or at all, I'm not a meteorologist either. All skills that probably could prove helpful in lonely pilgrimage situations with unmarked trails.  I don't think the first traditonal trail marker of a yellow arrow appear until 8km in.

I remember how discouraged others seemed after hearing how poorly marked the trail is. This trail wasn't in most of the other guidebooks or maps people had. People had heard of it, but it seemed like any route description of it made it's way to the maps or guides that pilgrims were carrying. I hated the feeling of being left at the last minute. It wasn't so much a feeling of abandonment as much as it was that the others didn't have the confidence to do it with me. I decide to do my part and lay down cairns, or a pyramid pile of stones to mark routes for hikers, whenever I felt confident about the direction I took on this route.  Later I decide that carrying a can of yellow spray paint to create the familiar yellow arrows, or even a machete to cut down the overgrown plants would have been helpful.

The  helpful farmer leaving

At one point, I found myself face to face with a herd of cows making their way down the path toward me. They just stop and stare directly at me. Maybe it's not so odd in the Spanish countryside, but coming from the city, I wasn't really sure what to do.  I decide against walking toward them. Seeing images of San Fermin with the running of the bulls in Pamplona spring into my head.  I decide to move off the path and head a little into the steep down.  A few minutes later two dogs come charging at me from behind the group of cows. I freeze until I see the shape of a man come from inbetween the animals.

"....Hola....?" I say in my southern Californian accent.

The farmer comes to me and says something to me in Spanish that I could only assume were directions.  He uses his hands to point at what I think should be the next few directions I should be going in.  Even though I knew this wouldn't help me, I thank him graciously and wait for him to move past me with all his cattle.  I do catch that he tells me that they aren't bulls. A little embarrassed, I continue on knowing I have such a long day ahead of me.

Hidden derelict building

My first real spell of discouragement came when I couldn't find a 'derelict stone building' that I was to turn right at. I was confident in my pace count that I was precisely 1.5km into the forest where the building should be, so I went 100m in  a few directions to see if I could find it and was just thrown off by the incline of the trail. I found both a large clearing and a small waterfall, both nice, but neither were noted in the book, so I started to follow my steps back from where I came.

After nearly an hour of searching and backtracking I finally found it concealed a bit too well. It seemed like it appeared out of nowhere and it blended in so well with the rest of the stones, trees and mountainside. Relieved, I took a photo for the memory and continued on. The rest of the directions were accurate and I walked 30m through a small stream (wet socks!) before reaching a dry path to follow again. It was at this point that the rain started coming down and harder with every passing minute so I put on the poncho and continued until I frustratingly came to the end of the path where there were 3 options to choose from and no clear decision to make. I knew I had to find a church next and make my way up and out of the forest so I chose the way where it seemed like the trees cleared up in the distance.  After a few hundred meters I discovered I made the right decision and took shelter under an arch of an old church that didn't seem well looked after or that friendly. I don't think anyone was even there or that the door would open, but my guide mentioned that it was formerly a monastery and pilgrim hospice of San Fructuoso.

Church-both shelter and a view

I moved on eventually and made my way out of the next abandoned town and followed a path leading to the high point of the first mountain. The clearing fog and the ceasing rain combined to grant me my first spectacular views and I was so grateful. I took advantage of the moment by removing my poncho and taking my first real break to recharge my energy and eat some food. It was just after 11am and I calculated that I had only hiked around 12km. It wasn't the most encouraging news seeing how I was averaging around 5km an hour on other...more flatter days.

About 20 or 30 minutes had passed when suddenly behind me in the distance I heard a woman's voice.

"Oh my God, is that actually another person?!......Is that Justine?"


(end of part 1)