The light blue dot in the middle is where Alexander Verbeek started his journey
It is 2 a.m. and I can’t sleep. The room is hot, I’m sweating on a Spanish bed that is not made to fit a tall Dutchman. I know about the importance of cooling down at night and I open the small window. I had kept it closed when I went to sleep since outside was even warmer than in the house.
After a few short moments of sleep, I realize at 4 a.m. that I smell smoke. I check the corridor, my room, and look outside. I don’t see flames but smell the forest fires and remember the firefighting helicopters and planes that I had seen in the evening.
On my smartphone, I search for information on the wildfires in Galicia, on the air quality, and on what to do in this situation. I decide to stay, call a taxi to get out of this region at first daylight and sleep with an N95 mask that I still carry with me to deal with the other global crisis, the pandemic.
At 6:30am, I get up, pack my backpack, go downstairs and open the front door. The air quality seems less bad than a few hours earlier. I drop the taxi plan that would probably lead to more hours waiting in this small village and decide to walk to a region with cleaner air.
Coincidentally the nearest clean air is towards the west, where Santiago de Compostela lies, between me and the Atlantic Ocean. It is where the Camino leads me. And even though the nearest active fire is also to the west, I decided to go for clean air.
The first photos of the day capture a magnificent sunrise and during a short break, I post one of these on Twitter.
Photo by Alexander Verbeek
I know by now that I am a fast walker. At an average speed of six kilometers per hour, there hasn’t been any other pilgrim that passed me since I noticed my faster pace. That was around the time that I was in lively Burgos with its stunning Cathedral, now weeks ago.
I briefly walk up with a young woman from Karlsruhe, Germany, but then quicken my pace. A bit further, I meet a student from Budapest, Hungary. A fast walker, although going barefoot in his leather sandals. He has two pairs of shoes tied to his backpack. He tells me his blisters won’t stop him from catching up with his sister. She is half-a-day of walking ahead of him after an argument a few days ago. I suppose she refuses to stop and wait for him, knowing quite well that his blisters make him feel sorry during prolonged Camino stages. I hope Santiago will be forgiving to both of them.
The air quality that briefly looked so much better when I started walking, suddenly turned much worse. I feel it in my throat, smell it, and fear it. I notice that what I first believed was a morning fog like the one I recently photographed in Portomarin is actually smoke. I can no longer see the fertile green hills of Galicia in the distance.
In Palas de Rei, I stop at a cafe for a fresh orange juice, the fuel that I walk on every morning. On the other side of the street, I notice a dozen pilgrims waiting for a bus. An unusual sight and I walk up to a woman who’s waiting there with her backpack. We chat for a while, she’s an officer in the U.S. Navy and takes the bus since back pain prevents her from further walking today. She asks if I also saw the ash falling out of the sky in Sarria a few days ago, and we both notice that this time we don’t see any ash of the forest fires.
Soon after I leave Palas de Rei, the air quality seems to get better and even though I still see smoke in the distance, I find hope in the patches of blue sky opening up above me.
Photo by Alexander Verbeek
It changes my mood, and I start to pay more attention to the nature and architecture of the region. I see butterflies, and several tiny little toads on the hollow roads that I walk on. These roads are sometimes six meters deep, and I imagine the millions of pilgrims feet that have walked here for more than a thousand years.
Photo by Alexander Verbeek
Every village has the typical Galician stone grain stores, hórreros, this is an example of what these look like.
I was breathing fresh air again and stopped in another small village for a coffee. Like many Galician villages it had one of the stone crosses (cruceiros) that are often from the 19th century.
I continue my walk through the green forests of Galicia. Sometimes stopping in one of the many small villages, or finding time to chat with fellow pilgrims. Some of my group of friends from the first days have now reached Santiago and they sent me a photo, some didn’t have the time to finish and have already returned to their homes in Manchester, Hamburg, and elsewhere.
But I keep meeting new pilgrims, or find others that I had left behind, but that had passed me when I stayed longer than others in Leon. I have never met anyone in all these weeks of walking that I did not like, we’re in this together, support each other, and listen to each other’s stories. Because we all have our stories to tell and many make this pilgrimage because they have had experiences that require some time off from the normal routines in our lives at our homes.
Close to Meride, I cross the medieval arched bridge. Soon after I find a place to sleep, and it is the first thing that I do. After two hours, I wake up, do my laundry, and start to write down what you just read. It was another day in the life of a modern day pilgrim.
Thank you to Alexander Verbeek, for allowing me to reshare this “letter” from his pilgrimage on the Camino Frances in Northern Spain. Alexander is an environmentalist, writer, broadcaster and speaker on climate change and the harmony of our natural world. I first connected with Alexander for our first podcast together for the Journal here, we have gone on to broadcast regularly together on green living. I received this letter from Alexander this morning and felt compelled to share it with you here too. With the extreme temperatures rocking Europe, here in the UK yesterday we experienced our hottest day, it brought home again how our precious earth is heating up. WE need to do something collectively.
I think it was a harmony and peaceful nature of this letter, but the urgency of the “fear” of forest fires and smoke that resonated. If we do nothing, if we vote for those who are not concerned with protecting our natural environment, who want to undo all the good work of others who have put environmental protection measures in place, then our planet and us will over heat. I did write in a recent tweet myself (somewhat tongue in cheek but actualy it might be a good idea) that we need to turn off the aircon in the politicians offices so climate is at the top of their agenda…
As Alexander writes: “I write these newsletters, share my photos, do interviews, make podcasts about the environment, and share my travels because I believe that together we can do better on this beautiful but fragile planet.”
Please consider supporting Alexander by visiting him on Substack even taking out a subscription or buying him a coffee.
Alexander Verbeek is Policy Director of the EDRC (the Environmental Development Resource Centre in Brussels), he is an environmentalist, public speaker, former diplomat and strategic policy advisor at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I came to know Alexander through his independent newsletter The Planet (published on Substack).