Camino Jacobeo del Ebro. part four
Friday 17 October — Morning Leaving Cortes The Peregrine leaves the brief warmth of companionship and the sufficient ritual of coffee to commit to the Camino Jacobeo del Ebro. The first illusion of the day dissolves when a hoped-for fellow pilgrim resolves into a leaning strand of bamboo, confirming the solitary nature of the Way. The Plateau of Unromantic Truth The walk settles into a difficult geometry: twenty-plus kilometres of relentless straight ahead. The landscape is a series of contrasts — the odour of chickens and pigs, the fleeting flight of starlings, the distant hum of the Autopista del Ebro. This straightness mirrors an inner reality. Under a shadowless, diffused sky, loneliness spreads like a plateau. Wind turbines stand still, heavy ogres resting on the Peregrine’s shoulders — the body of a depressive state. He concedes the truth: El Camino isn’t romantic. He measures the difference from before. Aubrac was his King Lear — pathos, element, confrontation. Today is ...