Day 24 - Ponferrada to Villafranca - 25 km

Le Peligrino Perro or The Camino Dog

Sonja and I stayed in a hostel last night and headed out at 8:00 a.m. We'd walked about 1 km when we realized that we had company. "Don't look at him", Sonja said, "he seems to like us". I've seen many stray dogs on the streets and none of them are very sociable creatures so I assured her he wouldn't stick around for long. But it soon became evident that this was no ordinary stray. He was definitely walking with us. We ignored him for awhile, although I did think he was very cute and Sonja insisted frequently that we had to seriously work on getting rid of him. I wondered how she was going to do that since I was fairly certain he did not understand English. She tried shooing him away with her poles, but with no affect. What we did not understand was that we really had no choice in the matter because it was he who had chosen us as his pilgrims for the day.

After a couple of hours we entered Fuentes Nuevas for some coffee and toast. By the time we left our guest had been given a name ('Benji') and had also enjoyed some toast. Sonja was still quite concerned that we needed to get rid of Benji somehow, but I insisted that he was a Camino dog and we couldn't send him 'back' because there is no 'back' on the Camino. I said "don't worry Sonja, he'll walk with us for awhile and then he'll be gone". Here is Benji waiting for me to catch up when I got too slow.

We stopped at Cacabelos for a beautiful lunch of smoked meat, olives, salad and bread. I'd say we were in that restaurant for about an hour and were sure that when we got back to the road Benji would be gone. But he was not. He was lying under a table about a block away. As we continued to walk I got thinking "Benji is going to need some food, maybe I should buy him something if he is still with us in Villafranca". Just then we were passing a butcher shop and Sonja said, "we need to buy the dog some food". I started to laugh and questioned her intentions to get rid of him. She said, "I wanted to get rid of him because I knew I would start to love him". As I was teasing her about being a big softy, we went to the butchers and Sonja bought a good size piece of pork ribs. Benji was a lucky and happy Camino dog today! Here he is having a drink at a fountain after his delicious lunch.

We had gone about 20 km when were met this pilgrim on the path carving shells out of different types of wood. He did beautiful work and of course I was a great customer! The last 5 km into Villafranca were slow going for me. There were many hills and I was very tired. When I arrived at the Albergue Ave Fenix with Benji I explained to the host that he was a pilgrim and had walked the 25 km from Ponferrada, but I'm afraid he did not get a lot of sympathy. He had a rest on the side of the street and then later followed us down to the plaza where a waiter at a restaurant brought him a bowl of water. Sonja and I are both hoping that he will be gone with other pilgrims in the morning because we like him way too much now and feel completely responsible for him!

Later......
We just finished our peligrino dinner and I sat beside Patrick. At the end of the meal he said, "the weirdest thing happened. Yesterday I walked with a dog for 20 km and today I saw him in this town". I showed him the picture of Benji and he said "that's him!". I don't think I have to worry about Benji. He really is a Camino Dog.