buen camino!

after several hours of beautiful walking a group of grade 5 or 6 age children passed us by today - they were so encouraging! Saying 'Buen Camino!' and smiling and giving us 'Buenes Dias' all over the place. It was just what we needed to get us down and up the last hill before arriving in Puente de la Reine for the evening. 24.6 km today - yay for us! neither of us have blisters, just tired feet, and some sun glow. We climbed a good big hill or two, passed a major wind farm - huge wind turbines swooshing round, and are finding our walking feet and legs again after three days of travel to get started.
This Refugio is fabulous - only 4 euros each per night, showers, and clean clean clean. Tonight we will be in a small room of only 8 people. Have just come home from a great supper - pilgrim supper - with a handful of germans, irish, american, french, and dutch, and we canadians pracitsing all our language skills to build some friendships. Breakfast tomorrow is planned with Horst and Manfreid, then we are off to Estella or beyond depending on how we feel.
It is sooo much warmer than we had expected. It was probably at least in the low twenties for a good part of the day today. Tonight over supper we had thunder, hail, and a ton of rain.
We have had a great first day.

Barcelona

After 38 hours of travel we have made it to Spain, and to Barcelona, and to our first cafe con leche at a sidewalk bar. We have a few hours here before moving by train - our last mode of transport before our feet take over - to Pamplona.

The flight over was fine, but there was no sleeping to be had. So Diane and I are both a bit dizzy and easily distracted by the swirl of the city. After figuring out the menu del dia and getting directions to a supermercado for food to take on the train with us, we stumbled, almost literally, into this internet cafe to do a quick update.

It is very much time to start walking, and although tired from the travel it will be refreshing and settling to finally get on the way.

Buenos tardes!

Philly ... and all's well

Three flights yesterday ... smooth sailing. Good night's sleep and half way into the day, and a BIG fruity combo breakfast (2 eggs, 2 strips of turkey bacon, 2 turkey sage sausages, hashbrowns, 2 pancakes and fruit, and whip cream in a can, and 2 cups of coffee) at the Philly Diner and we're ready to roll, literally. We justify it in the name of 25-30 km daily walks that will begin in less than 48 hours!
SO EXCITED!!!!! Goin' to the airport now to fly to Barcelona!

We're on our way to the airport!

Wish us luck that we make it all the way to Barcelona.
Then off to Pamplona on Wed.
Hoping to be on the Camino on Thursday.
Blessings a todos!

What's in a pack?

What's in a pack? A pack by any other name than "well planned, weighed (gram for gram) and checked and culled again and again" is too heavy. This is something we're learning through trial and error and conditioning walks carrying our packs, and from RESEARCH, which is telling us that next to finding the right shoes, achieving minimal pack weight is the most important thing we can do to prepare for an enjoyable and backpain-free Camino! We've also been told by many sources not to carry more than 10% of ones body weight. Our final packing list with every item weighed and accounted for is attached (Click on the title of this post: "What's in a pack?" to view the pdf). You can guess if we've acheived this "not more than 10% goal" but we won't tell you if you're right!

The other thing we're learning is that the precious water that will keep us hydrated, healthy and blister free along the way is HEAVY ... about a kg per litre, which means, if we're meant to carry two litres each with us on days with long distances between fountains, adding 2 kg (or about 4.4 lbs) to our packs, like carrying four bricks of butter.

(I was born and grew up before Canada converted from imperial measures to metric. While metric makes sense to me mathematically, "pounds" still make a lot more sense when I'm trying to understand how much I can carry on my back!)

People who know me know that I really like butter, and that I am convinced it's much healthier than margarine. Despite my taste for butter, I know I feel better when I'm lighter and well hydrated, so I think I'll carry the 2 kg of water instead of 4 bricks of butter.

The photos are from our walk yesterday on the Kettle Valley Railway trail above Naramata.

Ahhhh - Sunshine, spring blossoms and cool, refreshing spring runoff! Only five more sleeps until our new departure date. Fingers crossed!

airports and good people

At 4 am the information we had indicated the flight to Paris 'may' go - so we headed to the local airport here at 4:30 with our light packs, and passports and Euros and hopes in hand.

At the ticket counter - our airport only has one ticket counter - the agent greeted us kindly. She had been monitoring our flights for us - unbeknownst to us - and was ready for our arrival. Due to the continued uncertainty about flight cancellations there was a note on our file saying "Do not board". The same note appeared on our flights from Vancouver and Montreal. The next flights available were in May - too late for us.

Even though we had been preparing to go, and at the same time preparing not to go, I was overwhelmed with disappointment. The finality of hearing that we could not fly today allowed me to really experience the hopes I had been carrying as well as the sadness.

So - home we came to sleep.

At 7:00 the phone rang. It was the agent from Air Canada who had received us in Penticton. She had done some searching for us on potential re booking arrangements and wanted to strongly encourage us to see if we could get another flight for later this week.

Hope springs eternal. On the strength of this encouragement Diane got on the phone and connected with another very kind person at Aeroplan who tried all kinds of flight paths and combinations for us. The result of this dedication, kindness and tenacity is that we have a new departure date!

April 26,2010.

So - now a new round of plans and reworking of our walking distances and a different kind of excitement - and the pilgrimage continues!

A Pilgrim Prayer

One of the unexpected blessings of our preparations for this pilgrimage and the creation of this blog is that we have joined an international network of fellow pilgrims who generously offer wisdom and mutual support from around the world.

Earlier this week, Sil from South Africa posted a comment on my April 14 post ("dianie brownielocks and the four pairs"), offering to share "things to know" in preparation for the Camino Frances. We corresponded by email through the week, and along with many encouraging and kind words, Sil sent files with "things to know", "how much should I budget and how to best take money", a "backpack list" and a list of key spanish phrases for pilgrims on the Camino.

Her final note said:

"Don't have too many expectations, just take each day as it comes, love everything - the dust, the stony paths, the medieval villages, the grumpy shopkeepers, the touro-grinos who arrive in busses, the kind hospitaleros and the surly hospitaleros, the mud in Galicia mixed with cowshit, the good food, the dreadful food - take it all as it comes! And then you get home it is quite normal to want to send half the contents of your closets to the homeless!

Oh - and yes, you will suffer the PPB's (the Post Pilgrimage Blues) and the only cure is to do another long walk!

Big pilgrim hugs!

Sil

(check out her blog at http://amawalker.blogspot.com/)

So, inspired by this kindness from Sil, and because we want to walk with positive intention, we've created this prayer that we'll say as we begin each day. You're welcome to join us.

May I love this day and all that it brings

The dust, stones or mud beneath my feet

The air I breathe, food I eat, water I drink

May I open my heart to mysteries along the way

Greet fellow pilgrims with welcome and grace

Move lightly and simply through the day

May I give thanks for the Earth, our fragile home

For all my relations who have gone before me

And for all who will follow ... I am not alone

May the spirit and blessing of the One who is love

- Holy One among us, all around us, and within us -

Be with me today, and surround me with love

Pilgrimage: when and where?

For three days now airports in Europe have been closed due to the activity of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland. And so for the last two days we've been watching, wondering, and simply witnessing the havoc in the very places we have been planning to travel to for many weeks.

We are booked to travel on Monday morning early. Since we made the decision to walk we have been preparing. We've been preparing our gear; preparing our bodies; preparing our lives to be able to be away for 40 days; preparing our minds and hearts for the experience.

In so many ways we have already covered a lot of ground - it just happens that none of it is in France or Spain.

I thought that the hardest part of the pilgrimage may be the close proximity of other pilgrims in the albergues and hostels. I have wondered if my knees, or feet, or back would suffer the most. I have wondered if I would be able to maintain the walking distance required to arrive in Santiago in the time frame we've got. I have wondered how I will keep grounded in the present, and do the soul work I want to be doing.

I see now that the spiritual work of letting go will likely be the most challenging. I was planning on writing each day on the Camino about the experience of my burnout and gradual healing. And especially about the real day-to-day emotional, spiritual, even physical work of letting go. Today I am facing the possibility of letting go of the Camino itself.

So today and tomorrow we wait;
continue to witness the earth boiling up into the sky;
continue to witness the realities of stranded travelers;
continue our own pilgrimage preparations.

We may depart for Spain soon. or later.
In either case, the pilgrimage continues.

dianie brownielocks and the four pairs

One upon a time, little dianie brownielocks and her little friend, alli salt&peppalocks, decided to fly in a plane from Penticton all the way to Paris, then take a train to Bayonne, and a bus to St. Jean Pied de Port at the foot of the Pyrennes so that they could take a very special walk.

They had read storybooks about this famous walk and learned that people just like them, and many people not at all like them, thousands and millions of people from all over the world, famous people and infamous people, over the last 1200 years, had walked this very same walk.

Over time it had come to be known as the Camino de Santiago de Compostela or the Way of Saint James of the Field of Stars (just in case you don’t know Spanish).
Brownielocks and salt&peppalocks thought it would be a really neat thing to do, and they were eager to get ready for this trip to a faraway land. All the stories they read, and all of the people they met who had done this walk said that the most important thing they needed to do was to have good shoes!

This is the story of dianie brownielocks and the four pairs.

Way back in December when brownielocks and salt&peppalocks were in Vancouver, dianie went shopping at a running shoe store and bought a pair of size 8 ½ New Balance trail runners. They were black, rugged and handsome. She thought that these shoes would be just right. But after four or five walks she found out that they were just a little bit too big, and no matter what she did, her feet began to hurt.
So a few weeks later, the friends went to Fritz’s Shoes in Penticton, one of the best shoe stores they have ever been in (and they have visited many many shoe stores over the years, because salt&peppalocks really likes shoes!). dianie had looked and looked on her computer doing RESEARCH to try and find the pair of shoes that would be just right for their special walk, and the ones she found were right there, just down the road at Fritz’s! She bought a pair of size 8 Vasque Breeze Low VST GTX shoes. She thought they would be just right. But after four or five walks she found out that they were just a little bit too small, and going downhill her toes smashed into the end of her shoes, and no matter what she did, her feet began to hurt.
So another few weeks later, brownielocks and salt&peppalocks went into Softies Shoes in Penticton, another one of the best shoe stores they have ever found, and brownielocks tried on a pair of Keens. She has loved Keens since the first day she saw her first pair in Nelson many many years ago (and she has been a loyal Keen wearer ever since). She tried on a pair of size 8 ½ Targhee II Brown/Olive beauties, and she thought that they would be just right. (Thankfully, allie salt&peppalocks is very patient and supportive when she goes shopping with dianie brownielocks.) But after four or five walks brownielocks found that the Keens were really hot and just a little bit too big, and they slipped off her heals, and no matter what she did, her feet began to hurt.
Now at this time, allie salt&peppalocks was very busy at the place where she works, and dianie was just starting a sabbatical (four months off!!!) from the place where she works to earn money to pay for too many pairs of shoes. So dianie went on a BIG DRIVE and during that drive she went to the Mountain Equipment Coop store in Edmonton. It was cold outside and too hot inside, and she was beginning to wonder if she would ever find the right pair of shoes. She looked at the shoes on the wall from a distance, trying not to get her hopes up, and then felt a strange power overcome her and was drawn to move closer. A warm welcoming voice said, “Can I help you?” And little dianie brownielocks almost burst into tears, sat down on the shoe trying on bench and told the story of trying to find shoes for her special walk that were just right to the very nice woman who had asked if she could help. The woman measured brownielocks’ feet, and brought out a pair of size 8 La Sportiva trekking shoes. “We just got these in. They are very well made and good for doing special walks”, she said. “I think you will like these very much.”
Brownielocks put on one shoe, then the other, laced them up just right, and then walked around the store, and walked some more, up the little climbing ramp, and back down again, and up and down, and around the store again and again for what seemed like a very long time. She didn’t want to buy the wrong shoes again. Finally, she took a deep breath and told the nice woman that she would buy them. She thanked her very very much for helping her.

That was two months ago, and the La Sportiva’s are still just right! Little brownielocks' feet are happy and there are only six more sleeps until she and salt&peppalocks get on the BIG plane to fly to Paris.

And that is the story of brownielocks and the four pairs.

(Postscript: brownielocks was very happy to be able to do a partial trade of the New Balance shoes for a print that she bought recently from a friend. The Vasques and Keens are still looking for a good home. Interested???)