From one extreme to another

I have lost track of what day it is, except that Santiago in getting closer and I am getting tireder. We have arrived safely and sun coloured in Sarria. This is the place a ton of people begin their walk becasue it is about 100 km from here to Santiago and so it is the last place to begin and still 'qualify' for a Compostella - the certificate which says "You did it!"

Within the space of a night the weather switched from long johns to shorts and t-shirt. This is good and a great relifef from the bone chilling cold and damp. Now we are having to figure out our sun protection instead of keeping everything dry. It has been in the low thirties for 3 days now.

There are many things on the walk which are outside of our control and this is a part of the pilgrimage for sure. We don't know where we will eat, where we will sleep, or where we will fnd rest stops along the way. We assume we need to carry water for the whole day in case the fountains and wells are dry or not drinkable. All this is challenging and tiring in its way, but manageable with a little effort and planning. It is amazing how good a stale-ish hunk of bread tastes when hungry, and warm-ish water finishes the meal nicely!

However; one of the hardest things to manage is knowing that there will likely not be a toilet in the moments when we may need one most.

Yesterday in a rather desparate moment, knowing the next town was too far to be of help, I quickly jumped into a ditch on the side of the dirt track with a quick look to make sure no one was coming.

The stinging pain on my calves told me this may not have been a good choice. Turned out to be a patch of thorny brambles and stinging nettle. The welts on my legs and forearms have calmed, the numbness in one stung finger is finished. Learning: no matter how desperate - look before I leap.

Learning to rest ...

Going slow and getting stronger ... Hmmm?
For many many days, we walked despite the COLD and WET (and Colds and Coughs). In Rabanal, despite the urge to persvere, we decided to rest. We took a full day off, stayed at a hotel and slept and slept, and rested our bruised and battered feet from the previous day´s 30 km walk. It was hard to stop, but it was a good decision.
Today we walked again, 26 km, and the sun broke through the clouds and warmed us ... but not before we had climbed to the highest point on the Camino at 1560 m, rose through verdant green hills, ice fog, sleet and rain (ice clinging to hillsides covered in purple heather), and then walked into foggy forlorn Foncebadon to find one of the most welcoming Albergues we have encountered. A group of hospitaleros offering gracious and welcoming hospitality with a strong undercurrent of world spirituality to unite the people of the nations. Strong hot coffee, biscuits, granola, and fruit all available for a donativo. The small living area with a warm wood fire was filled with 35-40 shivering pilgrims laughing and smiling, glad to get in out of the 1 degree cold outside, and to experience such gracious warmth.
Later this same day we encountered a modern day Knight Templar, descended down the mountains on rock covered pathways, and walked amidst hills covered with wild lavender and hibiscus, and passed by an ancient chestnut grove.
The Rest of yesterday helped us soak up the gentle and amazing glory of today.
Thanks for reading - we are having an amazing time, and appreciate your comments and support!
Love,

Coffee with Jesus

It went like this:
rain all day
misty beautiful hills
pathway washed out
pick our way carefully over streams of rain, stones, rocks, sand....oh my,
gore tex couldn´t keep out the wet,
kilometre 23 sat under an Holm Oak on the ground
sighed over peanuts
crested the mountain,
very broken down lone casa in view -
red tile roof and mud brick walls mostly caved in,
closer, closer, closer
man emerges from the darkness of the open doorway -
looks like poster of Jesus -
Invites us in,
offers coffee, hot -
and figs and dates and raisins and nuts and biscuits and toasts and juice
and a true heart -
"Canada! Welcome!
This is your house."

I drank the good hot coffee, cried.

Only six more kilometers.
made possible by coffee with Jesus.

500 meters later:
a Shepherd,
and 100 sheep and lambs,
and a few dogs, pass by.
Perhaps there were only 99, I didn't have time to count.

Yes - Jesus and a shepherd all on the same wet misty hillside.

Buen Camino.

Villar de Mazariff

Yesterday we left the brilliant morning sunshine of Burgos, boarded a bus and travelled into overcast skies that became darker and darker as we approached Leon. As we left the Estacion de Autobuses after arriving in Leon, it began to rain and continued after we had found a room as the Hostal Orejas, ate a late lunch of ciabata, cheese, olives and spinach, and then went out on the town for needed supplies.
We successfully bought warm tights for Allison, a pair of hiking pants for Diane (I had brought only one pair of pants thinking it would be warm enough most days to walk in shorts!), stamps for postcards, throat lozenges (both of us have had colds and coughs but we´re almost all better now ...), toured the old town and Cathedral, and then ran through town to find the Santa Maria de Carbajalas Convent to attend a Benedictine Nuns sung evening vespers service that was like stepping back in time some 500 to 600 years. Hauntingly beautiful and our first experience of a Spanish mass.
Today, after spending time and money yesterday looking for warm clothes, the morning cold turned to warmth and sunshine as we walked 24 km across the meseta.
We may find more cold weather yet ... In two days we will walk over the highest point in the Camino at 1500 m, and later we have chilly Galicia to look forward to.
Did we mention that it has so far been the COLDEST May in 100 years in Spain!
We are glad to be walking again; after only one day off it felt like we had taken a long break from the open skies and paths of the Camino.
Looking forward to our first longer day tomorrow when we will walk 30 km heading to Astorga.
a Dios,

Burgos

We are in Burgos. After walking 20 km today, in 13 degree weather with a battering west wind that at times felt like it would knock us off our feet, and the last 8 km on the hard paved streets and tiled sidewalks of the city´s suburbs, we arrived in the old town centre of this city of 175,000.
Today we left behind many friends we have made along the way; tomorrow we will bus ahead to Leon so that we can reach Santiago by May 23 or 24 to have a few days rest and time to explore the city before we leave there on the 27th: Anni and Jean-Luc from France who we found ourselves with in the same place time and time again, and with whom we shared many meals and wonderful and strange french-english conversation with lots of laughs and talking with our hands and faces, Uta and HannahLaura from Germany, Filiz from Turkey, Agnes from Jamaica/Switzerland, Horst and Manfried from Germany, Charlotte from South Africa/Germany, and Mary from near Seattle who we met and ate with almost every day for the past week.

Two days ago we spent the afternoon in the small lobby of a beautiful 14th century refurbished hotel in Villanfranca trying to stay warm with cafe con leches and, a brandy while the wind blew and the rain poured down outside! We stayed in the unheated pilgrims´ albergue at the rear of this luxury hotel. We shared the afternoon and had wonderful far-reaching conversation about gardening and Obama, obesity and good nutrition, world religions and politics with Charlotte (67, originally from South Africa and now living in Germany), and Filiz (35 from Turkey, who we discovered was passionate about permaculture, the art of hosting, sustainability, and who has travelled extensively and has attended workshops with Margaret Wheatley and Christina Baldwin!)

And today, after walking a total of 220 km, we are in Burgos. This afternoon we visited the enormous and beautiful Catedral de Burgos, a world heritage site; ornate, filled with story and art, and 21 chapels ...

The story of the origin of our species yesterday in Atapuerca where they have discovered the oldest human remains in Europe - 1,000,000 years old, the history and telling of the Christian story in Burgos today, and yesterday, and again today, we met two men from Canada, one from Canmore whose close friends have been encouraging him to come to Naramata Centre for years, and the other from Toronto; both have gone on birding trips with Dick Cannings, from Naramata. It is an incredibly large and small world.

On the Camino we have encountered and walked spontaneous spiral labyrinths, made by pilgrims from stones. Our lives spiral in tight and out again.

And yes seester and brothers, mom is with me and I am thinking of her and dad most days. I made a special journal to take with me on the Camino, and I have a picture of mom with me. She is in my heart, especially today on mother´s day.

Small children and almost ALL of the more than 100 runners in a 10 km run who passed us today called out Buen Camino, and touched our outreached hands as they went by.

It is good luck to touch a Peregrino, especially one who is lost.

A Dios ...

hard days and more

some days are hard days.
some days are soft days.
the day before yesterday was a hard one for me. In every way it was a challenge - physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually.
Physically I was struggling with a cold in my nose, and the cold in the weather, plus my leg muscles seized up after only about 10 kilometers. Every step was excruciating.
Mentally I was finding it hard to just stay in the present and I kept on hoping that the destination place would be around the next corner - it finally was, but after about a hundred corners it seemed.
Emotionally I felt exhausted by the effort of communicating.
Spriritually I persisted in resisting offers of help from Diane.
I was stuck in a frame of mind that was saying to myself:
"You have to do this yourself. Everyone has hard days - get over yourself. Other people need help, but you have to do this on your own."
After Diane asked, and encouraged, and finally demanded that I stop and figure out what was happening I began to be able to quiet those voices and receive her help.
She ended up carrying my pack and hers for about 4 kilometers to our final destination. I could not have walked any further with it myself, and I hobbled those final steps to the albergue.

That night we took a private room in a small albergue instead of a group room.

The next day was a soft day. Gentle walking, gentle hills, gentle rain, still as cold but somehow more bearable. But most of all I was gentle with myself.

Some lessons have to be learned over and over and over - at least for me. Perhaps for you?

We have arrived in a beautiful town today called Atapuerca. You can find it on a map! It is a Unesco World Heritage site.

Cold fingers and good hospitality

We had a shorter walk today, about 16 km, and tonight are staying in another beautiful albergue, this one operated by volunteers of the Spanish Confraternity of Santiago which has been offering hospitality to pilgrims in Santa Domingo de la Calzada ( in La Rioja - one of Spain´s famous wine regions) for more than 900 years. Imagine that kind of history, and enduring tradition of offering welcome and warmth!
The Albergue hosts 83 people each night, there are 20 in our room, and despite the close quarters, I am developing an ability to feel comfortable sharing my sleeping space with people with similar intentions and trust, from all over the world. There is a commonality we share in this trusting one another, with space, with belongings, and with our well-being. There is conversation over shared meals, and along the way, about how one another is doing, what ailments each might be enduring, and occasionally, when a deeper level of connection is created through attentive listening, a sharing of hopes and dreams for the Camino and sometimes for life. This happens more often than not, when there can be enough understanding of common language to have a conversation at that level.
At other times, it is more than enough to share a piece of chocolate, or sign language about the bracing cold which continued today, or to teach one another the expletives in our respective languages for it´s soooooooooo ***!!!&%$**%&=?? COLDDDDD. As we passed over a high plateau before coming down into Santa Domingo, wearing several layers and almost all of the clothes we brought with us, our fingers were numb. We were glad to see the city below as we crested the last hill.
Later this afternoon, we hope to find a store to buy gloves!
This is a good thing we are doing. As we say our prayer together to begin each morning we give thanks for the day and all that has led us here, and then do a high five tap tap tap on each others´walking poles, and sometimes a little dance step or two to help keep warm.
Cheers!