Our Camino, Santiago, July 26 2013.

It has been over 24 hours now since we walked into Santiago de Compostela.  I find it difficult to even cut and paste these few images onto this post without tears welling in my eyes, in fact I cannot.  There is such an overwhelming sense of joy and achievement and pride and peace and relief and, and, and...

I have lived a charmed life.  I was raised in a loving home where nothing particularly spectacular happened.  We had no great emotional highs or lows that I recall, we were just happy.  I went to good schools, always had good friendships throughout my life, always got good jobs and met and married a beautiful girl who I am still in love with over 20 years down the track.  I've got great kids, a top job, I've been inside the pyramids at Giza, dined at Parliament House in Canberra in a room full of politicians.  I've got a box full of letters from beautiful kids that I have taught over the years and I've even got a few letters after my name.

But let me tell you something extraordinary.  When my young son put his arm around me as we stood there together in front of that almighty granite cathedral on that hot July day, when he buried his head in my shoulder and we hugged each other and cried simple, honest tears.  That moment where we four embraced, where Monica and I looked at each other in wordless recognition of the significant achievement of our young children.  Right there is joy, right there is a glimpse into heaven, into that glorious reunion we will all share in the presence of Love.

The pictures tell the story of the walk, the weather was lovely, we saw the sights, we got here.  And what a place to get to, its magnificent and I don't use the word lightly.  The cathedral is huge, the buildings around it are huge and all gathered close together in places yet separated by expansive plazas in others.  It really feels like being in Ancient Rome, the scale is mammoth, huge sweeping stairs flow from one plaza to the next around this massive building, fountains play in the courtyards, the place is busy with people and market stalls and music and food and drink.  I could really live here, although it is summer, I understand winter is not so accommodating.

At noon today we attended the Pilgrim's Mass.  It was in Spanish, it was very catholic and fantastic, just what you want in a place like this.

And they lit the botafumeiro.  That massive incense burner that they swing on a huge rope from left to right in the cathedral.  It was glorious, joyous, a most beautiful thing.

As the disobedient masses, my family included, dragged out their ipads and iphones and filmed the whole show I found myself again in tears.

Such a beautiful thing, to be loved.  All these moments work together to remind me that I am a child of love, that I am known and loved by He who is love.

I found my way to the tomb of the apostle after the service, kneeled in that tiny, subterranean place and asked earnestly that this whole thing, this Camino de Santiago de Compostela would bring not only me, but the people I love closer to Jesus.

And as I type these final words of this blog that remains my prayer.

May Jesus go with you on your way, on your camino as these beautiful Spanish people say.

For we are pilgrims all until we reach our eternal home.

Buen Camino Pergrinos

Our Camino, Stage 16, Arzua to Amenal, July 25 2013.

Zoe and I were sharing a room for the last week.  Monica and I took it a week about to have each of the kids in our room.  We could not get '4 bed' rooms so we always went with two twins.

Zoe is a notoriously bad getter-upperer.  She loves to sleep in and after a long walk and a late Spanish night the mornings are tough for her.

Nevertheless we knew that today was a big one, about 24 km or more to our hotel at Amenal on the outskirts of Santiago.  We were up and getting ourselves ready when Monica poked her head in the door to make sure we were on our way.  A late morning means a late arvo, and after lunch the temperature soars.

Of course we were up so we opened the door to a shocked looking mum.

'I found out what all the sirens were last night',  Monica said, 'Apparently there was a big train crash in Santiago, about 80 people killed.'

Aye Corumba.  

I turned on the telly, generally a waste of time because most of it is in Spanish, and of course those now famous images were all over the screen.  I jumped on the internet, it was the top news story internationally as well.  Huge.

It is hard to explain just how profound an impact this story had on us that day for  number of reasons.

A.  We were right there, even though we were two days walk out of Santiago it was only 38km, about 20 minutes in a car.  I was like being in Hervey Bay and the crash happening in Maryborough.

B.  It was on the eve of the Feast Day of St James, a Spanish national holiday a bit like Australia Day at home.

C.  It was in Santiago, the centre of the celebrations and the focal point of the whole shebang.

D.  We were about to board those trains in two days to get out of Santiago.

Man oh man, being here, so focused on reaching Santiago, so near to our destination and knowing that many of the pilgrims we had walked with were already ahead of us and there was chilling.

At that point in the morning we had no news about the whole thing really, no one knew if it was a terror attack, a mechanical failure, human error, how many had actually died, if the trains would run again and so on.  Just that it was now St James Day and all bets were off.

They cancelled the celebrations, declared 3 days of mourning and knuckled down to sort out the mess.

We were flabbergasted but on our way.

Just out of town we saw this shrine.  It is in recognition of a lady who was in her 50s who had walked the Camino twice and who died in her sleep in Santiago the day after completing here second trip.  You see lots of these along the way, little plaques and places where particular people are remembered.  It was particularly poignant that day.

And it rained for the first time that day as well.  We had walked almost 300km in dry dusty conditions and on the second last day it rained.  It was just a sprinkle, enough to get your coats out, but it rained. I loved it, I am not convinced that Zoe did looking at this picture but she was happy enough in the moment.  You know even in July it is unusual for the hot weather to go on for so long without rain in Galicia, we have been quite blessed.

Even the deer were allegedly jumping for joy although we never saw any.

I thought I better snap one of these before we got out of Galicia.  A coke machine with the Way across the front.  Note the shell symbol in the background, the towns of the Camino from left to right.  Fantastic.  I am sure you don't find them in other parts of Spain or Europe.

The walk into Amenal was long, the last 4 or 5kms took forever, the day got hot when the rain cleared but finally we came into a shaded forest, cool and green.  Note the moss on the trees below as well as the gum leaves on the ground.  The bush around Santiago has a distinctly Australian smell with many eucalypts among the oaks.  It had a familiar feel.  The forest led us to our final night on the Camino, a little joint just on the very fringe of Santiago, Amenal.

We settled for the last time into our hotel, had our dinner and made ready for the final day, a trifling 16km into town.  I expected to feel more ... well more something than I did.  Being on the very cusp of reaching a significant milestone had left me a bit numb to be honest.  I had been thinking about this for years, planning it for a year and looking forward to it for months.  I had been walking it for 3 weeks and yet here I lay, in bed just tired and ready to have it over and done with.

Maybe that's the way of it with pilgrimages.  Maybe the pilgrim just wants it out of the way so they can get on with life afterwards.  Maybe upon completion there is no great change, just knowledge, knowledge that it is done.  Maybe the thoughts of the suffering of the Spanish people on this special day had dampened my elation, softened my edge.  Dunno.  Maybe just walking 300 kilometres is tough, I know my body hurt more this week than previously, the old grey mare ain't what she used to be and she was never that good in the first place.  I was always and ever an old grey donkey at best.

Anyway, one day more, one breath before the final plunge.

Buen Camino Peregrinos.

Our Camino, Stage 15. Melide to Arzua, July 24 2013.

The day started well.

We began our walk out of Melide to be greeted by a cheeky little pony tied up in the middle of the track.  Zoe was in raptures of course, in the photo below you can see the thing trying to eat Harry.  It snuffled at our clothing and skin trying to get anything it could out of us.  No cigar.  Zoe went on to talk about horses and ponies for the next hour.

The day was nice enough, the air was cool, the walking distance only about 16km so we took our time.  I still did not feel real flash from the day before so I only snapped a couple of pics.  I just concentrated on getting to our destination.

This is another lovely little stone cross that seem to exists everywhere in Spain, more and more are around though as we approach Santiago, it is almost like the experience is intensifying as you get closer, like there is more and more cordial in your drink, more and more G in your G&T.

After a few lazy hours we rolled into Arzua and were greeted again by St James on the plinth above.  Not a particularly spectacular day scenery of event wise, just more of the same.

The hotel was nice, the food was great and we hooked up with the Americans, Margaret and Alex, I had mentioned earlier for a drink after dinner.  We chatted about life in the states, being a chinese immigrant etc and the evening would have been quite pleasant and forgettable if not for one amazing thing.

About 9pm while we were chatting after dinner the town was abuzz.  Just about every emergency vehicle in the district went zooming past our hotel with sirens blaring in the space of about 15 minutes.

It was noticeable but not alarming.  We chatted for a bit longer and went to bed, not knowing that our Camino had just had a dramatic shift.

My dad always used to say, 'never let the sun go down on your anger', and I am a proponent of making sure you tell the people you love that you do.  You just never know when that last moment will be.

Buen Camino Pergrinos

Our Camino, Stage 14. Palas De Rei to Melide, July 23 2013.

Only a short hop today.  16km to Melide.

To be honest I did not feel real flash today.  I walked under sufferance, complained about everything and couldn't be bothered taking too many photos.  I don't recall the walk as being particularly eventful or insightful, more of the same drudgery.

Get up aching.

Get bread for breakfast.

Walk for an hour.

Have a drink of water.

Walk for another hour.

Have a break at a cafe.

Walk for an hour.

Have another break.

Walk more.

Get to accommodation, check in.

Have a shower.

Do your washing in the sink, bathtub if you have one.

Hang out wet washing.

Find beer.  Drink it.  Have dinner.

Go to bed.

Take photo of interesting statue.

Take photo of stone cross.

Take photo of St James Cross.

We got shunted to some mediocre hotel off the Camino, had a beer in a dreary bar that made you want to give up drinking, discovered Europe's smallest lift, it was so small you had to send it back down to fetch your body odour, lucky because we generally stink.

Slept in a lumpy bed, got up to a breakfast that I don't recall and were thankful to get the dickens out of there.

Not every day on the Camino is a life-changing experience.  This one was nothing special.

Buen Camino Peregrinos

Our Camino, Stage 13, Portomarin to Palas de Rei, July 22 2013.

Initially apologies.  It has been a good few days since I have posted a blog, I am sure that people have been waiting with bated breath to know how we got on after Portomarin.

Well here we go.  We left Portomarin on a cool morning , Portomarin sits astride a wide river, the Mino so the valley was cool in the morning and stayed cool for much of the day.  The air was moist with a thick fog and the temperature did not get above about 15 degrees celcius until well after lunch.  A good walking day.

Santiago blessed us as we left Portomarin.  His statue ever more present along our way, the thoughts of his resting place and Cathedral ever more present in our minds.

As you can see by this image of the kids above the track was narrow and overgrown in many places.  This is not to say this it is not well-drodden, there are many hundreds of pilgrims on any given section of the Camino on any day and July or xulio (no capital) is not the busiest month.  The fog was so thick you can even see it amongst the very close branches on the left of the kids.

Here is a better image of the fog.  The path emerges out of the bush onto a roadside every now and then.  You may walk for a kilometre or so along a road, never much more on the busy ones.  Here you can see the very thick fog, probalby about 10.30 or 11 am already at this point.

The Camino de Santiago de Compostella is heavy on the consciousness of the Spanish.  In Galicia it is everywhere.  The pavements are clothed with images of Santiago, above you see his cross and the scallop shell centered upon it.  This was just sitting in among some cobbles in an intersection that we walked across.  Below you see the map of Galicia in a man hole cover.

Anyway the day wore un in a pretty uneventful manner.  We walked all the way to Palas de Rei and found our accommodation on the edge of town upon entering.  We checked in, had a nap and a refreshing drink before dinner.

The people I mentioned in my last post that have joined the walk with the same company as us turned out to be from New Jersey, a chinese american couple travelling with their 22 year old son.  We spent some time that night having a good chat to them, it was nice to actually spend time with english speaking people and be able to share our already two week old adventure.  They were amazed of course, having only walked two days they thought the kids were fabulous having walked over 200 kilometres to date.

So do I.

Buen Camino Peregrinos.

Our Camino, Stage 12, Sarria to Portomarin, July 21 2013.

It was a misty morning in the hills as we walked early out of Sarria to Portomarin.  We had about 22km to walk so we hit the road by about 8.20am.  It is difficult to get going any earlier than this due to the fact that most times getting your desayuno prior to 8am is difficult.  You can sometimes get it at 7 or 7.30 but by the time you eat and get going it is always past 8.  And if you have paid for it you don't want to be walking 5km up the track and paying for it again at a different joint just to get an early start. By the time you finish at that place all the people who stayed for brekky at your hotel are walking past you.  Time net even, wallet sans euros.

So below is another picture of one of the overpasses we wandered past on a foggy morning in Galicia.  Note the mountains are not as high and rugged as some of the places we passed a week or so ago.  The air is cooler as you get further into Galicia, the mist hangs around for longer.

Galicia is known by the locals as the region of a thousand rivers.  You are never far away from flowing water or a little brook or lake.  Here you see the kids crossing a little stream early in the morning, they still have their polar fleeces on in this pic so it would have been first thing, they usually get packed away after about 30 to 40 minutes tops, once you get the body heat up the jumper soon becomes uncomfortable.  We have only used them once or twice.

Another watercourse.  We saw a few of these where the Camino ran parallel with the creek so the bridge was sort of on the side of the road.  The Zozz having a rest, jumper packed away already.

I think if you were from Scotland, or maybe some other parts of the UK you might be used to stone walls and stone buildings.  I'm not, I'm from Dubbo so I love 'em.  Just take a moment to have a look at some of the elements in this image.  Morning fog settled between the trees in the background, overhanging trees softly shading the edges of the path from what little sun filters through the mist, a cobbled track, a low stone wall disappearing into the distance on the left and an ivy covered stone building on the right.  The morning mist was thick, it stuck to your clothes as you walked through it, the air was still and clear and the sounds of your passing were muffled into noiselessness by the soft surrounds.  As you wend your way through Galicia towards the ultimate destination on this pilgrimage you pass through so many moments that take your breath away.   It is peaceful and beautiful so often, yet always a slog.  We met an American girl on our first or second day on the road, she had started walking in Roncevailles near the French border.  When she discovered it was our first day she said, 'Oh, it is sooo wonderful.', and then went on to tell us how to deal with blisters, dehydration and other ailments we could expect.

Its a crazy thing this Way of St James.  A true paradox.

You just can't help stopping and taking photos.  The few I have added here are just a token of what we have collected.  I mean look at that, we spend our days wandering through this stuff.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank the College Council of SJLC for approving my sabbatical leave.

The signpost below is besmirched with graffiti but if you look closely you will see the letters K 100.  100km to go.  Look at my beautiful babies.  What a joy to share such an awesome adventure with the people you are in love with.  H-mann 99 with his adolescent swagger, the Zozz with her beautiful smile and trusting way.  They are such great kids.  I would put a picture of Monica up there too but I am forbidden from doing so.

K 100

These things are interesting.   They are grain storage huts.  Built of stone and brick they have slots or holes through them for ventilation.  About 4 or 5 metres long and built up off the ground on a stand or stone legs, they occur regularly along the way in the little farming villages.  Only about a metre or so wide.

We finally made our way into Portomarin, it sits nestled on the River Mino, another old pilgrim town.  We crossed the river over a high modern bridge about 200 meters long to be greeted by these steps.  See the little blue sign on the left with the pilgrim and the white arrow directing us up the escalades.  Just what you need after 22 kilometres in the Spanish heat.  They were thigh busters I can tell ya.

Below are a couple of images of lovely stone dwellings we passed along the way today, not really in order but I just through them in.  The sort of stuff you become immune to as you pass, but so amazing.

And further up the hill from the afore-mentioned steps was this church, our hotel was (of course) a bit further up the hill from here on the street to the left, out of this shot by about 500m.  Note the open cobbled plaza in front of the church.  This was about 3.30pm I suppose when we walked into town, at about 6pm the place was jumping, the cafes and bars that surround the plaza are all full of peregrinos and locals from mid afternoon (6 or 7pm) until late.

Thus ended the day.  We found our hotel, met up with a couple of people we passed along the way during the day who were now travelling with Camino Ways as well.  Many people have joined the Camino at Sarria, it is the last town before the mandatory 100km walking distance to gain your Compostela (certificate of pilgrimage) in Santiago.  The way is becoming more and more crowded as Santiago approaches as well because on the 25th of July is the Feast Day of St James, many peregrinos are aiming to hit town at that time or just before.  Its a public holiday in Spain, their national saint and all.  Alas we hit Santiago the day after on the 26th (this Friday) but I understand the festivities will still be well underway.  As our loved ones in Aus are settling into a Friday night at about 9 or 10pm we shall be walking into that famous cathedral about Friday lunch, getting our Compostelas and approaching that sacred shrine.

A lot to look forward to this week.

Buen Camino Peregrinos

Rest Day in Sarria, July 20 2013.

Buenos Dias Peregrinos.

 Not blogging about our rest day other than putting up a the following images with a Dentistry theme. 

Saw these in a dentist's window in Sarria, had to take pictures in case there are any in the dental trade paying attention.

Okay??? So how do I purchase on of these models?  A man with a trumpet and another fella with a shovel over his shoulder next to a giant tooth!

You'r gunna use WHAT on me??

Oh, its okay, the doctor is Jesus, I just touch the hem of his apron and my implants will be in.

You are not encouraging me to pop in for some work Dr J.

This seems like a more orderly approach to the issues at hand.

Anyway, got the washing done, used all sorts of unctions and remedies to resolve our physical issues and managed to do a spot of souvenir shopping.  On the road again tomozz.

Buen Camino Peregrinos