The Pilgrimage Begins!
Hola Chicos!
It is said that the Way of St James the Apostle, or the Camino de Santiago, calls you. ‘The Way’ has been calling me since I first learnt about it a few years ago. It has been at the forefront of my mind, and inevitably most of my conversations somehow or other came around to the Camino. I have been reading, planning and working towards walking it for months. I have packed and repacked my backpack many many times as I gradually collected the gear for the journey. Basically For the past two years I have been driving my family nuts. To the extent that my son recently said “Mum will you just go, stop finding excuses and just go, PLEASE.”
So here I sit in Madrid two days before I begin my pilgrimage and my feet already ache at the thought of walking 850km carrying a 7kg backpack. We are walking the Camino del Norte from Irun to Santiago de Compostela.
August is the best time to walk weather wise but also the worst time of the year to walk as it is the Spanish summer holidays. There will be many pilgrims on the road all hoping to get a bed in an albergue each evening. Unfortunately we have to go when our work schedule permits four weeks leave, so the time has come. Funnily enough, I am not excited, I’m nervous.
Yesterday, on my usual morning walk I was drawn to a church behind the Museo del Prado. The church doors were wide open and I could see the sun shining through the stained glass window behind the altar from the street. I decided to go and sit for a moment and say a prayer for my Dad whose health has recently deteriorated and is currently in hospital in Australia. I feel a world away during a time that my parents need me and I am aware of every mile that separates us. So I am sitting in this church lost in my own thoughts when the bell for the beginning of Mass is rung. My Spanish is not good enough for me to understand simple sentences let alone the Mass, but I know the order of the Mass so I decided to stay. I was trying to translate the words and I hear the priest say Apostles, Santiago is repeated many times, pilgrim, Camino and then I start to wonder if this is another sign, another invitation to join the pilgrimage. Now, those who know me know that I am not a religious nut, I have my own faith and a great respect for the Mass and Church, but religious fanatic I am not. So I do find it a bit weird that I am drawn, to a church just before Mass begins, two days out from the beginning of my pilgrimage. After Mass finished, I got out my phone and looked up the daily Mass readings and I was astonished to find that it was the Dia de Santiago, patron de Espana (Day of St James patron Saint of Spain). Its in these little signs that I do feel called to walk in the footsteps of St James the Apostle to Santiago de Compostela.
Unlike me, not all people walk the Camino de Santiago for religious reasons. Take my husband for example, he is walking because he wants to walk beside me. Actually, I think he realises that it is something that I just have to do and he wants to make sure that we share the experience together. Also, I think he wants to watch over me to ensure that I don’t have another health scare myself. How blessed I am to be loved and supported by this bloke who has been following me around for the past 25 years.
Will we succeed? I don’t know, I hope so. Lets face it. Its 850km, around 30km a day for a month and we are not getting any younger. If we don’t make it to Santiago within the timeframe who cares? We will stop and return to the same spot and begin again when we have the time. There is no time limit to receiving the Compostela and I do believe that we can walk anywhere time permitting.
Anyway I hope to update the blog along the journey to keep you posted.
Hasta Luego chicos y buen camino!