Still thinking about the walking

this time last year ....Guemes - a fantatstic albergue run by Papa Ernesto.

https://plus.google.com/109066130531552117997/about?gl=nz&hl=en

https://es-es.facebook.com/pages/Albergue-de-G%C3%BCemes/146383372055587

It was quite a spectacular place to stay overnight - a community built around providing hosting for pilgrims and supporting the local community.

Here  also met Joel, a kiwi based in London who wanted a cheap holiday ! It was nice hearing a kiwi accent again.
My post from last year...

Guemes. ..258km so far

What a day! It was 23.5km with the last 6km in high heat..upper 20 degrees. .quite a difference from the last 4 or 5 at 14 or 15 degrees.

The first part was from Sontana to Nojo. After a couple  of kms we hit the beach..went over a hill and onto a 5km beach...it was so good to be walking on the hard sand after days and days on the highway. A coffee in Nojo and we headed inland, sort of doubling back on ourselves.

It was very nice to be walking thru more rural land on rural paths and roads, but the temperature rose dramatically. Trying to maintain the 5km per hour was much harder today but I was very pleased with my bladder pack in the pack..having water on tap as it were certainly made it easier for me.

I don't know if I have mentioned my food bag- forgive me if I am repeating myself. I have a macpac drybag clipped to my pack's waist belt. In it I put bread, snickers bars, kiwifruit etc... and I just snack as I go. It means that I can keep going but more importantly I have energy when I arrive at places.

Arriving at this albergue was a surprise... greeted with a glass of cold water and food. It is run by a community that supports peregrinos ad well as missions in South America.  They have a real gift for hospitality that is way above any thing else I have seen so far. The albergue is set in huge groups with lots of quiet places...plugs to charge phones etc... shady verandas...lovely art work. It is a real refuge.

Dinner tonight promises to be great.

Tomorrow will see me head into Santander where some of our group will leave the camino.

My guide book is split into 31 stages and up to now I have completed 10 of them. One third of the way thru... it still can't believe the distance done so far.  I don't think I had really believed that I could have done this much.

No photos in this blog..having to conserve my data a bit.

Adios amigos

5th of June 2013 saw me walk from Merkina through to Gernika.It was such a good day to walk.

I am certainly thinking a lot of the people I met, the conversations I had and the time I had to unwind. By now I was into my walking rythmn and was able to speed up or slow down with people as needed.

Today was the last day that was able to walk with ??? a yound guy from Germany - I missed his company after today - he stopped in a little village we passed through to rest his feet.

Medieval road that we followed.

Inside the monastry

Great rocks on the enrty to the village

The village square where I had lunch, watching the kids
from the school playing while the staff were at the bar.

My diary from a year ago said...

Breakfast in Markina. Got 2 coffees again..bother. sitting at a cafe called Kai. Hmm...maybe the basque descended from maori.

What to do today. There a monastery 8km away..1000 yrs of hosting pilgrims. But I want to visit some caves after Bilboa (2 days away) which will take a whole day. I can't afford to take 2 days out of my camino this early...one easier day per week is what I have planned for distance wise.

I have just had a thought about the coffee...maybe I don't need to add the con leche...americano coffee is already half milk...ok next time I'll do better!

Breakfast finished..time to walk...

Food is a bit of an issue, not in a bad way but I am careful to carry about 3 meals in my pack.

Breakfast. ...

There are a couple of options.  If I am lucky I get breakfast free with my nights accommodation.  This morning was like this. Cornflakes..coffee. .orange juice...bread sticks. I manage to eat well and take a bread piece with me. The bread stick holds together very well in the pack to munch later on.

Lunch

These are on the route  from my pack...see below.

Dinner

This is trickier than it seems.  Usually this is at a small bar or restaurant.  The trouble is working around the funny work times. You can't buy anything during the sieta in the places we have been to. But to complicate things...after siesta from 4 until 7 or 730 or even 8..you can't order meals...just drinks and barfood..tapas.
Add to this a group of people all wanting differ ent things-it can be fun....not. I now look at the bar and restaurant boards as I arrive in a town looking for the 'menu peregrino' for €8 to €11 you can get a 3 course meal with bread and wine. You always have a choice of 4 or 5 things for each course. ..its great.
The first couple of nights a group of us would wander around ooking for the best deal and then discuss...it was hard for me...I just wanted to eat! By the time I have checked in I know where I am going and this has worked well...no fuss from me if people join me or not but it saves another 2km of shopping around!
I also ask the bar owner on my way in when we can eat and this info helps too. The smaller the place the less waiting for meals to be served. The last 3 nights most of the group I am walking with turn up where I am (if they haven't walked down with me). Very stress less.
Last night was typical at Gernika..french italian american english kiwi around the table and our host could talk to all of us.

After the days walk there isn't a lot of spare time before 2200 lights out ...this has been everywhere so far... so I appreciate ding the dinner research on my way in.

The other dinner option is kebabs or pizza..the bigger places have at least one...and you eat there anytime. .no waiting until 730. That's what I did this evening..a great lamb kebab..the restaurants are still only open for drinks at the moment.

Eating from my pack

When I'm walking I try not to stop too long. The long distances need a determined effort and so for me I try to make sure my breaks are 10ins tops. That way the rythmn doesn't stop and the kms click by quickly.
So I graze from my pack. At each small stop I pop the next section's food into my guidebook bag that I carry off my pack belt. So into that might go moro bars, apples, bread. That way I eat when I want. This keeps me going very well indeed and lets me do 5kms per hour..

Supermarket

Finding these is tricky in the places we have been through. ..they usually have a small sign and a small road frontage. Apart from Eroski I have seen no other chains...mainly small locally owned shops.
I cruise the shelf for easy to eat and easy to handle food and try to buy something different each time. Successful foods include fish and salad meals for one in a tuff plastic container and lid with fork included.  4 flavours and all great cold.
Kiwifruit is easy to locate...thanks Zespri...and these cope well in the pack.
Bananas and apples are good if you are eating them  within tbe hour because they bruise too easily.
A small cheese was great..slices cut and cheese re wrapped.  Orange juice in foil sachets are very strong..4 days in the pack with no leaks.
You can buy small containers of fish..olives..nuts etc but they aren't appealing to me.

Zarautz to Deba. ..day 3

The walk a year ago was from Zarautz to Deba.. A great 22 km walk from memory that turned into 22 km. ..9 hours of walking.
It was a fantastic walk and Deba was beautiful.

I am amazed at how vivid my memories are of these early Camino days. Thumbing through my guide book shows me how clear my memory is.

Deba had an old school turned into the allergies on the outskirts of town, but you had to walk into the Centre of town to get the key and pay your money.

I'm still sorting out what I want to say one year on...but I still can't believe that I have been across the top of Spain.

Uh oh...I forgot. ...

I had forgotten that some people might be still linked to this blog...embarrassing.

Still, if you are bored, the next few weeks will tip you over the edge of sleepiness...totally.

My 2nd day of the walk went from San Sebastian to Zarautz.  Only 22 km on this stage but I do remember the feet feeling it.

I arrived in Zarautz during siesta time and understood that Turkish kebab and pizza places will be great during the rest of the trip.

I do remember that great conversations held today  as well as some of the views.

On a completely different point..have a look at this photo I took the other evening. .Thursday I think. .look at the shadows cast by the mountains in the sky.

Was It Really One Year Ago?

Today is the 31 May, 2014. Dad's birthday...he would have been 83 today.

What I can't belieive is that one year ago I left Brighton, Sussex in the morning and ended in Irun, Spain - ready to start my Camino del Norte.

Walking from David's place to the train station in Brighton was quite nice - cool weather but nice - about 2,5 km.

Then the train ride into London, changing to a special train to Stansted - and then waiting for my flight.

This was my first Albergue, and my first Pilgrim's Dinner in Spain was spent with Christine from Arizona, Hugh  and Rob from Southern England and Akio from Osaka, Japan.

My original blog had these entries for today...

I am in spain

Walked into a vodafone shop  with me carefully worded request for an  unlimted data sim..and the bloke spoje beautiful english.

So I am here in ìrun about to find the hostel.

Thank you Mr Fletcher and Mr Whitehead

My schoolboy french got me out of the airport at Biarritz, onto the correct bus, down to the railway station, purchased my ticket to Hendaye. The train..a TGV... has just left and I am really pleased that I got on the correct one. The plane only landed 35mins ago. My flight over was with Ryanair...all blue and yellow like St Matt's school. 2 hrs from Stanstead. ..I'm quite pleased so far. 

A break in transmission

I'll use my Spot device on Facebook for the next couple of days until I have got data sorted in Spain. 
Flying from Stanstead to Biarritz and then bus to where I am  staying tonight..Irun.

The Camino starts in the morning.

The nerves are there.

A month on from Santiago

It has been a month since I walked into Santiago.  I can't quite believe how much has happened in that month.

The key focus has been working hard on making those changes to my life work back in the real world.

Great being back at school. ..I really missed the child contact over the 3 months.

Funny also that today I have just visited St James Church in Kerikeri. .a beautiful little wooden church dating back to the early missionaries. So.  different to the magnificent cathedral of St James back in Santiago. .just 1 month ago.

I am on pilgrimage again..that is a surprise.  The biennial Anglican Schools conference is based in Waitangi..Northland.  The birthplace of NZ.
The pilgrimage is focusing on the 1st Christian preaching in NZ, back in 1814..Christmas Day.

The photo shows the Waiapu delegates to the pilgrimage in front of the Marsden cross..which commerates the bringing of Christianity to these islands.

The two days so far have been very special..the welcome onto Te Tii Marae at Waitangi..where Te Tiriti was signed in 1840 and then our trip to Oihi to see Marsden's site. 

I am in Kerikeri right now, on the verandah of Kemp's house typing this, realising that my life now is so different. .post camino.

It' s early days...but they are good days.

Please pray for the train accident victims

You may have heard about the awful accident in Santiago today. It occurred 4km from the railway station in Santiago, a station I know quite well.

Please pray for the people involved in this accident,the dead,  the victims, the injured, the locals who helped straight away, the emergency workers.

Today (this evening) is the annual feast day of St James...Sant Yago... and the city is packed with pilgrims arriving especially for the festivities.. Many pilgrims time their walks to arrive in time for this feast day.

This train line is just an ordinary line - very similar to our lines - but for  the fast trains.

This could have be any number of my pilgrim friends - just ordinary folks who are traveling to Santiago just like I did.

It just serves to remind me how important it is that we live each day to it's fullest and that we need to expect the unexpected.

http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/least-77-killed-over-100-injured-in-spanish-train-disaster-5518613

Be quiet and listen

Yesterday was a great day. I woke early and had the chance to look through some of my photos.
I managed to also have a conversation with one of my camino friends. .it was lovely to swap experiences and talk about return visits to the camino.
As I finished the conversation though I realized that I was talking AND working on my computer at the same time. Normal enough but I felt uneasy..not sure why.
After breakfast I headed over to church ...strange driving after 3 months of not driving... and did my normal camino thing of talking to god / prayer while walking (well driving now). I started off and was told to be quiet.

Humph

I started again...again I was told to listen..just listen.

So the trip over was different..just listening.

Didn't hear much... just the clear blue sky,
a flock of birds swirling in the distance,
an elderly couple walking hand in hand,
someone hurrying into church,
sheep in the paddock,
ducks in the creek...not much to hear at all!

So I arrived at church thinking 'o.k. that was lovely 'hearing' the world around me enjoying the beautiful winters day. I still felt uneasy about the multitasking during the viber call earlier and as I walked into church...again came the 'request' to listen.

Whammo

It was like the readings (and Helen's introduction to them) and the sermon were aimed just at me.
..removing distractions and listening to god...taking time out to listen...once you have listened, making sure you have put it into practice. ..
The gospel was about Martha and Mary...again in a way that reminded me so clearly that part of the process of stopping and listening is actually acting on it.

My conversation earlier in the day should have been single tasking not multi tasking, just like my time with god.
 

You get the picture.

So, I enjoyed a number of conversations after church where I worked very on listening and not talking.

I headed to orienteering all ready to listen...and guess what...it was great !

Firstly it was nice not to be recognized by many people at orienteering, (apparently I look different now) but out on the course in the lovely winter sun...I had 90 minutes of being back on the camino...by myself, sun on my face, mud, uneven surfaces...and just listening. I was disappointed that the course finished for me but very grateful to discover a way of recapturing that camino feeling of being so close to someone who knows me better than I know myself.

So..the camino actually begins...

Setting back into NZ

It has been a long time since I arrived in Santiago..2 weeks yesterday since walking into the cathedral. The photo has Gerrit and Nora from Germany with me outside the cathedral, just moments after arriving.

In the last 2 weeks I have crammed in 3 days in Santiago, 1 day in A Coruna, a flying visit to Gaude's cathedral Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, 5 amazing days in Vienna, overnight in Brighton, 30hrs of airports and planes before seeing Sarah and Naomi in Auckland and then 3 days back at home.

I am still so surprised that I got to santiago. ..but even more surprised about what I learnt about myself.

Now comes the hard bit...putting what I learnt into every day practice.

Adios amigos

It's Tuesday night about 2130 and 33 degrees outside. I have just had the most delightful tapas dinner accompanied by the nicest vino tinto I have had in this country. ..a 2009 Ramon Bilbao. The manager sat and chatted for ages and we also tried a 2005 albarino..a very mellow white. I just realized that I have not eaten alone for nearly 2.5 weeks...it was both sad and o.k.

It reminded me that while I have traveled across Spain on foot...my real journey started many many years ago. ..and the next stage started on Sunday morning when I managed about 5 minutes time by myself in the crypt of St James...Sant Yago.

The camino norte has acted as a boot camp (pun fully intended) for me. My job now is to learn what I have learnt.

Tomorrow I will visit the Gaude cathedral in Barcelona before heading to Vienna for 5 days. I am very pleased to be going to Vienna...one benefit is to allow me some absorbtion time following my camino..a sort of working through space before returning to Aotearoa.

I can really say that a big part of me is remaining here in Europe.

I have always felt a longing to return to Te Urewera and I feel very much at ease when I am there. ..well I have the same depth of feeling for this part of the world and the people I have met as I have for Waikaremoana.

When I started way back on the 1st of June in Irun. .many people I came across had been on one of the caminos before. It took about 300km to figure out why and now I am planning my own return. Camino Primativo is looking pretty good but I would very happily repeat the experiences from this Norte trip.

Can I thank you very much for your support. ..the prayers, the conversations, the emails, the facebook comments, the blog comments as well as the 'live' feedback from pilgrims who have read it...all of these have helped me process my journey. ..far more than I would have believed possible.

I am really looking forward to the Viennese trip. .everyone tells me it is such a beautiful city to visit. ..it has  been a long time since my last there.

As part of my processing of the camino I have decided not to blog for  the next few days...I have a lot of thinking to put in order...so until we meet again in person...

Adios amigos. ..buen camino
(Goodbye friends. ..good journey).

This was NOT going to happen!

Today is my last full day in Santiago and indeed in Spain.

I wandered into the old city again..more exploring that I just love. I understand the layout a bit more now and it is very quick to get around....building up the mental model of the city and adding each new alley or interesting  place as you go along.

I have been really pleased with how I feel after all the walking. My heels are bruised quite deeply but are not painful. My swelling in my feet has gone done...especially my left foot and they almost look normal.  I had a few numb toes and these are feeling good and the balls of my feet stopped hurting the day I arrived. Even my old blister sites are looking good!

When I have sat for more than 10 minutes I do the 'pilgrim shuffle' for about 50m...less if I jog...and I can now bounce out of bed with no sore muscles or tendons etc...

So the body is quickly forgetting the walk. It is strange because for the last 3 months in England and Spain I have felt every footfall...and yet each morning you can get up and do it again.

I turned down an offer last night for a ride to Finisterre. ..about 90km away with friends.  I will walk there next time I camino...which may be soon.

I had planned to go for the day but I was 'prompted' to stay.

So last was farewell to Nina, Henning and Bobbie. This evening it will be farewell to Gerrit and Nora.

That just me to say farewell to this place. That is what I thought would be under control.

Oh so wrong.

My wandering today led me back to the cathedral and I got an audio guide for the museum and cathedral.  3.5 hrs later I reemerged to a much hotter world but very upset (in a good way..but not my planned response).

The time alone wandering thru the cathedral complex allowed me to start putting my walk into perspective. ..in reason...in distance..the hardships..the joys..the friendships.

Today was way more emotional than I was expecting but very helpful all the same.

My plans until i reach NZ? Tomorrow I train to A Coruna. .fly to Barcelona and hopefully get into Gaude's cathedral and then fly on to Vienna for a few days to meet up with some camino friends. Then UK overnight on Monday and then the long haul back home.

Maybe it's the heat...or maybe I am still listening like I must.

Adios amigos
((Holding up an imaginery wine glass)...Here is to being the same but different and being different but not the same. Puzzled...? 760km will help you figure it out!)

When i get home remind me to tell you about the Bocaronies and the Permentos...

Test

Test

6am...let's go.

It is 6...dark outside...19 degrees and I am waiting for our group to assemble.

The last 20 km will start shortly. ..adding to 763 walked from Irun.

Wahoo!

Just 20km to go

Up before 6..at the bar by 6..a lovely conversation and then the rest of our day,'s walking group arrived for breakfast before leaving at 630.

We left shortly after dawn but managed to enjoy the sun rising through the early morning.

By getting going early meant we reached our target of Pedrousa before lunch and got accommodation straight away.  When I enquired for some friends an hour later the town was full.

Is was VERY hot this afternoon. .reaching over 35.  It's 1945 and it is still over 30..so a beautiful afternoon. 

20km tomorrow morning early will take us to santiago. ..the end of this journey.  I have 2 nights booked in Santiago at this stage..so no worries .

Last night was very noisy..many teenagers in an organized group..still eating at 2330. They came to bed at 130 and the first one up in my room  was packing just after 4am.

Many many pilgrims on the road today had tiny day packs or no packs...crocs..kung fu shoes..it was crazy after my last 6 weeks. Our larger packs were definitely the smallest minority.

They were not interested in being friendly either...I am so pleased I had the weeks on the Norte with friendly people.

Dinner time amigos so Adios.