The night before I started the Camino from St Jean Pied de Port, there was a communal dinner at the albergue and the hospitaleroes asked each of us to say a few words about who we were, where we were from and why we were going to walk along The Way. When it came to …
Author: johnelsewhere1968
Thoughtful wanderer in search of virtual meaning
To Santiago
After 31 days on the Camino, journey's end was suddenly imminent and with it came a rush of emotions, all of which were perhaps somewhat to be expected after such an almighty endeavour. I'd deliberately picked Monte do Gozo as my last stop before Santiago in order to leave just a few kilometres to cover …
Arrival and Contemplation
It's been a few days since my last post and a few people have asked about that. Have no fear, there'll be some words about the final arrival into the Cathedral square in Santiago on Sunday morning, the multiple bars and restaurants that have seen the celebrations of the completion of the journey, the joyful …
The Little Yellow Arrow
Sometime later this morning, as I enter Santiago and approach the Cathedral, the little yellow arrows that have guided me for 500 miles over the last four weeks will suddenly disappear. It'll be an interesting moment - after they cease to reassuringly point me the way, I'll have to start making more of my own …
Give Peace A Chance
Into the last days of the journey to Santiago, with my Camino Compadres stretched out in either direction (but still constantly communicating via WhatsApp), it was a quieter day's walk for me, with Ruben and Nina of Belgium for company for most of the way. The country is flattening and becoming more woody, with eucalyptus …
Climbing Through The Clouds
Having savoured a straight month of generally spectacular Spanish sunrises, it's been rather unusual to wake to two sets of consecutive grey skies, both into Portomarin and on yesterday's climb uphill towards Palas de Rei. Being denied a daily sunrise isn't necessarily a bad thing, if it is then immediately followed by climbing up through …
Like A Good Book
This morning saw the arrival of another significant marker as the 100km sign was reached and the Camino entered its final stages. Like when finishing a good and mighty book - let's say Anna Karenina - that sense of impending conclusion is growing stronger by the day, with all the range of emotions implied. There's …
Drop The Qualifiers
Since I began this journey in St Jean-Pied-de-Port 28 days ago, I've been joined along the way by a great number of fellow Pilgrims who started their own Camino somewhere else, like Pamplona, Burgos or León. I've noticed that when describing their journey, the words "only" and "just" often feature. "I only started in León" …
Relative Values
A couple of days ago, Aoife observed that my predilection for freshly squeezed orange juice at pretty much every stop probably meant that I was spending more on that item each day than I was on where I slept each night. This is actually nearly sort of true. A glass of zumo con hielo can …
What Goes Up…
What now seems like A Very Long Time Ago, I pulled on my rucksack, laced up my Timberlands, took a deep breath and began my Camino by following Napoleon's route from France into Spain by clambering up and over the Pyrenees. I'd asked people before starting the Camino about the toughest stages and most had …
johnelsewhere 