I’m three days into the Camino with my fabulous friends, Sylvie Caouette and Céline Guay. I picked up a bad cold along the way, but the walking has been fabulous. We made it through the Pyrenees in a day and a half, crossing from France into Spain, a new country for me. Gorgeous views. It’s been quite a good spiritual and social adventure so far.
Had an interesting experience on the Camino yesterday. I have been ill with a nasty head cold. The pharmacy that was supposed to be open in Zubiri was closed. The owners had just started a two-week vacation. The Camino didn’t want me to get meds. It was a rough night for sleeping. Yesterday I suffered all morning. I couldn’t breathe, especially on the uphills. I could barely keep my head up at times, I was so weak.
I wandered into a church outside Pamplona with Sylvie and just started talking. Looking for an existential reason for my cold, I asked why I had let myself get sick. What was the Camino trying to teach me? Was it to slow down? No, that didn’t make sense; I had already decided to slow down. Was it because I felt I had to suffer because it was a pilgrimage? That made sense to me. So, I said out loud, “I don’t need to suffer to have an amazing spiritual experience on the Camino. The best thing you could do for me is to have me walk up this street and find a pharmacy that is open.”
Sylvie and I walked up the street 300 meters and found a pharmacy that was open. Within an hour, I could breathe again and was chatting away like a schoolboy.
Sylvie and I had a coffee and croissant in old Pamplona for about $2.25 Canadian. Such civilized hiking. And such fun. And as it turned out, it was a great day.
We walked 24 kilometers today, the last ten or so in 28-degree heat. And a nice juicy uphill with no shade for the last couple of kilometers. When I arrived at our pilgrim’s hostel, El Cantero, the owner, Mariola, said, “It’s ok, the hill is over, you are home now.” What a wonderful woman she is.
The day was filled with hills, one of which was a long uphill to a col, which wasn’t a problem, but the downhill was a challenge. It was a steep talus-filled gully. Thankfully, years of pilgrims walking through here has created a thin worn path through the boulders. But because some people are quite slow, you need to pass in the rubble. When I moved to pass a few people, I could hear my ankles screaming, nooooo.
It was an emotional day on the trail for some. I met a young Finnish woman in a church. She was crying. We chatted outside. She had been called to the Camino because her life was in shambles. She quit three jobs to come on the Camino, so this is no small event for her. She had been hoping for some answers on what she should do next in life, but they weren’t coming to her.
I stopped in every single open church along the Way today (there were three of them). Seems strange for an agnostic to go to church and send out requests for loved ones to the universe, but what the heck, when in Rome. I find that in most churches (not all though), there is good energy. Why not tap into it if it can help someone I care about?
A couple of days before I started the Camino, I learned that a very dear friend of mine has breast cancer. She has just started chemo and I went with her to have her hair shaved off. Like all women, she doesn’t deserve it. She is everything that is good in people. So, in the churches, I whisper requests on her behalf.
We are in the village of Maneru, population 450. This village is linked with the Knights Templar and the order of Saint John; very influential in the Middle Ages.
I loved this day. And still a pilgrim’s meal to come.