Excited anticipation....

With only six sleeps to go, I am finally starting to let myself get excited about the upcoming Camino - despite the uncertainty that has hung over it these past couple of weeks.  

For anyone who has never walked a Camino, I think it is impossible to understand as it is for those who have done one to fully put into words.  

It is not so much the physical challenge, though yes, that is part of it.  It is so very many things. It is like a 2-3 week meditation.  It is about testing yourself on so many levels, but in doing so, it is also about truly accepting the things we cannot change and being at peace with the decisions we make.  

 It is finding true inner peace and about escaping from the stresses of ‘normal life’ for a short period of time-truly stepping off the treadmill that is life.  Time to look from the outside in.  An abundance of thinking time and after this past year, that space is very much what I need

There are times when tears flow freely for 1001 different reasons. And sometimes for no reason at all. There are such extreme highs and lows of emotions.  There is laughter. There is the joy of a simple routine - which, when my work life is juggling a tight appointment schedule with the challenges of traffic and being self-employed, is perhaps one of the things I cherish most 

 

There are times of complete solitude and times where we share snippets of our journey with complete  strangers who fast become friends with whom we share the deepest of conversations.  The same strangers who become part of our Camino family - one that grows larger with every new Camino

There are mornings where we wake with excitement for the day ahead despite a sleep disturbed by the cacophony of snorers, just as there are moments when we feel we genuinely can not take another step. 

Times when we stare at the beauty that surrounds us, and don’t ever want the moment to end, and there are moments when we are so exhausted, and when the pain in joints, and feet feels unbearable.

There truly are no words to describe it.  Yes, I am addicted.  As with the  last  two years, I plan this with no pressure.  I have booked only the first nights accommodation in Porto.

 Im not even really decided on which of the 3 routes I will take- just that the aim is Santiago. I will take each day as it comes and see which path looks the most enticing.  I am under no illusion that it will test me physically as the training has certainly not been what was planned.  I also know that as always  sarc will be with me each step of the way-though we seem to have a mutual respect these days, and I have learnt that the key to living with it is in finding a middle ground. 

This time next week, I will be sleeping in an Albergue (hostel) somewhere in Portugal.Read more