Over half way!

Santiago is in sight... two days back we reached the half way mark - 375km´s behind us and the same distance ahead of us! It was a great feeling to reach that milestone.

Yesterday we walked 17 km´s on a straight Roman road with very little shelter or trees and no water, food or toilet facilities. Today we did another 13km stretch during our walk without passing through any town or village. In both cases the walk seemed long with no end in sight. It is not always easy to walk when you can´t see the town in the distance. But perseverance paid off when in both cases a village, nestled in a hollow, sprung into view at the last minute. A welcome relief for refreshment and a the reward well deserved.

The sun is shinning and we are enjoying meeting so many people from different corners of the world. Last night at a parish hostel accommodating about 50 people, we enjoyed a shared evening meal altogether cooked by volunteers (all for a donation). Tonight we cooked in the kitchen and ate with Canadians, Irish and a Korean friend. Outside in the evening sunshine the hostess is tending to blisters and other gross foot problems of the pilgrims. Thankfully we are not in the que!

Life is good and tomorrow we walk to the city of Leon.

The Alternative Route

Today and for the next few days we are walking over the "mesetta". Not sure of the spelling but this is a reasonably flat region of endless green wheat fields. After walking for an hour we stopped for breakfast at 8:00 and then had to decide whether to take the short route along the road or the longer route that tracked alongside a river. We chose the river route even though it was longer but it provided shade, a cool breeze from the river and paths that were soft under foot. When we started out we couldn´t tell if it was the right track because we couldn´t see footprints and it wasn´t well marked - a bit like the "road less travelled". The shorter route was along a busy road, no shelter from the sun and hard under foot.
Question: Is the seemingly faster route always the best route to travel?

PS We are staying in a parish hostel run by nuns and in the background as I type there is a hub-bub of chatter and people eating together. Everyone has provided food and one of the nuns cooked it. Amazing hospitality!

Blue Sky!

We are now sitting by the swimming pool (most unusual) on the lawn of the hostel we are sharing with 50 other pilgrims. The sky is blue, the sun is shinning and some of us are sporting sunburn. We walked another 30 km´s today, through beautiful rolling countryside, stunning views all of the way. Needless to say many of us have sore feet and it is amusing to watch people walking gingerly around, we can emphatise with each other.

It was lovely to walk through stunning countryside today and remember our creator. There is so much you miss when you are driving or your mind is busy with other things. It is so captivating when you walk and have time to take it all in. World events and the troubles of home seem a million miles away. It is enriching for the heart.

Question - why do we take so little time to slow down, ponder, walk and enrich our hearts in every day life?

where is the goal?

Today we started on the long walk from Burghos to Leon - a distance of several hundred km´s. Several people suggested that - as this is a boring stretch of countryside - that we could take the bus and make the journey more enjoyable. Today we knew why they suggested tyhis to us. We walked on top of a plateau for hours and all we could see was fields of grass, wind turbines, piles of rocks that farmers had collected over the centuries and a muddy path that was trying very hard to dry up. At times it was windy, rainy, and now and then the the sun came through. But the temperature was easy to walk in.

We started off by walking 20 km´s to a town and when we arrived there decided to do another 6 to another hostel. But when we saw the hostel there, we decided to do another 5km´s. It ended up being a long, hard walk - but the hardest thing was that over those last 5 km´s there was no sign of our town - our destination. Flat as the landscape was there was no town in sight. All we could see was piles of rocks which we hoped was a village in the distance.

But then we saw a sign - Hontanas .5km and then we saw the church steeple rising above the landscape. The village with all its hostels was in a valley - hidden from our sight.

Question: When the goal is obscured, is walking towards it sometimes too difficult?

Photos from the Journey Thus Far...

The Rain in Spain... has Turned to Snow!

We began our journey yesterday anticipating a wet day. You can imagine our surprise when just a few minutes into the walk it started to snow and continued heavily for the entire 18km´s of our trek. We stopped our journey short (we try and do over 20km each day) because we were cold and wet. The snow was beautiful and we did enjoy walking through it as it fell quietly around us. We walked fast and I think we made record time reaching our destination . It was not a good day for getting clothes clean and dry!

Today we walked on a further 20km´s to Burgos where we are staying in a lovely little 16 bed parish hostel above a church. This is a beautiful city full of history. The Catherdral is one of the main attractions and it has been fascinating to explore the churches in the towns we have passed through, many of them built between the 12th and 15th centuries.

I will try and post some photos now... this has not been possible because of the way the coin operated internet computers are set up here.

Question - why is it snowing in Spain in May????