'Twas the night before ...

We are resting in our hotel room 2 km past the town of Padron, nearly 2 weeks since our arrival in Porto on 1st October. It is good to be here, having traveled about 225 km so far, with 22 remaining until our destination, Santiago. My memory of arriving in Rome 5 years ago was exhilaration on the final morning, followed by a huge anticlimax. What do you do when your focus has been to walk to the next place each day, and you have no necessity to pick up your pack and head off again?

It has been good to share the journey with our friends Peter and Lynne, a privilege that they invited us to join them on their celebration of Lynne's 60th birthday. It has also been good to be back on the pilgrim route, and of all days so far, today we had much more interaction with other pilgrims - 2 Spanish sisters and their close friend, 2 American guys, an Aussie girl and her UK sister and a great group of 8 women, also doing the camino for a 60th birthday.

It will be interesting to discover whether this camino has a significant impact on me as did our Italian pilgrimage. In some ways we both feel that we are only just getting into the rhythm now. Whether or not, it has been a wonderful trip, meeting lovely people, enjoying visiting both Portugal and Spain, creating super memories and wearing out our walking shoes.

And we still have the climb to Santiago da Compostella before us.

A good day on the Caminho Portugese

We have been looking forward to this day for the last 4 or 5 as our guide book has told us that in the midst of 21+ km journeys each day, Arcade to Pontevedra is only 12 km. 4 times around The Sheffield Block - locals know it well.

To add to our interest in today's walk was the pending weather forecast for thunderstorms, issued for the last week even up to this morning. However, while the 12 km was reasonably accurate (we often find cafe's supposedly 100 m away to be more like 500m), we made our journey here without even a drop of rain, just mugginess clearing to sunshine. 

An alternate route to the official camino walk alongside highway N550 was a gentle path meandering alongside a small rivulet. So after a much appreciated coffee at the only cafe along the route (well, maybe100m off the road), we took the winding path crossing the rivulet, over and back many times, until we found ouselves at Pontevedra.

What a difference a warm welcome makes! Borja joked as he checked us into the Hotel Avenida and stamped our credentials.

Tim and I headed into the old city during a short downpour - to make up for missing the storm - and enjoyed a platter of Iberian cheese and preserved meats with a local pipe player busking alongside the restaurant. He told us he played for his supper all the way from Pamplona to Santiago last year.

We are really taken with Pontevedra. The old city is full of magnificent facades, granite streets, old churches and convents both active and in ruins, and well laid out gardens and avenues. The most beautiful of all is the Capela de la Virgen Peregrina, a simple rotunda chapel made of granite, with a gilded statuesque centrepiece and recurrent scallop shells, the symbol of the pilgrimage to Santiago.

A walking tour of the old city added another 10 000 steps to today's tally. With a plan to have tapas back in the old city this evening, our officially short day of walking might see us with the highest step tally so far.

We have 3 more days and over 60 km to go. Thankyou to those of you who are following our journey. 

The Reasons for Pilgrimage

There are people walking the Camino journey for all kinds of reasons.  For some, mostly, but not exclusively, the young, this walk is simply a fairly cheap and interesting physical challenge, best undertaken with a group of friends.  Any religious element is at the most an historical context to the journey.  We have met a number of groups enjoying the camino as a collective challenge.  This includes an international group of women celebrating one of their number's 60th birthday.  

For those individuals who begin this walk with a purpose, the reasons are various. For some it is devotion, seeking God or maybe even seeking favour with God (depending on one's personal journey and spiritual theology).  For a small number it might even be penance, seeking redemption from some mistake or something they have done wrong and can find no other way to put right.  Perhaps a more common reason is the desire for healing and solace from hurt and pain, particularly the grief of lost relationships. Some are seeking guidance in times of transition; the old giving away to some unknown new direction.  On the very first day we met a Dutchman who had just sold his business and retired.  He had finished his Camino but was not yet ready for home and wanted a few days to reflect quietly before returning to a new life.  Others are seeking a specific personal transformation in their lives.  For each of these there is 'call' to the Camino and to the journey with its challenges, gifts, pains and joys.  The walk itself embodies a symbolic representation of life and somehow transforms it as one returns home.

The disconnection from everyday life with its pressures and expectations is an important part of this journey.  Normal life realities are replaced with the rhythms and necessities of survival as a pilgrim - food, walking, shelter, safety, finding the way, looking after your body, as you are completely reliant on it to keep going day after day.  There is much we take for granted in normal life which is high on the critical necessity list for pilgrims.  The pilgrim experience is very earthy and basic.  It consequentially has a spirituality of its own - an earthy trust in God, an immediate sense of dependence and of God's presence in nature and in other people.  Nature is raw and in your face, rain, wind or sunshine.  Pigrims are vary aware of the needs of provision and protection.  There is something rich and speacial in the camaraderie of fellow pigrims welcoming you to a cafe at the end of particularly long or challenging stretch.  Something of profound affirmation felt in shared experience which is rare in everyday life.  And there are others on the way.  Locals offer gifts of the land as you pass their gardens and orchards.  There is an identification with the pilgrim that is never felt for the tourist.

There is a saying on the Camino, that the journey will not necessarily answer your questions but it may help you discover what they truly are.  So part of the Camino experience is that the reason for which you start is often different from the transformation with which you end.  The Camino journey is full of unexpected surprises the meaning of which only become clear, as we have found, well down the track as normal life is embraced on one's return.

Continuing down the road

Over the past 3 days we have walked over 30 000 steps each day. We loved Portugal and had beautiful clear skies each day, with out door dining and relaxed coffee stops en route.

Yesterday we crossed the border into Spain and found it tough going. Partly as it was extremely hot, and also our predicted 'easy' day seemed to drag along asphalt roads and without much opportunity to drop into a bar as we went. Thankfully our friends had packed a thermos of coffee and a roadside stop amongst heather, overlooking the main highway, with Portuguese chocolate and nuts gave us the impetus we needed to keep going. The day ended with a long haul along the main highway into O Porrino.  Spanish SIM cards organised then Tapas before crashing out last night.

We have moved our watches forward an hour so waking now in the dark. Accommodation the last 3 nights has been more basic but still good to arrive for a shower and rest each day.

Rain was forecast for 3 pm today and sure enough, it is now gently raining. We arrived with only a few drops, and joined with a group of 7 ladies who are all doing the Caminho Portugese in celebration of their 60th birthdays. Lynne has joined the club and we are outcasts due to our relative youth!!

Not sure why yesterday was a drag and today was great. More variety along the way, brief chats with fellow pilgrims, and cooler weather.  Or just that some days are better than others. No reason. They just are.

Sitting in a comfortable bar now, with a lemon shandy. Cheers!

Expectations

Our day began with a lovely skype with our daughter M and set me smiling from the outset. The sight of Floyd, her puppy, resting his paw on her lap as she chatted away animatedly made me chuckle. Our conversation touched on met and unmet expectations and we were about to begin our longest and hardest day, with a major climb through forest to a fountain, then a second climb after our descent. Expecting it to be hard made the reality much lighter. And maybe an early start, friendly pilgrims, wayside stops, a picnic lunch on the hilltop, waterfalls, Roman bridges and gentle breezes all added to the delight of this day.

It was good to walk well.

Tonight we are staying at Casa da Capela, named because it adjoins a lovely stone chapel. The young woman who greeted us here allowed us to go straight up to our rooms to freshen up before any of the booking-in formalities. I will leave Portugal in a couple of days' time with a lasting impression of the friendly and intelligent young people we have encountered here.

I am now expecting wonderful accommodation as our tour company obviously have carefully selected each place. But I remain deeply appreciative of warm welcomes, stylishly renovated stone buildings and afternoons to put up my feet even after a bracing swim in a very cold saltwater pool.

Laundry done, journal entry written, and nothing more demanding my attention until dinner is served at 7. Who'd be a pilgrim?

White Sugar redeemed

Today was our fourth day of walking and we were in good shape, arriving 20+ km down the road by 1:30 pm. We were greeted at the Mercuria by a vivacious young woman, Germana, who obviously takes great pride in this place. The town, the menu, and the history of this lovely place which was established as a manchester then grocery store. It retains aspects of its history within the cabinets of the dining room, and the menus are handwritten into old cashbooks. Germana also loves food, she delighted to tell us, so easily convinced us to choose her favourite items from the menu. She was spot on!

Another aspect of the history of the building being retained is the naming of the rooms as grocery items rather than numbers. As we climbed the stairs we passed Green Tea, Chocolate, Pimento and so on, up to our room. We are in the attic, in an all white suite called White Sugar. Hence my new regard for the villainous food!!

We did enjoy various aspects of our walk today, including meeting a Mennonite couple from Vancouver, and appreciating some modern architecture.  After walking mainly through forestry tracks that could have easily been in Australian national parks, we came out on the bank of the magnificent Lima River. You have already heard my rave about our accommodation. Perhaps I should focus more on the challenges and delights of walking, but the challenges of staying in a room with the church bell right outside the window far outweigh any other considerations.

Quinta da Cancela

Back on the road yesterday after our bus trip to Braga for a day to explore the relatively new Bom Jesus basilica on Wednesday.

I love walking. I do so little usually - not sure why - so on a journey like this I appreciate the simple rhythm of walking. Add to that the variety of vistas, road and track surfaces (still plenty of cobblestones), conversations or silence, and a day on rhe road is wonderful.

I am drawn less to the huge churches, many ornate and gilded, full of the typical Portugese blue and white tiles.  Nor to the dark churches which are cold and musty. With one exception. For a reason I cannot grasp we were all very moved by our time in the Romanesque church at Rates. Local people dropped in to pray and we too found solace there. I was touched by the glorious vases full of the most beautiful white flower arrangements, all matching, and heaps of them.

What draws me most is simplicity. A market full of fresh produce and seedlings and bustling with morning shoppers. A vine turning red against an azure sky. A paddock of horned beasts gently munching the short blades of grass remaining. A Saint Bernard on a roof top, with a husky bark - ? from barking at pilgrims all summer.

Then we arrived here. What a glorious place. And because it was a short day, 15 km, we have had plenty of time to enjoy.it. George, our host, and his wife have converted her family's property into accommodation. We are in one of 3 suites and there is another building at the top of the property for guests as well. Stone walls, en suite like 2 concrete and glass capsules in the room, wine press in the dining room, outdoor chairs and tables. Stylish and comfortable.  Love it.

Interesting how our bag transfers work. Apparently one person does the whole route from Porto to Santiago each day collecting and dropping off bags to each place along the way.

We have been saddened these last few days to hear that an elder from our church has been dying, and woke today to the news of his death yesterday morning.  Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family and our church as we all grieve.

Soon we will be having breakfast and donning our day packs and heading out the blue door straight onto the pilgrim trail, heading for Ponte da Lima.