"I didn't bring a laptop or a tablet with me so I'm going to dictate some of my thoughts so far about the Camino".

​

"You start preparing for the Camino when you start preparing for the Camino! That's when your Camino starts. It's all the prep work that you've got to do ahead of time, so that you can get the freedom to actually take this journey.

That's what  am finding".

 

"Being in new countries can be tiring, new languages, different ways of doing things. 

One thing I believe, and I've said this for a long time, directions are made for people who already know where they're going, so if you're familiar with something and you look at a set of directions, or you look at a map, or where you're looking for signage, then it's very simple to understand, and if you don't, if it's new to you or you're not familiar with the signage or anything like that, then it's difficult to understand directions, and I think that's actually true a lot in life" .

 

"You'll receive some instructions from somebody and they think they're being perfectly clear, and if you're tired or you're stressed out then it's not clear, or you don't retain or understand. It's a good lesson to remember, when I'm coaching on something new, take the time to assess the starting point and basic understanding". 

 

"I'm not afraid to ask for directions, which is helpful on the Camino! 

If somebody says no to you, you just have to let it go, but 99.9% of the time people are willing to help. One of the gifts I got from my mother was the ability to just talk to complete strangers and have real conversations with them, and from the moment that I got to the airport and got on the plane, I just started doing that, so already I've met amazing amazing people".

 

"My first stop was landing in Paris, and then I took three trains to get to get to Bayonne. There were so many people on the train and of course you could tell the pilgrims, because they were all carrying backpacks and everyone was excited and cheerful, and it was every language that you can imagine being spoken. Spanish and Portuguese, Italian, German and Dutch, and we took the train to Bayonne, got off, and then I spent the night in Bayonne wondering around just a beautiful Basque town and very friendly, very beautiful".

 

"I got up first thing in the morning a bit jet lagged and went walking at 7:00 in the morning. I visited a couple of ancient Churches and the Cloister. Bayonne has an interesting history,  they dredged the river and it made it an actual Port that boats could come up to and that probably changed the outcome for that town for sure.

One of the things that I love to do is look at the history of an area, and it reminds me of the struggle of humanity, it reminds me of the creativity of people the way that they make beauty everywhere, and of course history does repeat itself.  There's a lot of violent history. One of the interesting things about Bayonne was that it was a chocolate centre. The chocolate trade was brought in with the the Jews and interestingly, when it started to become popular, they restricted the Jews from being involved, even though the Jews had brought it into Bayonne". 

 

"The drive for profit can justify many things. Some things you never change".

 

"Next day I took the train down to St John Pierre de Port which was a Garrison Town. Actually they built a big Garrison there because there was so much fighting between the French and the Spanish".

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"I stayed at a private hostel, there were four people to a room, and very quickly had to get used to Camino life. Our host said that dinner was sharp at 7:30, and of course we'd all had a long travel day, myself included, and 7:30 rolled around and everybody arrived, and then we did an almost hour long ice-breaking session, and we talked about why we were on the Camino and we introduced each other, and there was that interesting sort of balance between okay this is great, and I'm starving, so immediately you have to remember you know, why am I here?

Just let all that stuff go, and the depth of the conversation, some of the sharing that people did, one person shared that he had lost a very close friend to suicide and he was trying to make sense of it all and decided to walk the Camino, but the reasons for walking it are varied, for some people it's like exercise, and some people are looking for human connection, and some people are looking for inner connection".

 

"It was a really early start, I think I was on the road by 7:00 or 7:30 am, but just getting used to packing your gear and making sure you've got everything, and everything is charged is really time consuming. The ascent going over Napoleon's way had only opened a few days ago and the weather there can be really really terrible. It looked like we were going to get a decent day and the climb is about, I don't know, 1500 meters elevation, so the total day was 26 km, but the first six kilometres felt like they were straight up!"

 

"I was walking with a gentleman and keeping pretty good Pace with him, and then I thought "I've got a whole day to do here", and I just stopped took a breather and said it was very nice to meet you, and then he walked on, and that's really what it's like on the Camino. you keep pace with someone, you drop behind, you go ahead, and nobody minds or nobody seems to mind that you let people walk through". 

​

"The thing that's really noticeable is the encouragement that people provide for other people walking the Camino. Every age group is visible, and there are lots of people 50-60 years plus, and it feels like there's a lot of acceptance of whatever level the people are at. I will say that I have made a lifetime commitment to being strong and fit and the first few days on the Camino have definitely taught me to be thankful for my body, but also a level of humility, because trying something new just put my body in a totally different zone and different challenges".

​

"I have done a lot of hard things in my life and making it over that pass from St John Paul to Roncesvalles was one of the hardest things I've ever done. If not the hardest. There were times when I was merely putting one foot in front of the other and it really required a level of, I don't even know the word I'm looking for,  it was sheer will power"

​

"When I arrived at Roncesvalles, I discovered that the hostel is run by volunteers from the Netherlands. I'm not sure what the significance of that is or what that relationship was, but they volunteer they come in for two weeks, do a whole bunch of different jobs, they welcome the pilgrims and then they head home and a new set of volunteers will come in.

It's a massive hostel and everyone sleeps their little bunks, but everyone sleeps in this huge room, and so you're hearing all the sounds that people make at night, all the snoring all the tossing and turning all of that kind of thing".

 

"The Camino Albergue (Hostel) life is not glamorous, little sleep, limited hot water, damp clothes, snoring humans". 

 

"Managing your energy, recovery time, your food intake, your water intake, is a challenge because these are long days.

I think it was 44,000 steps the first day, here's the thing, if I was to go and do that hike in a day in my regular life, I would have done it and it would have been really hard. What I would not have done is get up the next day and walk another 24 or 26 km. That's the challenge of the Camino, it's not that you can go and walk a day and say "man I did that, I walked over the Pyrenees", it's that I've walked over the Pyrenees and now I'm going to be walking another 30 or 35 days, or whatever it turns out to be". 

​

"I was walking with a lovely nurse on this second day, a retired nurse from Australia, and we were being quite careful because it was quite muddy and slippery in sections, and very rocky, and there were sections where the the rocks were almost like smooth plates of rock, so easy to slip down. And there was an older gentleman that was trying to traverse this section and we just decided, Bev and I,  without even talking about it, that we would just stop and make sure he got down okay. And so I went first and then Bev, and then we waited, and that is really indicative of what goes on here on the Camino.

And the other thing that's really amazing is that I walked my third day! It feels like I've been doing this for months".

 

"Today I walked from Larrasuano through Pamplona and then Cezur Menur which is a bit of a bedroom community now to Pamplona.  Walking on pavement is so much more tiring than walking through the countryside".

 

​

Here are a few quotes or thoughts that I have put together. 

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"You know we always think that 'it's the climb that's going to be the hardest part and no question it is difficult, but going downhill is almost worse',  and I think if you use that as a metaphor for life, you know, you drive so hard and you try to accomplish things and if things don't go your way, and they start sliding it's so disappointing, so going up and going down are both equally difficult.  On a physical note most injuries happen on the downhills". 

​

"When you're tired you don't have the bandwidth to do the things you want to do. It’s really important to pace yourself . Know when to push know when to slow down, know when to stop". 

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• Everyone on the way is doing it their way, and it's all perfect. 

• Walking the Camino is a combination of putting your head down , and looking ahead so as not to miss the signs. 

• If everyone walked the Camino, the world would be a better place. 

• You’re going to pack more than you need, and need something you didn't pack. 

• You can do hard things, and on the Camino, you need to do hard things everyday. 

• Remember, it's not the walking, it's the load. 

• Find the compassion to allow yourself to release that burden you've been carrying. 

• And realize that others are carrying their own burden, and walking their own Camino. 

• There is a saying on the Camino, the Camino takes and the Camino gives. 

• So far, I have had to have my toenail drilled to drain some blood build up, had my ankle taped by a physio, and experienced a lovely bought of diarrhea. And all of those things felt like they were all in a days work. 

• Just something to get through on this journey. 

• The stories that have been shared highlight our similarities, the human condition. 

• There is struggle and trauma everywhere. ​

 

Reasons I have heard for walking Camino.

 

Physical challenge, 

Lose weight, 

Quit smoking, 

Quit drinking, 

Quit using drugs, 

Bucket list,

Spiritual journey, 

Reconnect with faith, 

Recover from burnout, 

Find direction, 

Find new direction, 

Recover from heartbreak, 

Learn to trust again, 

Create a new framework for living,.

​​​

Maura: 

April 15th