I am sitting in the shade as the multi coloured washing from many pilgrims (ourselves included) gently blows in the warm breeze. I have a pot of tea, which I am rather proud of as I first had to buy a cup of milk from the nextdoor cafe, then hunt in the hostel kitchen for some mugs (and miraculously found a teapot, minus lid, and matching milk jug), then work the cooker to heat the water and finally with my teabags, that have travelled the Camino with me, make the perfect pot of tea!! Bliss at the end of the day.
We had a lovely relaxing rest day yesterday with the sun shining at the beautiful hostel/hotel we were staying at. The husband was English (from Cornwall) and was the most amazing cook. So as well as time to rest, read and do some washing we had the most delicious meals and felt truly spoilt.
It was good, though, to get back on the Camino and we set off this morning at 8.15am after a yummy breakfast. The sky was clear and a dusty pink, not a rain cloud in sight. It was 1.5km to the Camino from our accommodation and as we got nearer we could see ahead a steady stream of people with rucksacks and walking sticks, we were back on our way.
The book described todays path as ‘undulating’ which suggests something quite gentle, but really means a day going up and down! It was a pretty path, though, well away from the main road and often through beautiful wooded paths. There were significantly more people today but, I suspect, many were Spanish day walkers as they would fly past us with tiny day packs chatting happily together…it is, after all a Sunday!
At one point as we walked through a beautiful wooded area, with many magnificent huge mushrooms growing in the shade, we came upon a group of Spanish children, with a couple of adults, out mushroom collecting. They gaily shouted ‘Buen Camino’ before running at speed past us down the hill we were gingerly tackling.
Our stop for tonight is by a river and is both quiet, surrounded as it is by fields, and a buzzing ‘pilgrim’ stop with two hostels and a couple of cafe/restaurants. I enjoy the constant movement from one place to another, never sure what it will be like and always enjoying the surprise of a new place. Esther laughs at the way we have the same habits when we arrive as we did when we travelled together 33 years ago; I instantly have to unpack, put my things in their proper place, have a shower and change, whereas she likes to arrive and lie on her bed until I am sorted!!
As I have walked today I have thought often of my Church Without Walls family meeting today for Dinner Church and how it will be good next month to be back with everyone. But I have also thought what a special gift this time has been to step back, to pause, to just be for a while. One of the things about walking like this is that most of the time I can think no further than the top of the hill ahead of me…it constantly brings me back to this present moment and God’s presence with me in the here and now.
Ruth's blog 