Whispers from the Camino: Day Two (Part 1)

Note: I am resuming my Whispers from the Camino blog after a full month of attending to my health and home in Portland. I contracted COVID on August 12 and then followed that with a two-week stay in Portland seeing family and preparing my house for long-term rentals. I plan to write, as able, but still dealing with a post-COVID chest cough, daily fatigue and lingering headache. Blogs will emerge at the same rate my energy does!

September 6: Day Two (Part 1)

Getting the route right this time.

I wondered whether I should actually be considering this Day One since this was the route that I had expected to take yesterday when I went the wrong way out of town and followed the signs to a different pilgrimage route. But, then I realized that pilgrimages are all about stepping into the experience, discovering new physical and emotional landscapes and adjusting, as needed. Yes, it was true that I had intended to go another way, but that didn’t mean that the day prior didn’t count as part of the pilgrimage.

It would have been no different if I was ten days into the pilgrimage and taken a wrong turn. It still would have been part of the experience. It just happened to be that my “wrong turn” happened very first thing.

On the route with other pilgrims.

One of my readers pointed out that my experience is exactly the reason people have tour guides so as to eliminate those kinds of “mistakes.” I thought about that. Guided tours are great for people who want something safe and predictable. But, I realized that in order to have guided tours someone has to be the first one to scout out a new area and learn from all the wrong turns, mishaps and mistakes. There would be no guided tours if there weren’t first pioneers and risk-takers.

The comment reminded me that I am more of the latter. Whether psychologically, spiritually, or physically I am wired for new discovery and exploring new territory. I knew this reader (who is actually very dear to me) was trying to save me from the frustrations of wrong turns, but actually it just reminded me that I have a bit of pioneering blood in me. I grew up with an engineering dad who was more interested in creating new worlds than in replicating the known world.

In the Pyrenees

It was unfortunate that I was not able to take advantage of my high priced Airbnb with a good night of sleep. I was in bed by 9:00 p.m. expecting one really good night of sleep before embarking on what I expected would be numerous nights on bunks in a room with at least a dozen other tired pilgrims. But I woke up at 2:30 a.m. feeling anxious and ready to start the trek all at the same time. I didn’t dare start too early, though. That was part of the lesson I learned the day before. So I lay in the bed until just before dawn with my mind racing and my body confused by its need for sleep and readiness to walk.

Makeshift memorial sites

I knew pilgrims would be starting on the trail before daylight. The Camino Frances presents a particularly difficult challenge. The hardest day is actually the first day where pilgrims must ascend the 4,000 feet of altitude of the Pyrenees before getting any good miles in one’s legs. That, combined with my untested calf injury pushed me to start as early as I could, but not before the throngs would hit the trail so that I wouldn’t veer off and repeat the mistake of the previous day.

I had a few blocks before reaching the center of town. As I neared the center I saw a welcome and glorious sight. Silhouetted ahead of me were dozens of other pilgrims walking up the winding road leading out of Saint Jean Pied de Port with headlamps on. I smiled, relaxed and silently said to myself, “Here we go.”

Most of the story of this day is best told in pictures as it was remarkably majestic and beautiful. I tend to be a mountain person having been born in Montana and raised in Colorado and crossing the Pyrenees made me feel completely at home. I knew this terrain would change in the days ahead, but it put my head and heart in a good space.

The snack van high in the Pyrenees

The highlight of the day was meeting Bronwynn of Minnesota. We met at a small stop where the local sheep ranchers ran a snack booth for the pilgrims. By the time I got there about a dozen of us were sipping on Cokes, eating boiled eggs and refueling for the miles ahead. Bronwynn and I shared about our purposes for walking the Camino—me, having a first hand experience of the culture and the infrastructure so I could take it back to the States to nurture more of a pilgrimage culture on this side of the Atlantic. Her, much more personal.

Bronwyn’s mother had died and her husband, Bronwyn’s stepfather had kept the ashes. When Bronwyn’s stepfather was nearing death he told her, “If there is any way you can spread your mother’s ashes and my ashes on the Camino, that would be my deepest wish.”

In her backpack she was carrying the ashes of both preparing for the right place and the right time to spread them and honor their wishes and put the final pieces in place on her own journey of grief.

Nearing the summit

I had been told that the Camino is more than just a walking adventure. It started out as a religious pilgrimage called “The Way of St. James” as it traced a route to the city of Santiago where it is believed that the disciple is buried. But people are attracted to this pilgrimage for all sorts of reasons—finding a new path after divorce, job loss or death, an act of religious devotion, a commitment to personal transformation, and some, for just plain adventure and fun.

But meeting Bronwynn both reminded me of the power of this particular pilgrimage route as well as the need for ritual in our lives. Churches have provided that place for ritual for many centuries, but in our current climate churches hold less influence among people even as the need for ritual continues unabated. I was hoping I would meet Bronwynn somewhere down the trail where I could follow her journey of grief and memorializing her mother and stepfather.

I had different reasons for walking the Camino. But she reminded me why people do this.