One year later ...

GOALS

by Clarisa Peregrina

I learned about how important it was to set goals a long time ago. If you don't have goals in your life then what you most worry about and spend time on becomes your goal. But sometimes we worry about small things and spend time too much time on them using up energy that we could use on better goals.

Although I was told about this in the 1980's I never did much about it until I simply had to ... that is when I faced life on my own after a very painful break up of a 30 year marriage.

I found the only way I could deal with the pain was to keep very busy and very interested in something ... so I decided to upgrade my skills and do a Graduate Certificate in Education. I worked so hard (I had to, to forget my sadness) that I got a High Distinction (HD) on my first assignment. I couldn't believe it! I had never achieved that as an undergraduate. Well, this spurred me on and my first big conscious goal was to get HDs for all my assignments, which I did! And thus, by the end of year 2006 I had achieved my first goal.

My second goal was to get a job. I had not worked for a long time and was quite anxious about this, but because I did so well in the practical part of my Certificate; I was offered a job at the school where I did it. I didn't even have to look for work!

After that I decided that I had to quit smoking, especially if I wanted to go overseas on some adventure or other, which I did. My smoking was very heavy and dominated my days and nights and of course got worse during the time of my separation. So quitting smoking became my goal for 2007. It took me until the end of October that year, to smoke my last cigarette. I haven't touched a cigarette since.

Well then, I now had freed up about AUS $4160 (it cost me about $80 a week to smoke) and about that time I had decided what adventure I wanted to have. 2008 would be my year of reflection. I decided to walk the original pilgrim's path from St Jean Pied de Port in France, up and over the Pyrenees and across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela, a distance of 800 km. Walking 800km mostly on my own would allow much time for reflection.

Walking to Santiago de Compostela, or walking ‘El Camino’ as it is called in Spanish, without catching a bus or taxi, would be my 2008 goal. To do this I would have to get fit and do a lot of preparation as not only would I be walking a long way but I would also have to carry all my belongings (about 11 kg). I had my newly freed-up cigarette money to purchase my walking gear and to pay for a personal trainer. Scott, from Inform Health in Adelaide worked hard to get me into shape. I saw him twice a week for almost half a year as well as followed his plan to help me increase the number of kilometres I walked each day, as well as slowly increasing the weight on my back.

On June the 18^th 2008 I arrived in Santiago de Compostela having achieved perhaps the greatest challenge so far in my life. This is what I wrote to a fellow pilgrim who supported me throughout my planning and training for my Camino:

                                                                                      26 July 2008, Lima, Peru

Hi Sil,

This is what I’ve learned:

I thought nothing much had changed in my life on the Camino, and that I had done a lot of learning before I walked, but wow, it is all happening now! Amazing!

I don´t ever want to forget that I should take one step at a time, one day at a time accepting what that day brings, without fear; and making the best of it; and then letting it all start again the next morning. And isn’t wonderful that we get another day, the next day, to do it better than today?

And then, the power of the symbolism of the weight that I carried in my back pack: Why did my pack feel heavier on some days and lighter on other days, even though the weight I carried was the same? Was it because I also carried my emotions, my memories, my thoughts (positive and negative) with me? And how do I lighten ‘my load’ so that today is easier to experience?

It is fantastic ... and I know as time goes by that I will understand even more about how to live ... I can now choose how to live an experience, or a day, I may not like it, but if I look at it from a different point of view, I can learn from it, AND even enjoy it. Wow! It is amazing!

Love you Sil for dragging me on to the Camino, and for every now and then checking to see how I was going! 

:-)

Pilgrim hugs to you too,

Clarisa Peregrina

And Sil’s next email to me:

Clarisa,

You overcame more than most to walk the path and you did it with determination and courage. Just remember, there might be 120, 000 Compostelas given out this year - and yours is one. Only 9000 started at Roncesvalles. 

Stretched out behind you are a few million people who profess a yearning to walk el Camino (but never will) and many more millions who believe that they never could.
You are my hero!

Santiago de Compostela!

Hola!
It is wonderful! Bravo to all who those of us who have arrived in Santiago de Compostela! We have achieved something amazing!

I arrived in Santiago at 2 pm on the 25th of June and was met by Richard who flew into Santiago on that day to meet me in the 'Praza' (Galician for Plaza). He surprised me by having booked a hotel a block away. Nothing like a beautiful bathroom to win over a tired and happy peregrina! :-)
Santiago was wonderful. We took the time the next day to cheer in other pilgrims arriving and to wander about the 'casco viejo' and the 'Catedral'. I loved Santiago and enjoyed it, as I have all the other cities I passed through.
In the late afternoons, the Camino cities ie Pamplona, Logrono, Burgos, Leon, Astorga and Santiago, come alive when the local inhabitants spill out onto the streets to walk about with their families and friends. It is wonderful to see communities still enjoying and using the old city centres in this way!

Now, I am sitting at a desk in a hotel, in Bilbao! with the Guggenheim Museum beckoning; having left Santiago at 2pm yesterday! On the way we stopped in Leon so Richard could see the stained glass windows of the Cathedral and to have a coffee in the square where I spent several hours several days before (we parked under the Plaza :-). It was amazing on the way to drive past a peregrino here and there and to see the familiar signs eg to Mansilla de las Mulas an, to Carrion de los Condes! We arrived late last night and haven't seen Bilbao in daylight yet. 

I have so much to say but now is not really the time as I only have a day in Bilbao. Richard and I are on our way to France to visit Rebecca's French family and then on to Barcelona.

I will also continue my blog although I have already completed the near 800 kilometre walk to Santiago and worn the rubbers of my poles!

Clarisa Peregrina

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

unedited version

"Mi Camino Lindo" in the Pyrenees

Except for very few days on my Camino, I see things that take my breadth away, surprise me or make me laugh. I guess this is because every single day, what I see is new to me. In this blog, I want to show you some of the scenes and things that have amazed me and given me joy.

St Jean Pied de Port, the little town in the French Pyrenees, where I began my Camino on 8 May 2008, is a gorgeous little town. This is the first little street which I loved walking through on the Camino. On my first night I stayed in a little albergue called Le Sprit du Chemin (on the left). In the morning when I came down the stairs for breakfast, I tripped on the last step (which was half the size of the ones above) and I twisted my ankle; so my first morning on the Camino found me sitting at the albergue with ice on my ankle!

When I stopped feeling sorry for myself, I stood up and wandered about St Jean hesitating about making that first step into the Pyrenees. But I am glad I did take that first step because it was a wonderful day and look at how beautiful it was:

Here I am in the full kit with my huge raincoat, which covers me and my 11 kilo pac (inlcudes 2 small front pacs), my Pacer poles, and my little woolen cap on (this means it is very cold! and wet!).

Que lindo!

El Camino in the Pyrenees:

On the first night I stayed at the refuge at Hountos and on the second night at Orisson, both still in France. This is what the weather looked like on the morning of my first serious day of walking as I stepped out from the refuge at Orisson on the 10th of June:

It was a difficult day, so hard that I decided that if I got to Roncesvalles that day without collapsing, or freezing, I would be able to do the Camino. And it was oh! so beautiful!!!:

Fortunately, I walked with three lovely German girls: Cecilia, Monica and Gerte, and Herman, who were very strong and brave, and willed me to keep going. I so wish I had taken their photos; and in the end I did get to Roncesvalles, on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees....

And today is June the 9th, and I am still on the Camino, but in Leon, where I am waiting for my glasses to be repaired! I hope to get to Santiago at the latest by the 25th of June....how? I don´t know yet.... according to my book, it is 326.1 km away :-) Some people can walk 25 to 30 km a day easily, but it is a little harder for me....my old ankle gets very sore and swollen after about 18 km, and needs ibuprofen, a rest and a lot of coaxing to get it going the next day!

Until the next blog which may be quite a while away.... it depends on whether the small towns have fast enough internet and more than one computer you see.

Love to all,

Clarisa Peregrina

Sleeping on the Camino!

Where we sleep is a big deal on the Camino because we have to accept what we get, or we may have to walk another 5 or 10 kilometres to get to the next "albergue" or "refugio" which may be worse. Sometimes we sleep in great places such as at old monastery in Roncesvalles where there is plenty of fresh air:

This is the new albergue in Pamplona which was built within a monastery which is very nice:

Sleeping in the old church steeple in Grañon was wonderful; my bed was the brown mat in front of Vanja, the Slovenian girl in pink, and my bag pack and gear are at the end of it:

The Ermita de San Nicolas (mentioned in previous blog) where there was no electricity and where eleven of us ate and sang together by candlelight was the best. Our beds are behind the red divider by the door:

The wonderful albergue at Boadilla del Camino where we had one of the very few days of sunshine so far:

At other times we have to sleep in places which test us all, squashed up together in a room such as the one below in the monastery of Santo Domingo de la Calzada where 6 of us slept together in a tiny room:

Love to all,

Clarisa Peregrina

After Burgos: Rain, rain, rain, mud, mud and the Ermita de San Nicolas

Yesterday was a long, cold, grey, wet day. The early birds started rustling their plastic bags and packing up to leave the Hontanas albergue at 5 am, so that when I finally gave up and got out of bed, it was 6 in the morning. I left at about 8 AM and walked on my own for the next 6 km to Castrojeriz where I had intended to stay for the night, due to the weather!

Walking in the rain is not easy and walking in the rain for 6 kilometres is worse.

My rain coat supposedly keeps me dry but in actual fact I perspire so much that I am just as wet on inside as I am on the outside. To avoid this as much as possible, I put on only a T-shirt, but this means that if it is a little windy I get quite cold.

Secondly, my glasses get fogged up and wet, so eventually I take them off and although my vision is a bit fuzzy at least the colours are wonderful. 

Then of course there is thick and sticky mud on my boots, and all the little bones on my feet and ankles get stirred up as I struggle to keep my balance on the mud and not fall flat on my face! Thank goodness for my Pacer poles which means really that I have four legs instead of two! Then, if I walk along the edges of the path on top of the weeds, where there is less mud, I pick up water from the weeds which go into my boots and this is bad, because wet boots often result in big blisters! 

A rainy day also means that I have a small window from which to view the world as my rain jacket closes in around my face. I miss a lot of little things that I often notice when it is not raining. And then I can’t take as many photos as I would like, because moisture is very bad for my camera.

I got into Castrojeriz cold and wet, and went into a Bar, which is the only place one can go into on a cold and wet day, in a small Spanish village. Often the bars are dark and very smoky and display a sign at the entrance which says. “Se permite fumar”. After experiences at 8 or 9 am in smoky bars, it is definite that I will never smoke again!

The man in the bar was very friendly so I went in and had a large “café con leche”. I sat there for about an hour trying to get warm but all that happened was that I got cold. Finally I decided to go up again to the meseta and down to the Ermita de San Nicolas, about 11 km away.

As it was still raining and I was already wet, I might as well keep going…..so I started the long trudge through more mud, and then a long and steady climb back up to the meseta, then across the extremely beautiful meseta itself, where I felt as if I was in heaven and the air was fresh and I could see for miles, and hear tiny birds all around me. I was lucky because it stopped raining while I was up there. It was beautiful, but the mud was thicker and heavier; and my backpack felt heavier and heavier as well.

And then the rain started again, on my way to the Ermita and as I walked down some very steep slopes on more mud which continued on the flat at the bottom. Then my poor little feet had a few more kilometres to do on asphalt. At last! I could see it, the Ermita of San Nicolas!


and as I approached, a Dutch pilgrim who was sweeping mud off the front porch welcomed me.

It was wonderful to arrive. I was absolutely soaked, exhausted and my old ankle sprain was reminding me to stop. I burst into tears as the hospitalero started taking off my raincoat and then wrapped a blanket around me. Another pilgrim raced off and brought me a hot cup of coffee.

It was dark in the Ermita and when I got used to the darkness I could see that it was very old and I felt that I had been transferred into medieval times…..more later!

In Hontanas, a little pilgrim village on the meseta

Here again at last...this computer is very slow and the settings are a little funny so I will be short. I am in Hontanas, a little pilgrim village in the middle of the meseta which is between Burgos and Castrojeriz. Since I last wrote the weather has been much the same. Cold and grey in the mornings, which bush walkers know, can be good walking weather; and very rainy as well most evenings and on several sections of the Camino. The problem with rain is that most of the Camino is VERY muddy and the weight of our boots increases by at least 2 kilos as a result....but it is preferable to walk in mud than on miles of concrete or asphalt....when that happens, I can feel every little bone in my feet and all the other joints being used. I am now walking a little faster, doing an average of about 18 to 22 km a day, fairly comfortably. My main problem has not been the dreaded blisters, which most people have. or are recovering from; but insect bites which are so very itchy. I guess that this is MI CAMINO. Everyday I walk through beautiful countryside and little Spanish villages which appear to be mostly abandoned; or at least have very few people living in them. As it has rained almost daily on the Camino, everything is very, very green and the Spanish wheat crop is looking very healthy indeed. I guess that is not good news for Australian wheat farmers. The fields look like huge rolling velvet carpets of various shades of green and in places are almost as tall as I am. Of course the little red poppies pop up everywhere along the way. That is all for now....as I am hearing rumblings of pilgrims wanting to go on to the net. Clarisa Peregrina

I can now do a 20 to 22 km day!

I don´t know how but now I can walk 20 km in a day, which I need to do to get to Santiago on time. As it is I think I am going far too slow and I may need to do 25 or 27 km days. Fortunately I have not had a single blister!!! You should see the blisters some of the men have! I think it is because they think they are blister proof...yesterday I met a handsome policeman, from Valencia, who was doing the Camino in 18 days, because that was all the time he had. Jesus was walking because his 18 year old son fell down 8 floors while working, and broke several bones, and he swore that if his son survived and walked again, he would go to Santiago....he did 50 km yesterday and of course I haven´t seen him since!