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Memories

In 2009 the 26th of April was my first day on the Camino - I was walking over the Pyrenees but was not going on the route napoleon - I was too scared of the climb, too scared of the distance I had decided to walk,  my tjoughts lingering on the fact that to get the Compostela I only needed to walk 100km and yet was setting out to walk 800.

I set off with a girl of my age, her name and even her nationality  have faded from my mind and after this day I never saw her again but I remember how we were both worried that first day and how we kept each other going and how happy we were to reach Rocenvalles.




There were many friends made on that Camino and many since; indeed I had no idea what journey I was starting out on when I took that first step out of the albergue in Saint Jean Pied du Port that day one that has taken me so many kilometres and meant that I have met people from all over the World and seen sights that I would not have imagined - mists being lifted from valleys below me by the glare of the sun, deer watching me as I go past and a table full of people who didn't know each other that morning and do not have a common language sharing a meal and laughing together like old friends.

I am grateful to the Camino for the friends and experience, for the boost in confidence it gave me in the years when I couldn't get a job, for the time it gives me with my family, the chance to experience peace and quiet with my God, the time away from life to live each day just for itself without the worries of tomorrow and yes even for the difficulties of the hills and the blisters.

Already I'm planing my next Camino and thinking of the one after that and later this year I'm visiting friends in Canada I met on the Camino, friends who are definitely Camino family and I am grateful that I took that step on a wet April 26th 2009, glad that I overcame my fear and decided to walk more than the 100km.

I have no idea how far I have walked on the Camino but it is a distance that I am going to be adding to over the years.

Buen Camino


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