Week One - Done and Dusted

7 days in and we have walked 141 kilometres. 

On a hiking day we seem to be walking 20km on average. On our supposed day off, we are walking 10km exploring whichever city in which we are ‘resting’. This first week has been all about physical training and getting acclimatized to what we have got ourselves into.  We have dealt with blazing sunshine and Pyrenean torrential rain, thick fog and mountain mists, and figured out a daily rhythm: pack the night before, sleep (try to, for some reason we can't sleep through the night despite the fatigue and it can't still be jetlag), then get up in the dark, shower, leave bags, breakfast, look at route and start walking. We break every 8km or so for food or drink or stretch or rest. and when we arrive at our destination, we have a beer with whoever we have met along the way, find our resting place, collect our bags, shower or ice bath to rejuvenate tired legs, nap/read/blog, dinner, wander (a bit) to explore around the village or town and get to bed by 9:30 or so. Then it all begins again.

It is feeling a bit like that movie "Groundhog Day", where every day seems the same, and we tweak things a bit to lighten the load, or fix a foot issue, or take more breaks, in order to improve the outcome for the next day.

Part of what we have come to realize is our training week is chatting with other pilgrims about how they are doing, where they going, what they are dealing with, and why they are walking. Our initial impression is that they seem very down to earth and real. Hence the Camino that is being revealed to us is not some crazy, ego-driven, elite monster marathon but for ordinary people going beyond their limits and being supported by everyone else who is doing the same thing. We have met people and heard stories from every continent, cutting across all demographics, although the ability to have the necessary free time means that age seems to skew towards the under 30s and the over 50s.

And we have yet to meet someone doing the Camino for religious reasons. It seems it is either to do something cultural, historical and physical or a way of dealing with some crisis or change or issue that have impacted life. 

Although not nearly the same numbers as those that walked during the medaeival era (million annually), there are increasing numbers of those walking since the last few decades (hundred thousand annually). There are less and less people affiliated with a church or religion and yet more and more people seem to feel the need to delve deeper into the direction of life and to realize some fulfillment. To move beyond what separates us towards what connects us. There's a sense of collective "spiritual dehydration" in modern life, and a desire to find a new form of human consciousness that is not dependent on any outside authority but evolves more from within. Whatever it is, I think it is quite positive and lovely to see. Humankind obviously needs to feel some sense of "spiritual reality" directing our lives, which is what organized religion gave most throughout the centuries but now does not serve more and more of us. 

As we walk we consider the Camino a bit of metaphor for life itself: sometimes the days are hard and the burden is heavy, sometimes we have learned how to lessen the load or make things better, and some days are positively joyous. Although we have a destination and a time frame in mind, no one really knows how long their Camino will be or when it will end. We occasionally see little crosses decorated with ribbons, shoe laces, flowers and photos, and we learn that a pilgrim's journey has ended there, unexpectedly. 

The best reminder of life lived now can't wait was written above a cemetery entrance we passed today (translated as):

You are what I once was,

and will be what I am now