"Chief nourisher in life's great feast."

This will be brief, as I have already written this blog post twice and blogger has deleted the entire thing ...twice. Essentially, we have walked from Paladin to Salas. Yesterday we walked 6 misty kilometres before breakfast and spirits were flagging before hot chocolate and pastries reinvigorated the team.
We then had a long uphill in the rain, a picnic by an old church at the top, and a sunny, slippery descent through gorgeous countryside to Cornellana. We stayed at the Monasterio de San Salvador.
It is a wonderful Monastery that dates back to the 11th century and has been run by Benedictine monks for the majority of the last thousand years.
The walk yesterday was challenging, with rain for a good chunk of the day and long steep up hills and slippery, rocky downhills. However, the monastery offered a wonderful retreat and truly reminded us of the history of the Camino Primitivo. Today we had a short walk of 11 km, which was supposed to be an easier day. However, the accumulated aches and pains of the last 3 days made themselves felt and we were truly delighted to arrive at Casa  Sueno, the albergue where we are staying tonight.
 Words words words.. In the lead up to starting our camino, I kept thinking of TS Eliot, Tolkien and Soyinka, however, in the first 3 days of this pilgrimage, the words in my head have been far less literary. Initially,  a modern church worship song and yesterday I have to confess that I found myself singing the children's Christmas carol, "Little Donkey",as I plodded up the hill in the rain. Thankfully, today I have been saved by the bard,  as only Shakespeare can do justice to the immense joy that sleep gives me after walking 48 km.
"Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's great  feast." William Shakespeare,  Macbeth. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"If you don't try - You'll just be useless!"

Image
Several people have asked that we provide updates on our adventures this summer.  I have not done this before and am somewhat sceptical of my blogging capacities - but here goes...  I love words and they often come to me from my hazy memories of English Literature studies or from songs or from angsty teenage moments searching for wisdom in musty books of famous quotes on my grandmother's bed on our farm in Zimbabwe.  So many people have said so many good things. So I thought that this walk of ours should rely on the words of others ...and where better to start than the wisdom of my daughter (who was 5 at the time).  Two years ago, I was sharing a hut with Sophie on the banks of Kariba in Zimbabwe and she spotted a baby gecko high up in the thatch and demanded that I catch it.  I told her that I wasn't a specialist at gecko capture and she promptly replied, "Mum you should at least try - If you don't try you'll just be useless!" This has become a bit of a mantr...
Read more

"Heaven in a wildflower..."

Image
In the past few days, we have joined the Camino Frances in Melide and are now staying in a small pension 10 km from  Santiago de Compostela. We have planned for a short walk tomorrow so that we don't  arrive in Santiago too exhausted!  Despite reading about the change in atmosphere when one gets within 100km of Santiago, I don't think any of us were prepared for the mental adjustment required. From weeks of walking in nature in relative solitude, the sudden crowds of pilgrims on the last stages are quite overwhelming. Many people do the last 100km as this is the minimum distance required to get the official Compostela. It is definitely easy to feel judgemental and superior when one sees big tour groups and people shipping their giant suitcases between albergues and lots of shiny, little- used technical clothing! However, there is also a  degree of excitement as everyone gets closer to Santiago and the mood is quite infectious. The path has become much eas...
Read more

" Not all who wander are lost..."

Image
Yesterday we had to choose between two routes: the main one through the valleys or the Hospitales route which follows the ancient Roman road over the mountain pass with no services, villages or water source for 24km. Anyone who knows my husband, knows we were always going to choose the path which goes up the mountains! In the past few days, many pilgrims have been some what incredulous at our children doing the Primitivo at all, and many expressed doubts about the choice to go over the mountains with them. But we know our children love mountains and nature and so took them anyway. The route was astonishingly beautiful but also quite hard. It has a timeless atmospheric feel as you follow the Roman road over the mountains and see the ruins of the old pilgrim hospitals that date back to the middle ages. The children loved it and declared it the best day yet. They found a horse skull, played hide and seek in wind wit...
Read more