FOREWORD: I completed the El Camino de Santiago – an 800km spiritual pilgrimage across Spain in late Summer of 2009. I journalled and photographed my trip, and as a final completion I agreed to publish my journal and pictures a year to the day of my journey.

STATS: Walked 30kms (18.6 miles)

6 pm I am in bed at this lovely ‘pension’ and now just waiting for Luis. It was the best surprise and best thing that could have happened to me. I left my Brazilian friend Luis, about 30 days ago, and I was so sad for it. He walked much faster than me and by my count was way ahead of me. I really loved him and had such fun with him, and often when things were really shit I would think of him and wondered how my Camino would have been if I had kept up with him. When mum came I told her all about him.

So today we planned to have lunch in Melide with our Aussie friends. It is Camino tradition to have the squid dish in Melide, so we trooped in to this restaurant at about noon, and had our fill, except mum and I had tuna salads, we had had just about enough of an experience of Galicia squid last night. So after the meal we made our way back on to the street to find our way onto the path. It was really chaotic and lots and lots of people on the streets, and our group was about 10 people and we were all fragmented. Some had gone to the loo and others had already gone into the street. I was a little confused and had lost everyone, and then I glanced ahead and saw mom in the crowd. She was talking to a unfamiliar man, as I approached I could not believe it, it was LUIS!!! I was so so happy. I don’t think I have ever been so happy in my whole life. I ran up to him, and we hugged and hugged. My mom was totally confused, because one minute this kind stranger was giving her directions and the next minute he and I were locked in a hug that I didn’t want to end. Words really fail to explain the magic of our meeting. To endure what I have and the pain and loss and heightened emotional journey, and then in this little hug it felt like it was all melting away. I was so so happy. And what was even more amazing, as it turns out, was that just out of the blue he had approached mum. He had seen her, and knew she was looking for the path, so just out of kindness gone up to her to show her the way. Huh, amazing…

And of course a million what if’s, what if I had not lagged behind, what if I had not seen mom in that 2 or 3 seconds and he had gone back into the crowd. Of all the people, I never thought I would see him again because I knew he would have been so far ahead of me. We did email each other a few times, and he had been way ahead of me. Anyway, he told me he had decided to go off with a few friends to work on a farm for a few days or something, and hence had caught back up to me.

He told me he had actually been in a cafe this morning where our group had had breakfast. He had heard my voice, and thought it was me, but be the time he managed to see me, our group was moving on, and he could only see my back. He knew all the clothes that I had in my possession, and when he saw my green rain jacket, he dismissed it, because he knew I didn’t own that, not knowing that my other friend had given it to me.

He was walking with other people today, so could not walk with me, so we made a plan to meet tonight. I told him where I was staying, and he said he would come by. It is a bit of a mess, because I have started to call myself Thomasina, because the Spanish people can’t say Tamsin. I don’t know why, I think it is the hard T sound, so it is just easier to go by Thomasina. Luis will come looking for me as Tamsin…I hope it will work out and he will find me.

I just had a little nap, and when I woke up I was feeling a little sad as the completion of the Camino draws near. I haven’t felt like this for a long time. It is not so much that this is a safe haven, or an escape from the world or a feeling of dread and uncertainty about going back into the world. No it is more a sadness for the most wonderful thing I have ever done in my whole life. A true sense of camaraderie and hundreds of thousands of people living the life that we read about in spiritual teachings, and I am blessed enough to be a recipient of that generosity consciousness, and hopefully in some small contributed as well.

9:39pm I am in bed again. I had a little nap and there was a knock at the door. It was Luis!! I was so delighted. We went to the bar downstairs and we chatted. It turned out that he and his friends were actually staying 2 kms, back in the town before Arzua, so he had dumped his stuff and ran here, and was going to return later that night. That he did this really touched me. We talked and talked and caught up on all that we had been doing. I realised how much my Camino had changed now that I was with mum, and how I missed the ‘albergue’ experience,but at the same time, for all the perceived experiences I thought I might have missed out on, I have had the most incredible ones with mum, so who really knows. There is a beauty and Spirit with all things and while I am tempted to shirk my responsibilities, duck off to Portugal with Luis, blow all my money and hide in the Camino for a little while longer. I know that it is time to face my responsibilities, letting go of my smallness and my hiding and my searching and shamelessly claim who I am. In my wholeness and my presence and thank God for my blessings. In two days I get to Santiago. Amazing.

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