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 22.5 km (14 miles) Spent €30.85- (Accommodation – €5, Food – €11.35, Chemist €13.50, Internet €1)

9:48am So I am sitting in a cafe in Logrono another awesome city, sipping a hot chocolate and eating little muffin things. I am not sure how I got them…I think it has something to do with my bad Spanish….I just ordered a glass of milk. This is my little morning ritual and the ‘tax’ I pay for using the restroom. I have never felt right about just walking into a cafe and using the restroom, so I try to act like a patron. So anyway, hot chocolate it is. It is really sobering and quite a relief to drop my standards and just eat what I get. I am usually so fussy, and particular, and here I buy things in shops and I don’t even know what they are. I don’t even read menus, or sign posts, or listen to announcements, or read anything, and for me being a complete information-and-communicator-head, it is just so good. I feel in some ways much more in the flow and at ease with myself and my life.

So last night at Vianna it was really hard for me. When I took my morning photo I took it smiling, but then I realised that was not a true reflection of how I felt this morning, so I took the second pic with the growling face. When I woke up I felt like crap, and was really judging myself. I didn’t want to carry on. I told myself to “sacrifice it” and I did and I think I have walked it out now and am feeling much happier.

I did manage to have a little peeing accident in the bushes today, and peed on my clothes which was pretty inconvenient and weird and hectic. I am not sure what all of that was about, I fixed myself up, the benefit and carrying everything with you wherever you go…and hell I am just glad I am feeling better. But truly there is something kinda comforting about having everything you need with you all the time.

I had a few learnings today. I was at one point feeling a little lost and alone. There were no arrows visible and I had hadn’t seen another pilgrim for hours. I started to panic a little, and instead of powering on, not being sure of where I was going. I choose to stop and rest my foot, and breathe. And within minutes a group of pilgrims came over the hill and marched past me, oblivious to the sense of ease and comfort they brought with them. They unknowingly pointed me in the right direction. I gathered myself together, hoisted my pack up, secured it across my chest and went on my way.

I walked with a lady and I told her about my blister. She explained that blisters only form if there is moisture and the trick is to cover your feet entirely in vaseline before you put them in your socks. She swears by it. Everyone has there own little trick and technique. I am game to try this one. (To let you in on how it panned out….I vaselined my feet everyday, sometimes twice a day for the rest of my trip and it worked like a charm, I had no more blisters!!!)

4:16pm I am lying on my bed in Navarette in the albergue with my blistered baby toe thread up in 3 places to draw the moisture out and Bianca (my sister) recommended that I a put tea tree oil on it, to dry the f*ck out of it, and it is frigging painful, but I am glad. It will clean and dry it out and I will be “right” in the morning which is all that counts. Other than that I feel very happy. I had a great day the walk was beautiful and for most of it I was alone. I walked up this large hill and the ridge of it skirted a freeway below. All along the fence the pilgirms that had gone before had made little crosses by weaving sticks through the fence. Thousands of then all along the fence. It is so touching and sacred, knowing that so many others have passed this place and experienced what I experienced. It is hard to describe. I guess it is the manifestation of the idea that we are ultimately all one.

I am also very grateful for the events of last night and this morning it has made me especially grateful for my bed this night. And for my own little space. I also stopped at a chemist in Logrono and spent a fair amount of money on foot stuff. Well actually, my mon told me to!I was kind of resisting doing this for a number of reasons. a) I am a tight ass b) I didn’t want to be fussing with my feet c) I didn’t want to be lugging even more shit around in my bag d) I was scared that once I started to fuss with my feet it would never end… But I am glad I did it. I got gel to moisturize my very dry feet, compeed for the blister and the magical vaseline.

6:27pm I am sitting in the little town square eating my olive, tomato and cheese sandwich and am in my element. I feel like the life is ebbing back into me. Today’s walk was lovely and I am noticing that I am wanting to bring back the negatives of the past days walks into today, and when I became aware of what I was doing I just let it go.

I spoke to mum, Amy and Bianca today and that was nice. I am deeply touched with how they are so moved and connected to this experience. It feels so personal and so significant, like I am walking for my whole family.

Last night I picked up a book about the history of Santiago de Compostella and it did bring in a deepening of the experience for me. I bought myself a little shell today to put on my bag. Suddenly it became important that I am recognized as a pilgrim. I bought it from this lady who had a little stand just outside Logrono, and she gave me delicious figs for free!

I spoke to a Polish guy yesterday and he explained that the way of the Pilgrimage was an opportunity to strengthen your connection with the higher power. I am sure I knew that but it was nice to hear it again as I walk. I noticed an ease to my walking today, not only is my body starting to settle but I also noticed that my mind just let me walk. I wasn’t mulling over so much stuff in my head. It was just pleasant being with the trees etc.

I put the tea tree oil straight on my blister, as recommended by Bianca, and it stung like shit for about an hour. Then I spoke to this girl and she said it should have been diluted and so I rinsed it off, and well oops, I hope I haven’t don’t further damage.

I had a good chat with Mum teeing up our travel plan and it looks like it will be very very nice. (When I decided to do the walk, I thought to myself there is no one else I would want to do this with besides my mum, so she agreed to come walk the last 2 weeks with me….so she will be joining me soon!) We have planned to meet at Ponferrada and then finish in Finisterre together. She was super keen on that idea. I am happy.

So the British girl I just met was super cool and in a nutshell she totally advocated my plan to go live in Colombia. She had lived in Guatemala and loved it and encouraged me to do it. However she was a little loony – she was trying to do the full Camino in 3 weeks and was trying to walk about 35-40kms a day. That is hectic in and of itself, but really, by 3pm the sun is so frigging hot it is hard to be in it. I finish walking my 20 odd km’s by that time and it suits me well.

There have been so many moments already, but for me my camino is about the people and the nature and the inner landscape, rather than history or the religion. I wanted to capture a few vignettes so I don’t forget. I have been running into this gorgeous German man who looks like a Calvin Klein model and his sweet Swiss girlfriend. She asked to borrow a hair band and so I went and got her one. They were going to a moon party in Eunate and asked me to go with – but on that day I couldn’t bear the thought of walking back to that place. The next night we were cooking in the kitchen of the albergue together with a whole bunch of boisterous Italians and Spaniards, and I think the energetics were too much and he sliced his hand. (There is more about him later….turns out he had multiple girlfriends on the Camino and he got a little confused, I witnessed it all and he came pleading for advice….hee hee…watch this space!)

And then there was Niall, the Irishman. We shared just hours together. I walked with him to the river and he put his whole body in and he asked me to write him a poem and I did and I fell in love and gave him the poem and then I went on my way. (And I never saw him again!)

And then there were my two newish German friends Gerhard and Thomas. We just say Hi, they are the ones in the picture from Eunate, we don’t walk much together, but who knows what will unfold.

Part of the pilgrims fun is picking the albergues when you come into town, and then the bed allocation or selection. I have been playing it fairly flexibly and just stumble into the first albergue I see and am usually blessed with a bed usually in a corner. I am not too fussed with top or bottom bunk, just in the corners is perfect. I like to keep it open, and is mostly an opportunity for me to experience God’s blessings pouring on me, because it is usually just perfect. I had a tendency to be a little afraid of big fat German men, because of there snoring, and then I discovered the worst offender yet was this tiny Asian woman….so looks can be deceiving… Tonight I got a bed right underneath this little sky light which made me very happy. I see how I am really easy to please, and with this trip and me discovering how to lighten up, I am discovering how to make me a funner person to be around. I wonder if I should try and call *Jason*?

This little town Navarette is so cute. I just love the evening time. It is 7:11pm and still very hot and dry and people are just hanging out. A lot of pilgrims go to the pubs and things, but I don’t drink and I just prefer to be here with my own thoughts and nature and God.

And then there is my friend Luis from Brazil, all he wants is to learn English. He may go to South Africa to live. And he offered for me to go and live with his family in Ecuador to learn Spanish. I love Spanish and the Spanish.

I went to sleep looking at the stars in the sky through my very own skylight. Ahhh! LG – Life’s good.

go to the previous day: day 8 los arcos-to-vianna
go to the next day: day 10 navarette-to-azofra

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