Treasuring the Moments

I am getting such wonderful messages from people who read this site and it means such a lot to have this kind of relatedness even through the internet. We are now in Portomarin and a short 90 kms from Santiago. We are not counting down necessarily, but with the markers along the way notifying us of every .5 km we pass, it is hard not to be aware that time is quickly running out for us.
Today we actually slept in and did not leave until 7 am which was a treat from the usual. it is much darker for much longer so we thought we needed to be able to enjoy the wonderful environment in the day light instead of the dark. While we did leave in the dark, it was exceptionally beautiful all morning. We are cold in these mornings as the air is sharp and clear and so we need our hats and gloves. However with some of the early morning climbs that we get ourselves into, we are too soon sweating and warmed up.
We laugh a lot and stop to notice the beauty around us. I find that I am taking a lot more pictures just because I am wanting to capture the experience of these days that are quickly running out. We are quite a group, with our Danish leader Kirsten, out in front, our conversationalist Barb not far behind, even with her shorter legs, she is a powerful follower for Kirsten. Then comes our poet and philospher, Alvina, who we treasure for her wit and her commentary at every stop. We have met Clare who was a student of Alvina when she was in Grade 6 and she is a wonderful complement to our group. Clare and I have been walking together near the end of the group, as I have quite a chore to get my stiff ankle warmed up to the challenge of the day as we begin our walks. Clare and I love to stop and just absorb the atmosphere along the way and I have been giving her some tips, courtesy of my late husband Chris, on photography as we snap picture after picture.
Today we walked through many farm yards it seemed. We had to stop a few times to let the cows and their dogs go before us so that we were not trampled and Kirsten and Barb were at one point caught in the middle of the process. We also saw some beautiful views across the valleys as the sun rose and the mist hugged the trees and the hills below so that you could only see the tops of the trees poking through the clouds below us.
We are excited about actually being able to complete this incredible journey and looking forward in some ways to returning to what is familiar in our ordinary lives at home. However, there is something very poignant about stopping the walking, that we are all a bit trepidatious about, as it has become a way of life for us now as has the friendship that we so treasure in each day that we share together. I see now why people come back to do this journey over and over again. And we have met several of these people along the way. One couple we met a few days ago were on their way back from Santiago, having walked for abour 53 days, now going back to the start point in France. Many people love to walk so much that they start from home somewhere in Europe and just keep going and it becomes a way of life. The simplicity of it all is very attractive. We had a conversation at a cafe stop this morning with a few people we have met along the way and it was about all of those things that seem so important in our life as possesions that are waiting at home for us and what it will be like to once again return to the things that seemed to define who we really are - not so after an adventure like this.
We are also dealing with unexpected challenges however. A few days ago, I noticed bites on my arms and legs and after the second day when they were worse, I realized that I had better deal with this as the bed bug situation is always a fear for us pilgrims. I have never dealth with this personally, but have many times as a nurse seem such infestations. So I arrived at the next alberque (afraid that I would be aksed to leave if the hospitalero figured out whay I was doing) and put everything that was cloth into the washing machine and threw out a lot of other things from my pack. Luckily I had a plastic liner in my back pack so that went into the garbage and as I treated myself with the best antiseptic technique I could, I hoped to erradicate the invaders. It seemed to work for me but yesterday one of my companions asked me about the bites and sure enough there she was covered in the same thing, so again we were into the serious washing process. I have decided that with one more incident of this, we will purchase a giant size bug spray and go for a major decontamination process as a group. We have all decided that as soon as we get home, the clothes and the back pack will be treated like a major source of contamination and be placed in the garage or immediately the washing machine to avoid taking whatever we have picked up into our homes. Such is the trial of a traveller and we are just taking this in our stride along with the benefits of what we gather along the way.
We are healthy and strong and feeling quite powerful in being able to complete this journey without incident. We are careful along the way with the traffic along the roads we travel and are now feeling very accomplished about what we have been up to for these long 29 days and 690 kms!!
Tomorrow, Barb and Alvina will wait here for the post office to open so Alvina can collect her mail!! ( who writes letter anymore and I am learning so much from her) and then we will meet up at the end of the day. We were separated for few hours today as we went at different speeds and so for Clare and I to come into the town and find Kirsten sitting at the bottom of the steps leading into the place was such a welcome. Such is the experience of great friendship and caring friends.
As Alvina has quoted to us a few days ago:
Walk behind me, but I may not lead you
Walk in front of me, but I may not follow you
So walk beside me and be my friend.
We are learning so much in these days of travel. From Alvina to her friends who are following us along this site, we say that we are laughing together so much that our energy flows over to other people and we are knonw now as the Happy Pilgrims to other people that we meet.
Dirk, our German friend that we continue to pass along the way, stopped beside Clare and me as we were sitting on a stone wall eating sandwiches and watching the cows and he said that without the power lines and the wind mills along the way, you could almost see the people of ancient times coming out of the woods to greet us.
What a trip this is and how lucky we are to have had the courage and the interest to venture this way and how this will change out lives as we complete the journey in the coming days!!
Tomorrow we head into the Eucalytus forests and will be charged with the aromomatic flavours of what we find there.
Buen Camino..............Maggee