Pilgrims Pilgrims Pilgrims Everywhere

On Saturday March 6, I attended a meeting of pilgrims and pilgrim wannabees here in Cape Town. It was a 3 hour workship with an introduction provided by two experienced camino walkers - Elmara and Andrea - each of whom had put a lot of effort into providing written notes for the 100 or so participants. It was a wonderful fact filled session which provided so much information and advice on most everything you would want to know to prepare to head off to the Camino.

It is interesting that there are so many people across the world that are enchanted by the idea of this kind of physical and spiritual adventure. Here in South Africa, the Camino pilgrim group is very much alive and well and there are workshops held here and in Johanesburg as well. As was my experience in Canada, the returning pilgrims also write about their Camino and so there is a collection of books and other literature available for people who wish to get a more detailed version of the experience.

It is also interesting how life paths cross and that there is a significant amount of synchronicity in events as they occur. At this meeting, I met many people who have walked, are planning to walk and some who have made this a real life commitment, including someone who turned out to be a former sailing friend of my family here who is renovating a house in Spain, which will eventually be open to pilgrims. You may notice this by the South African flag that hangs outside this summer.

New tips from this workshop:
- collect sheeps wool as you walk and place this between your toes or on hot spots as they develop. The softness and the oil from the wool are good for your feet
- buy a standard sink plug for the washing sinks that never have plugs
- pack everything in organized groupings and in zip lock bags for ease of organization
- sew pieces of cloth onto the end of long sleeves to protect from the sun
- sew loops onto all belongings to make it easier to hang from the back pack or the clothes line

There was lots of talk about Camino etiquette and especially cleanliness along the way, ie picking up your garbage. Someone from here has actually gone to the trouble of having green plastic bags made especially for picking up garbage as you find it along the way.

Maggee (Canuck still in Cape Town)