I last made a post here a long while ago, and in that time the world has changed dramatically. The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated effects, such as lockdowns and layoffs, affected many millions of people including myself. However, that has had little effect on my lack of posts. Though I have been busy at times, I have had enough time to write. But I could not bring myself to do so. And I don’t really know why.
I have so many stories to tell about my adventures, but so few people to hear them. Not because I don’t know many people, or that my family and friends don’t want to listen to me. But people can only listen for so long, and my tale can’t really be told in one sitting.
One would think that that would be great incentive to pen my tales and present them on this site. But after holding them in for so long, I found it hard to let the words flow from my brain onto my computer. I also found it difficult to break my adventures down into bite-sized pieces for people to digest in one sitting. There is nothing I would love more than to sit down with a captive audience and regale them with a story of my journeys from start to finish.
Actually, there is one thing I would like more than to sit by a fire and tell stories. That would be to take a long walk with someone while telling them my story. Those few moments in life when I engaged in just that were some of the more memorable walks of my life. Maybe one day I will tell the tale of when I took a long walk with someone while telling them a tale of when I took a long walk…
Alas, as I don’t have a captive audience at my beck and call, this site will have to do. I suppose I should start with one journey at a time. Let us start from before the beginning…
The Way of Saint James
As mentioned before in a previous post, in February and March 2014 I went on a pilgrimage along the Way of Saint James (The Camino Santiago, Camino for short) in northwest Spain (If you want more information about its origins, you can start here). There are many different paths one can choose from, and I chose two paths. The first was called the Camino San Salvador, and ran between the cities of Leon and Oviedo. The second was called the Primitivo, and linked Oviedo to Santiago de Compostela, the pilgrimage site for the Way of Saint James. In total my journey was over 500km (300mi) long and took three weeks to complete. Quite the long walk indeed!
It was my first overseas trip all alone. Beforehand I had travelled and had explored places alone, but they were local affairs and certainly were not as lengthy (both distance and time-wise) as this trip. During these few weeks I saw huge cathedrals, abandoned monasteries, blinding blizzards, snow-clad mountains, sunlit seas, and many other wonders and horrors. I received unexpected boons from complete strangers, as well as many quizzical stares.
I made friends in the middle of nowhere, and celebrated at impromptu parties. There were powerful feelings of ecstasy and terror, as well as pain and elation. I learned about the things my body and mind could and could not endure. And after all that had happened, I look back on it all and realize that those three weeks were some of the greatest in my life.
What drove me to take this long walk?
There isn’t any single reason that compelled me to go. Sometime during my university days I had read about the Camino during one of my many procrastination moments. I have always been curious about many topics, except for what I should be doing at the present moment. While this trait has helped me learn much, it has also left many unfinished projects waiting for my input. Anyways, being in university to study civil engineering, I put aside all thoughts of travel to concentrate on my studies.
Even after I graduated during the Great Recession in 2009, instead of travelling I tried to find a job in my field despite the bleak job opportunities. More than four years would pass before thoughts of the Camino would once again pop up in my mind.
By this time I was working, though in a slightly more humbling position than I expected to be in. During one of my breaks I was nonchalantly surfing the Internet, and somehow I managed to chance upon information about the Camino. Suddenly my heart filled with a burning passion to go on adventure to this strange land. This was in early 2013.
Afterwards I made plans, performed practice walks of ever-increasing lengths (from 10km to 40km), booked vacation time, and bought plane tickets. However, at the last moment my boss would not let me go to Spain in September 2013. Dejected, I asked for the next available three week time slot, which would lead to my pilgrimage in February 2014. In the meantime I practiced winter walking and asked my family for more appropriate winter hiking wear for Christmas.
So there I was in mid-February 2014, all packed and ready to go on a long walk. I felt prepared for anything, but reality would throw many wrenches into my plans even before I began my journey. If you’re reading this, I hope you will continue to join me on my long walk as I recount my tale from start to finish. It will take a while, but I promise to keep the stories coming on a hopefully timely basis.
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