I really am going to have to post something today, if for no other reason than every time I sit down to write, I have a whole different perspective on things! So I’m going to start with today. We have just finished walking our fifth day, supposed to be the hardest of the Camino, I certainly hope so because it was hard. A total gain of 650 metres and over 22 kilometres, much of it over rough terrain. We started in the oldest town in Portugal, Ponte de Lima, which gets its name from the old Roman/Medieval bridge over the Lima river, and ended in a tiny village called Cassourado. But before describing the actual circumstance of the stages, I thought I would begin elsewhere.
Walking a Camino is a strange affair, if it was described in purely external terms the reader could be forgiven for thinking, “Where’s the fun in that!” It does involve a fair degree of effort and indeed pain, even the younger pilgrims will admit to aches and pains, sore feet and passages of extreme discomfort and doubt about their own abilities. But this ‘objective’ reality is not the only
one involved; there is also a subjective reality, an inner process that takes place. This can take a couple of days to kick in; it usually comes once you have found your walking rhythm. Once found this almost metronomic rhythm seems to override the pain of feet, knees and backs, there is a deep sense of peace and the passing of both time as well as the countryside. Things rise before you and pass through your senses, your consciousness – the perfume of clouds of wisteria in full bloom, jasmine growing on a stone wall centuries old, long-tailed sheep running back to the sheppard as they look for the sweetest grass, the sound of many types of frogs
rising from a large grass-covered pond, the familiar aroma of eucalyptus trees in stands by the wayside, the rowdy sound of fireworks proclaiming the risen Christ on Easter Monday, vineyards, apple orchards, the rural stench of manure spreaders feeding the spring soil, elderly Portuguese nodding a greeting from the shade of their porch, dogs barking or ignoring with grand aloofness. The world just seems to become richer and richer.
I think it has to do with the pace of walking and the brain’s ability to handle a range of data. When driving a car, the brain filters out all the information that is not relevant to keeping the car on the road and the occupants free from death. When walking there is time enough to process a much broader range of information, we slow down and start taking in so much more. It is well know the link between walking and creativity, Dickens would walk all morning and then write all afternoon until supper time.
“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols
“I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for
going out, I found, was really going in.”
― John Muir, John of the Mountain
“There comes . . . a longing never to travel again except on foot.”
― Wendell Berry, Remembering
Yesterday was a supreme day for experiencing this, it is said to be the most beautiful stage of the walk, and certainly it was exquisite, walking mainly on forest trails, dirt tracks and country lane. There was not too much effort required and more than enough time to take everything in.
Today came with its own challenges and rewards. It was a long and difficult day, just as beautiful as yesterday, but through much more challenging terrain. It made me think that the Camino is also a perfect primer for the study of Stoic philosophy. A pilgrim must learn to be stoical or the charms of the Camino will soon abandon him.
“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to
your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Until we have begun to go without them, we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are.
We’ve been using them not because we needed them but because we had them.”
― Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
It isn’t difficult to tell when another pilgrim has crossed over this threshold into the realm of rhythm, the world of perceiving the world as if for the first time. They are keen to engage and greet each other. It may be nothing more than a warm heartfelt “Buen Camino” (have a good walk), or it may be an instantly deep and personal sharing over coffee in a roadside café, possibly never to see each other ever again. Usually it’s something in between, a shared meal, a shared bottle of wine (or two), and a lot of laughs about the day’s trials and tribulations, all on the understanding that we are the luckiest people in the world. To the uninitiated this will sound a bit naff, a bit forced, but I can assure you it is not and it is real. It’s a very human and humanising experience. In a world that to all intents and purposes appears to have gone stark raving bonkers, the Camino, and the pilgrims on it, seem to be the sanest, friendliest and happiest people alive.
So that’s the internal process, in future posts, rather than give a blow by blow description of route taken, I will focus more on some of the standout moments and things that happen. Wherever you are, “Buen Camino.” The music below corresponds with my walking rhythm.
Thanks Mike – almost a research piece with quotes supplied – Lovely reflections and window on what takes you on the journey.
I’m just catching up here Mike and enjoying your observations. Am bit alarmed at your walking pace, as in music above, it seems very speedy…. I have obviously become a mere ambler! Impressive.