Sorry for this late post.
There is some cathing up to do since my last post. I know.
I went through a few adventures, starting from a knee injury.
The day after my last post, just before getting to Leon, I happened to step on a little ditch. Without realizing it my left leg went right into it, prompting a strong "hit and squeeze" on my left knee.
I went straight to the hospital il Leon, and the doctor said I was lucky: nothing was broken nor seriously damaged. I would recover with a week of rest and some pills.
A week of rest on the Camino de Santiago means= NO WALKING.
I was sad for what happened, and at the same time grateful for suffering from a minor injury.
Now, with a lot of time to think (can you imagine me in bed all day long?) the questions I asked to myself were: will I be able to fully recover? When will I be able to go back to walk? Will I be able to hang on and bear the situation until Santiago (still 300 km to go)?
The days were passing by with no sign of real recovery (my knee still hurted when I tried walking). I must confess, after 5 days of inactivity I considered to quit the camino there and go back home.
Fortunately, the 6th day my knee stopped hurting, so I started to walk again.
It was a strange feeling: from an average of 4.7/5 km per hour, now I was walking araound 2 km/h, as I was afraid of putting too much pressure/effort to the knee.
So the first day of walking after the recovery I manage to perform only 5 km, the following 10 km and the following 15 km.
Luckily these three days I did not encounter any steep downhill. Yes, because I had no problems walking even very steep uphills, but when it came to go downhill..... oh my God, I thought I wouldn't make it. That was the most challenging situation. I had to go back to the 2 km/h mode, walking side-way, not to put much pressure on the knees.
A couple of days ahead, I encountered another challenge: the temperature had suddently dropped, and in the morning it was frosty. I did not have heavy clothes, so I decided to stay in as much as I could, and starting to walk late in the morning, when the sun had risen and warmed up. The cold stayed for three/four days, and finally the nice good warm weather came back.
The last weather related challange came when I was in Samos. It poured down all day long.
After hesitating for an hour inside a bar (and drinking a lot of coffe), I decided to move on and started walking under the rain. I put on my rain equipment, which only covered me from the waist up. I was soaked, I thought I had little tadpoles swimming inside my shoes, slaloming between my fingers....
I must say it was fun though. I had not expected wallking into the mud be so funny that at the end of the day I had to share this fun with the washing mashine.
On Monday October 13th, at 14:45 I arrived in front of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
After 43 days, and almost 800 km, I finally made it to my final destination.
Now I am back home, thinking over this wondeful, life-changing experience.
What made it so special?
The peolple I met and the quality of the rapport/connection we could establish.
The inward jurney toward the discovery of my inner self.
The paece, joy, harmony and energy I felt inside myself.
And outside too, with the surrounding nature and with the other waking miracles with whom I had the privilege and honour to share an unlimited part of my present terrain existance.
So now, the question is: what's next??
Stay tuned.
