September 10, 2018

I’m not sure if it was my competitive brain that sabotaged me, the Good Lord answering a somewhat unspoken prayer of indecision as to whether go further, or just plain navigational negligence – but I went a little further than I meant to go today… My daughter says that should be my new mantra! I planned to go 27 km with 20 remaining into Santiago tomorrow. Instead, It was day 31 of walking from Boente to Amenal, 30.4 kilometers (18.89 miles)!!! That means that I have only 16.34 kilometers tomorrow to reach my destination of Santiago de Compostela de Santiago!!! 

Today I was on my way by 7:00. Usually the sky is starting to lighten up by then, but there was almost like a “marine cover” – probably fog – I really couldn’t see to be sure! And it is too bad, because it appeared as if I was in some of the similar forest environment as yesterday – which was so enjoyable. I have to admit, the sounds of the highway not too far far off (versus coyotes) was sadly reassuring…

I had a delightful afternoon in the forests of trees, ferns and more of that lovely dappled sun. Conversely, had I stopped earlier, I would’ve been walking through these beautiful surrounding in the dark of predawn on my last day into Santiago.

Several times our journey has had an alternative that my guidebook hasn’t mentioned. Today it seemed to be a turn off to go to a “Templar”. I chose not to go that way but it’s hard to make a decision not knowing if it was extra mileage or what the benefits would be. And there were at least two other options later in the day that were quite confusing as to which way to go…. The arrows are helpful, but they are not the be-all see all! Perhaps there is a metaphor there… 

And on that note, I did a bit of a “word soup” – metaphors for life, concepts to live by, what I learned on the Camino type dissertation as I was walking along today that I will write up in a separate blog…

I enjoyed walking about two hours with 37 year old Alex from Germany. And chatting briefly with triathlete Jason Lester from Hawaii, who started from China and is going backwards and just got back from the San Juan Islands – close to my home base!! Life is Good!! God is Good!!