The shared walk

I like fireworks. I like music. It's less fun when it wakes you up at midnight. And one. A few people have left by 6am when I decide it's time to get going. I am out by 6:30am. I wonder if this will have any lasting effect on my sleep patterns. I have almost become a morning person, though I am not going to sleep particularly early.

Today is a short walk with a big hill. A 400 metre climb. After 20 minutes we find a spot for breakfast and head of again. By 9:30 we have our second stop, having covered over 8 of our 18kms already. The stops are very social and I have had the chance to meet a lot of the other people walking today. Language continues to be the great divider, with English being the most frequent second language. This part of the Camino, from Porto to Santiago, is proving to be a very different experience than the way from Lisbon to Porto.

As we start the assent I can't help trying to guess if the hill in front of us is the one we are going to climb. I guess wrong several times before we hit the hill. It proves to take a fair amount of exertion to get to the top. I think I am now able to feel the point were the energy from the food and coke has run out and I'm using my reserves. I have certainly learnt a lot about how I move and have developed a number of different walks for different situations. The Camino has allowed me to pay attention to many things that I previously took for granted. Simple things are now moments of great pleasure.

The views from the top of the hill are incredible, I think this is the most picturesque part of Portugal that I have walked through.

By 12:30 we have made it to tonight's albergue. Some people are doing the next stage to the border today as well, but I really don't feel like another 19kms.

The afternoon, evening and night are spent talking with my fellow pilgrims. People's reasons for doing the Camino are different and the conversations are a wonderful mix of the profound and the amusing.

It has me thinking that discipleship really is a shared walk in the same direction.

Day 20 ends.


Today's photos:
1. How it looks in the brochure, lots of walkers today.
2. People sometimes place a stone on markers as they pass.
3. A man with his two cows.
4. Carlos laying his broken pole to rest, after carrying for 5 days.
5. The view from the top of today's hill.
6. This can has a representation of the convent window in Tomar, which we arrived too late to see. Funny, Coke, funny.
7. The place before the one I'm staying in tonight.