Editor’s note: Rick McKay, Joe Masonick, and Jack Karolewski, have been travel companions for more than 50 years to a variety of sites with many goals. This week’s adventure is the 21st in the series, a 14-day hike in 2005 across northern Spain’s intriguing Camino de Santiago, known as the Way of Santiago, for a religious retreat and pilgrimage. Visiting various villages on the journey requires continual hiking and climbing.
The previous part is at thevoice.us/a-mountain-crossing-in-spain-and-watchful-sheep-dog
By Rick McKay
Day 7: Vega del Valcarce to O Cebriero, Thursday, Sept, 22, 2005.
Regarding Insects:
I had no idea what to expect regarding insects on this adventure. Would there be mosquitoes, no-see-ums, horseflies, or some pest unheard of in the States?
Much to my delight, the worst we have seen are flies, rather small in size, and how should I say, more polite than those at home, and far more polite than those I saw in Afghanistan and all places east, who felt no compunction about landing on one’s eyelid and trying to crawl inside or darting into one’s nostril.
Though curious and uninhibited about circling and landing on various parts of the body, they do not bite, and are easily driven away by a wave of the hand.
Moreover, although the albergues are host to numerous flies, they sleep at night! Not once have I been bothered in my bunk.
The Inner Camino:
This morning we woke at 7 a.m. and were on the Camino by 8:45 a.m.. Jack, due to the worsening condition of his blisters, decided to err on the side of prudence and take a taxi with another woman from the albergue in Vega to O Cebriero. He said he would take our packs, if we so desired.
Believe me, the offer was tempting. And indeed I added my hiking boots (which I have not used thus far due to the unusually good weather) to a bag Joe assembled containing extraneous items from his own burden. This bag Jack would haul to the top.
I found myself last night and this morning undergoing a change in my focus, from the external Camino to the internal one. To date the novelty of the entire experience and the unexpected surprises at every turn have been almost overwhelming, so much to see, hear, smell, touch, and taste.
But what has become the rhythm of the days has slowly wrought a change in consciousness, bending evermore toward introspection and reflection. Every person does the Camino for his or her own reasons. Often those reasons are not clear in the beginning. Thus it was with myself. But the experience, if one can achieve a proper state of openness and reverence for the path, begins to work its own magic in a deep subliminal way. I am starting to feel this now.
I understand that the pain and the burden of the pack are part of what a pilgrimage is all about. The journey is very much a metaphor for life, as each of us must suffer, even amid the joy of life, and bear the weight of our errors and indiscretions until we can, by virtue of our journey, lay them at the feet of our Maker, symbolized here by the doors of the Cathedral of Santiago. And so, I could not give in to the temptation to have someone else carry my pack today in my stead.
Continued at thevoice.us/joy-and-pain-set-in-spain