And what was the purpose of this odd fence erected around this mountain-top monument? Maybe to keep the local wild horses from knocking it over while giving themselves a scratch? Surely it wasn’t to keep pilgrims from going too near, for anyone even remotely immersed in the intricacies of The Way must surely know that […]
There is something perfect about this day that is more recognizable than the perfection of most other days. Is it the mystical wooded-mountain landscape enveloped in thick fog? Is the temperature of the surrounding skies that almost perfectly matches my own; making it seem as if I am a part of the mist rather than […]
It was at around this time that I saw something that was simultaneously intriguing and heartwarming; a place in the barbed wire fence running alongside the path where a few local sheep had obviously escaped their human-laden captivity … “You have just dined, and however discreetly the animals are kept in their mountainside paddocks or […]
In what we both new was going to be our last day of walking together (Roncevalles was always going to be JM’s last stop), Jean Marc and I easily enjoyed each other’s company today – sometimes walking together and chatting amicably, sometimes walking apart in silence; sometimes walking side by side, sometimes walking with the […]
This adorable couple (Ilene & Peter) were from Ireland, and remain to this day one of the brightest meetings of my entire Walk – and this, despite having only conversed with them but for a few moments on the Trail and a few more the following morning at breakfast … It just goes to show: […]
It took some fluid flowing (and at times a bit of not-so-fluid “doing”), to be sure, and yet I steadily approached and then finally traversed the crest of the Pyrenees … “Quite often both people &/or circumstance will seemingly insist on building barriers high & wide directly in your path, sometimes with the intent of […]
And then it was that I was descending the mountain – over a path that was strewn with boulders, graced with gnarly tree roots , and even home to a small herd of wild horses. It was odd (and somehow metaphorical?) that going down was more difficult than treading upwards had been, and yet down […]
Near the bottom of the trail – and very near to Roncevalles itself – we came across a small pathside church. It was locked up tight at the time, and yet it was possible to peer through its closed doors upon the wide-open Beauty that lived therein … “I am convinced that it is the […]
And so it was the I arrived at the tiny pilgrims’ hamlet of Roncevalles, my current Walk’s first stopover in Spain. It has been a long walk already, a journey already filled with faults & frustrations; difficulties & detours. And yet here I am, somehow already Spain – somehow already halfway Home … Feeling grateful, […]
As per the norm on this Walk, I make my first stop in this next new town the local church – where I give the usual professings of gratitude for having been able to come so far and resolve for continuing onward hereafter … “We are all as young as our faith, as old as […]
At this early juncture of my time in Roncevalles, I was still without shelter for the night, for the local hospitaleros had made it clear that I would not be allowed to sleep in the town’s only hostel without providing both the requisite monies and acceptable identification (neither of which I was carrying on this […]
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