The Way

In two days I will begin making my way on The Way. That’s the Way of St. James, a network of 1000-year-old Christian Pilgrimage routes that starts at the foothills of the Pyrenees in St. Jean Pied-de-Port and ends at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, where the remains of St. James are enshrined. Probably not his skull bones. (He was beheaded in Jerusalem by King Herod in 44AD.)

The hiking/ walking route meanders through high mountains and deep valleys, undulating plains, vast olive groves, the Basque country, the vineyards of Rioja, the Meseta flatlands, the green rolling hills of Galacia. Small villages dot the landscape. Very occasionally there is a town of some size, notably Pamplona (of Hemingway and bull-running fame). If this sounds like I know what I’m talking about, I don’t. I am parroting brochure language. But soon I will know. For the next 30-40 days I will live this, hiking through it, seeing what I have never seen before, meeting fellow travelers, eating communal meals (and tapas at every opportunity), sleeping in rooms with bunk beds next to snoring, farting strangers. And get up the next morning and do it again.

When I have told friends that I would be doing this, I encountered two reactions. The first “oh this is on my bucket list!” I don’t have a bucket list. I don’t like the whole notion of a bucket list. But if I did have a bucket list, the Camino would not have been on it. I knew zero about the Camino—I mean I didn’t know of its existence—until I crossed paths two years ago with the documentarian Lydia Smith, director of  “Walking the Camino.” It’s a beautiful film. I watched it (as you should too) and didn’t think about the Camino again until after Tom died. Then it occurred to me that this journey was just the kind of deep, immersive, solitary adventure I needed and wanted. Also, Tom never ever in a godzillion years would have wanted to do this. So I would not have to bear any “I wish he were here to share this” thoughts.

The second reaction when I told friends I was going off on this adventure was: “You’re going to write about this, right?” Well, that is what I do. So yes, I am. But in what way, in what form, I do not know. I will find my Way.