Counting down days & kms! about 10 days & 225 kms ... phew! :o)

It continues to be an amazing journey! The last few days the weather has been marvelous ... perfect walking weather, in the mornings; however, the afternoon sun is far too hot! Unfortunately, getting started prior to 7 a.m. has been a challenge and with 8 to 10 hours of walking we are going to need to commence earlier than this. It will mean leaving without breakfast, but, this will have to be as we found that the heat today was just too extreme. Reminded me of summer´s in Squam Bay! (or Kamloops for that matter.)

Last night we shared a very special experience in that we were able to attend Vespers in a 12th Century country style church (not as ornate as many we have been in).

  It was officiated by Benedictine monks and Martin was asked to read the scripture in English! It was the coolest thing ever. :) If this weren´t enough of a blessing, the scripture that was in the pamphlet for him to read was a portion of scripture which encompasses the verse we have based our marriage upon (Ephesians 4:1b-4). It was done in Gregorian Chant, complete with incense (which always reminds me of my brother George!).

Today did take us up and over the highest mountain on the Camino, called La Cruz de Ferro. At the top is a tall cross and at the base of this cross are stones which have been laid by the perigrinos throughout the years. The stones symbolize the prayers that have been offered at the foot of the cross. In like fashion, we have added our own prayer stones for all of our loved ones.

The decent was horrid, as we expected it would be. Yet, there is ALWAYS, something in which to be grateful and today we are most grateful that the way was not wet; especially considering that the last five kms were predominately slate ridges that we had to navigate.


We are staying in a very nice albergue tonight; however, the cook is sick and we are too tired to walk back into town. So dinner tonight consisted of 2 oranges, a half a cylinder of biscuits (chocolate inside) and 2 tins of coke.

Tomorrow we go through the city of Ponferrada and then head back up a mountain! We will be in touch again soon. Much love!

In Leon, just 300 kms left to go in two weeks!

Leon is a very nice city that we are enjoying. Now, for a bit of an update:

After writing last time, we had just entered the meseta and had several more days in which to travel through it. Since then however, Martin has had food or sun poisoning, we aren´t sure which as many other pilgrims have also had the same. Generally the worst of it was over a span of 24 hours. I am sure he is grateful to be able to get away from the bathrooms! During these two days we walked 6 kms the first day when he was the most sick and then 14 kms the day following. The day before yesterday was a catch-up day and we travelled 31 kms and yesterday was 25 kms. Unfortunately, I had a really rough start to my morning and for the first 6 kms was walking at a very slow pace. I found that after i took my inhaler, for exercise induced asthma (something I had forgotten to take in the morning), not only did my breathing improve and with it my stamina, but, also the pain killers i had taken for my feet seemed to start to work ... who knew that a little bit of oxygen could do that much good!


We decided that it was time for a night´s rest in a hotel ... after 3 weeks, it would be nice to sleep in past 5 a.m. ... and it was. The city of Leon has some beautiful old architecture, which we hope to visit a bit of without over doing it and giving our feet a bit of a rest today.

We have had some wonderful answers to prayer in these past couple of days: just this morning we saw an older German fellow (72), who was so discouraged the last time we had met up with him. He had lost his camera and was returning back 9 kms to the place he had stayed the evening previously. Good news he has found his camera and is now resuming his journey! Another young man from Australia, is now sitting a couple computers down from us just now ... a couple of days ago we met him sitting beside the road with a very sore shoulder and sore feet and struggling. He is doing much better. Another young man from England, that we met weeks ago, only 19 years old and had a terrible blister on his foot and he was barely moving, we told him we would pray for him ... two nights ago we were thrilled to see him in the same albergue where we were staying. His foot had improved immensely and he had made up much distance. There have been many places where we have noticed God busy at work in the lives of others, ourselves and the world around about us.


Each day we talk about what was our most favourite experience from the day previous. It is interesting to note how many things that there are to be grateful for, that it is often difficult to choose just which one is the fav.


We know that we are once again approaching some difficult climbs, in fact the highest point in the entire Camino is going to be coming up about Sunday if the planned distances are accomplished... beginning tomorrow (Fri, 28th)23 km, Sat - 30 km, Sun - 21 km (climbing 400 mtrs), Mon - 26.5 km (600 mtr decent ... this is very challenging on the knees!). Sunday, will also be the day of my graduation from The Centre for Spiritual Formation ... quite the gift! :) Surely, it will add to my education in some form!?

Martin wants to mention that we had donairs for supper last night (with our dear Lithuanian friend MD), and they were so good that we went back to have them again for lunch today! The perigrino meals have been fine, but, they are always quite similar. It was nice to have a change. I am afraid that weight loss has not been part of the trip ... we have eaten more bocadillas (sandwiches) and pastries ... croissants and small cakes than we would every have back home! I guess it is all going to work out in the end as we do require the calories, both carbs and protein for the daily walks.


We are not certain where we will next be able to post; however, will try to do so when the next opportunity presents itself. After the next few days of climbing we will be entering into Galacia, a region that we have been told can be very cold and wet. We will be praying that we remain healty and strong. It is nice to anticipate another change in terrain.

Hot and dry!



Once again ... it seems like no one lives in town ...
perhaps it is because it is so hot and they are all staying inside!

Early Morning ... so peaceful



and the sun rises over the hills behind us.

Couldn't help but notice this lone beautiful poppy growing in the midst of these rocks ...

Ancient castle in the distance

The only canal system that we came across



Loved this statue ... complete with chair to sit beside a fellow pilgrim.



Houses built into the earth

Very special friends from Lithuania ...
MD (blue shirt) and Deimis Ambrazieius (white shirt)

Martin Sheen comes passes through this area during the filming of 'The Way' to be released in Canada 2011

Some pilgrims stopping for a rest

Wow, it has been quite something going from a cold arctic type wind to the heat of summer! The past couple of days were spent walking in very warm temperatures. We had every intention of beginning our daily ´outing´ much earlier than we have, but, it has taken much longer to bandage my blisters than I would like it to. We were up at 5 a.m., however, the bandaging, etc, took over an hour and so it was 7 a.m. before we were on our way. I have now developed nine blisters, from the size of a dime to a silver dollar and tonight discovered that the one that was causing the most grief today, is actually under the tip of a toenail. Martin, is not too sure if I should write down that ´he has no blisters yet!´ and those were his exact words! He was experiencing a bit of back grief today, I think due to extra weight for foods and also because we were mostly walking on tarmac today. It is a section of the Roman Road; however, this time they have paved over top of it. It is very interesting as it goes straight through the bog, they needed a 100,000 tons of rock to bring it up to above the winter flood levels. Every ton had to be transported from elsewhere! Can you imagine this ... two thousand years ago. We did 23 kms today, after doing a few 30+ km days back to back ... 17 of these kms were absolutely ´prairie straight´, essentially without shade and no community or village to rest at. We did find a few trees at one spot half way through with a picnic table and had a thoroughly enjoyable picnic lunch --- which consisted of a can of cold beans, a donut, a pear and some trail mix.

The village that we are staying in tonight appears to be here exclusively for the perigrinos, as they have one albergue (hostel), one bar and one church.


Before hitting the prairies today, we stopped at a cathedral that had the most amazing miniature village that we have ever seen. It was a reconstruction of Bethlehem at the time of the birth of Jesus and it was complete with moving parts. It was so great ... unfortunately photos did not turn out. :(  You will just have to check it out for yourself!


Tomorrow, we hope to travel to Sahagun, which is 23 kms away; it is a larger village and has three albergues; so hopefully, we will find a place to lay our head. Every night finds us in a very different place and for the most part they are great and provide us with everything that we require. Last night was particularly interesting. The first interruption to sleep occured at 12:45 when youth were outside our building playing basketball and then the next time was at 4:45 when there was a travelling band, complete with one drum and many voices singing at the top of their lungs! We now know what it is like when ´fiesta´ begins! I can think of worse things to be awoken from.


I particularly would like to add on a few more kms each day, but, out of concern for my feet (and Martin´s insistence) we only go as far as we do. After ten kms tomorrow, we will have completed the first half of our pilgrimage. This is truly an answer to prayer and an amazing experience.


Love to all! Thinking of you and praying for you.

In Burgos

I have two minutes left on this computer! We are in the city of Burgos right now.


A large modern albergue that we are staying in.


We are about to go out and check out the cathedral and perhaps go to pilgrim´s mass tonight. It is a nice sunny day today ... two days in a row!!!!

This is the largest city we have been in, about 170,000. We walked 10 kms just to get through the city to get to where we are staying. In a day´s time we enter what appears to be the prairies of Spain.


This might be a very hot and tiring few days of walking. We covet your prayers. God bless and much love to all!!!