Hola First name / pilgrim 👋

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What a summer it's been!

 

Just over 500km on my Camino back in time - from my home now in Vitoria-Gasteiz to where I lived in a former life in the mountains on the Camino Primitivo, though not on the route I planned.

 

“I make plans and God laughs!” was a big learning on that trip, as I switched from the unknown Camino de las Asturias, back to the Vasco and down to the Francés then San Salvador and finally the Primitivo.

 

In hindsight I am grateful to Decathlon for losing my tent and starting the chain of events that changed my plans.

 

It has also led me to starting to write again

 

Book 1.5 is all about what I discovered on that trip and what each Camino has been about and led me to.

 

Three weeks into writing and I'm loving it 😀

This was the night I attempted to sleep in a church porch, before giving in around 10.30pm and asking Juan Carlos to come and get me 🤣

 

It felt good to let it go ☺️

What followed in August was a couple of weeks volunteering in an albergue on the Camino de Madrid in Molina de Rioseco. What a joy!

 

Highly recommend this Camino if you are after something a bit more solitary. Check out my experience on it here…

Then me and my fella chose to head out for a week together to try an alternative start to the Francés - aka the Aragonés.

 

Fred - my pal from France (who I randomly bumped into again on the Vasco), suggested we start at the end of the Camino de Arles in Oloron-Saint-Marie and walk the 3 days in France into the Pyrenees before joining the Camino Francés por Aragón at Somport. 

 

Bloody great idea - what a beautiful week we had in the mountains and down into Aragón.

 

This was our route - just under 200km with 4000m ascent…

It was fabulous! Highly recommend it.

Message me if you want to know more - happy to share more on here if it helps.

 

The summer was unfortunately interspersed with illness - colds and a stubborn sinus infection which appears to have finally gone after 7 weeks. Phew!

 

It's been tough getting back into work and trying to figure out, as ever, when I need to push through and when to rest.

 

I am still very much a work-in-progress at understanding what is good for me. It's fun looking back at all my Caminos whilst writing this book and following the last nearly ten years of that journey.

 

I've come a long way 🤪

Someting else I have got clarity on over the summer is the pricing for my services.

 

I will share more about it next week, but in a nutshell all my services will be donativo, an exchange of services, or Pay it Forward.

 

I didn't realise how icky it felt before and how much that was holding me back. It feels good now and more congruent with my values and the spirit of the Camino.

 

More about that here if you want to check it out before the next newsletter…