Day 436 - The Way

Martin Sheen and his three co-stars walking the Camino in 'The Way'.

From the minute I heard about the movie 'The Way,' starring Martin Sheen and his son Emilio Estaves, I could not wait for it to hit our theatres. It's not that I'm particularly crazy about the two actors, my real interest was in the actual theme and location of their production as it deals with the Camino de Santiago.

In the movie Sheen plays the roll of an ophthalmologists whose son dies in the Pyrenees on the first day of walking the Camino. He travels to France where he has his son's remains cremated and he then promptly decided to walk the Camino himself, leaving bits of the ashes scattered along the route.

What I couldn't wait to see was the actual route, as he walks the Camino Frances, starting in St Jean Pied de Port and then crossing over the Pyrenees - the exact route that I am planning to walk next year in June! So I went to the theatre not worrying too much about the storyline, just seeing the route and all the little towns I have been dreaming about would have been more than enough for me!

Well, I was pleasantly surprised. The movie certainly won't win any Oscars but the story was solid enough to keep the audience entertained and those who have walked the route seem to agree that it was a pretty good representation of the Camino. I was amazed at the interest that there seems to be in the Camino, the original show was fully booked and the organisers put on a second show earlier in the afternoon that was also fully booked!

As I looked around at those around me in the theatre I found myself wondering what it is about leaving life as we all know it and heading out on a pilgrimage in a strange country with a strange language that fascinates us so much? Judging by the dreamy looks and smiles on the faces, both young and old, as we left to return to real life, I knew that a number of new pilgrims were born!

I couldn't wait to hear what my husband had to say in the car on the way home. I thought I spotted a faraway look and a little smile during the show but knew that I'd hit the jackpot when he said: ' IF I decide to walk PART of the Camino...'

My best friend and my sister are both joining me for the last two weeks of the walk and at least four of my hiking buddies are seriously considering going the whole way. Having my husband join us for a part of the way at least, will be the cherry on the cake for me!

As for the sleeping arrangements, husband definitely won't be persuaded to stay in the albergues along the way but I for one will be tackling those. I would like to put it on record that if it gets too much I might be persuaded to spend a night here and there in slightly more private lodgings... I am not going to adapt the viewpoint that not sleeping in an albergue every single night means that you are less of a pilgrim - walking 780km with my immediate world on my back is more than enough for me to qualify!

Having two of my hiking buddies and their spouses as well as Ermanno Aiello, the writer of the book 'Forever a Pilgrim' and his family at the theatre made the whole afternoon so much more special for me. My Camino experience has already taken on a life of it's own, months before I even set foot on Spanish soil! It really has a way of bringing people together and I cannot wait to see how many more wonderful connections are going to be made during those four weeks on the road!

This week is an important one for the Red Cross Children's hospital here in Cape Town, as Thursday sees the official opening of their brand new burns unit! I am over the moon about the wonderful transformation of this very special place in our city and I would like to shout out the loudest 'THANK YOU!' to every individual and every company who made this possible. I plan on taking my camera along and hope to share some of the day with you here on Friday.

In conclusion, if you'd like to read a bit more about 'The Way', click here. 

Remember - you're NEVER too old to tackle an adventure like this one! Armed with your backpack, a pair of good walking shoes, your passport and enough funds to sustain yourself for a month - the sky really is the limit!

Day 433 - Great expectations!

I just love how this journey to Santiago is developing! It started out as a dream a couple of months ago that I thought I might just be able to turn into reality. I was pretty convinced that I was going to have to walk all 780km on my own with my old faithful backpack and walking stick being my only familiar travelling companions for more than a month.

Who would have thought that by September this year I would have been able to convince my husband to start joining me every now and then on one of my weekly hikes...This is a man who has cycled thousands of kilometers and until recently had less than zero interest in hiking or climbing mountains! Well, he now has his own pair of Merrells and a brand new backpack and we have even notched up an overnight hike together. I am ecstatic about this new found love of hiking that he is developing and I am hoping that just as we have explored wonderful parts of the world through his biking adventures, our boots will take us to many new destinations that we might not previously have considered exploring!

The photograph above was taken on our recent hike in the Southern Cederberg, my husband is the one on my left here - clearly not missing his beloved bike too much!

At one stage I was considering trying to make the Camino experience work for us with me walking and him cycling, but I'm not sure how one would bring the two together as we would never get to the same places at the same time. So I guess that plan that still needs some working on! Now that the hiking bug is starting to bite I have noticed that he is not totally disinterested in listening to my tales of people who have walked the Camino, so who knows, he might even end up walking part of the way with me.

Speaking of 'the way' - tomorrow afternoon a group of us will be making our way to the Labia theatre here in Cape Town for a special showing of the movie 'The Way', starring Martin Sheen. The movie was released last year and deals with a father whose son dies tragically in a freak accident whilst walking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. The father, (Sheen), then undertakes the journey himself, carrying his son's ashes with him.

He walks the Camino Frances, which is the exact route I will be walking. So as you can imagine, I am really looking forward to seeing this movie. Even if the story ends up not being that great, the scenery is definitely going to be of interest. A number of people who are considering walking with me at this stage are also going, so I can't wait!

For more information on the 'The Way', click here. 

Finally - in the photo below we are with my Thursday hiking group, enjoying the wonderful West Coast spring flowers now in bloom in our part of the world. At this stage at least four of them are thinking of joining me in Spain next year - what a ball that will be! This day was planned to see how we would cope on a long walk that was not too different from some of the terrain that we would encounter on the Camino. We covered 15 kilometers in total and everyone was still very sure that walking the daily maximum of 25 kilometers on certain days would be within our reach.

I guess tomorrow's movie is going to make it all seem a little more real for all of us - one thing we couldn't

reenact was what it would be like to stay in the the albergues. That might be a little more difficult for some of us to get our heads around so lets hope those with doubts about sleeping in dorms with a bunch of strangers will have a better picture of that particular challenge by tomorrow evening! (I'm not sure if Mr Sheen actually went all the way and became a true pilgrim, or if he stayed in five star rooms along the way...)

I can't resist sharing this little piece from Ermanno Aiello's book, 'Forever a Pilgrim', where he relates an evening at one of the albergues where he found himself embroiled in a war of sorts...

He describes how he enjoys a wonderful meal with some of his fellow pilgrims and then continues: 'The evening passed all too quickly and we went too bed very late. I made the mistake of not taking my regular sleeping pill although, in my defence, it hadn't been necessary the previous two nights and I had not thought of it. What a night!! In spite of the four of us each having a bed in a section of the albergue and were thus pretty far apart, the snoring that emanated from Giorgio's and Jacques' sections rivalled and surpassed that of my first night at Hornillos. I was convinced that those two were having their own private Third World War, with their vocal chords as weapons of mass destruction.'

A couple of years ago that paragraph would have been enough to make me pass on this adventure without reading any further. Nowadays however, it doesn't seem like enough to put me off. It only serves to remind me to google the best quality earplugs, oh, and a good supply of sleeping tablets might be worth investing in after all!