Camino Loneliness?

Today is a very different feeling walking, I wonder why it feels much more lonely.

Perhaps it was because I had a chat with Pat, my wife, on the phone for an hour before I started. We try to chat each day on Skype, and I’m probably missing her company.

Perhaps it’s because I was one of the last to leave Roncesvalles this morning, and so everyone else is ahead of me and I know that no one else is coming up behind me.

The stop tonight will be interesting. I’ll be staying at Viscarret, which is a small village only 12 kilometers from Roncesvalles. I doubt whether many other pilgrims will be staying there, because most will want to walk at least 20 kilometers a day. But it will be interesting to see, maybe there will be other walking wounded staying there tonight as well.

The walk today seems very different because I’m not in the mountains. I’m just walking through pastures, the occasional stream crossing the track, I think I really love the mountains much more.

Familiar Faces.   Meeting and re meeting people as you walk is a really nice part of the Camino.  Leaving Roncesvalles a met very briefly, Mary from Arizona.  Like a 30 sec conversation!   We met again walking up to Alto del Perdon 5 or 6 days later.  And ended up walking together quite a few times.

Also a young couple from the UK I met on Day 1 at Orisson I met over and over for the next 3 weeks.

You get the idea……..   Many Pilgrims end up walking with their ‘Camino Family’ that seems to just happen along the way.