An overview of the whole journey....
‘Can someone tell me again why we are doing this?’
Walking through the Spanish city of Burgos a priest walked up and stopped me. “
Son,” he said, “
why do you walk?” Without even thinking I replied “
I have no idea anymore”. He laughed and said “
yes, you are truly on The Way”. I had given the correct answer.
I set off from Geneva, Switzerland on April 6th 2015. I was walking the ancient pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, known in Spain as the
Camino de Santiago. I was a pilgrim. I walked 3,153 kilometres or 1,959 miles to Santiago de Compostela and then on to the pagan ‘End of the World’ at Finisterre on the west coast of Spain. I walked for 173 days, or five and a half months. I carried 16 kilos (equal to 16 litres of water) in my rucksack the whole way. I walked every step and a lot of it more than once. I walked across the whole of France once and across Spain over two times. I walked to Santiago twice but somehow managed to walk into León three times. I even managed to walk into the Spanish town of Melide three times from three different directions. And I didn’t speak any French or Spanish at all.
In total I was attacked by seven dogs, nearly bitten by a horse, was bitten by a parrot, nearly run over by a pack of wild boar, and was run over by a cow. I was bitten by many horseflies and by countless mosquitoes. I swallowed three flies and accidently killed a baby bird (sorry). I had five live snake encounters, one bear encounter (it was dead though) and was stung by a wasp. I got lost many times, including once up a mountain. I got food or water poisoning three times and soiled myself twice. I got kidnapped by locals three times and they proceeded to get me drunk. I DJ’d in a bar once and fell asleep while walking three times. I lost over ten kilo’s in weight and one of my teeth fell out. I found an angel on a mountain, got drunk with gypsies and I popped many a strangers blisters. I got electrocuted by a vending machine and I got scrutinised by a shrink (but the verdict on that is still out).
We walked in temperatures of 40 degrees with no shade, and for days on end in storms, rain, mist and mud. We walked before dawn in the dark and freezing cold without having had breakfast or even a coffee. We walked when tired, hungry, hungover, ill, injured and in pain. We walked across mountains, valleys, moors and high sierras. We walked along tracks that stretched to infinity into the distance. Most days we did not know where we were going to sleep that night. Sometimes we got to a village worn out and starving to be told there were no beds available and so we had to just keep walking or sleep outside. We laughed and we cried. And most of us didn’t even know why we were doing this anymore. Oh, and we had a great time!
Feel free to ask questions about any of the strange incidents above for more clarification! What follows is Geneva to Le Puy, 350km on the Via Gebenesis, with a few pics.
Buen Camino
Davey
. . . . . . . . .
).
❤
)
