The "Plan"!

After one year of planning and preparing, the time has arrived for my "Walk of a Life Time" or 40 Days and 40 Nights! Along with my friend, +Sandra-Faye Nagy we are headed to France and then Spain to walk the Camino de Santiago. This blog is my account of a walking journey that many (thousands) have taken over hundreds of years. An 800 km pilgrimage from  St. Jean Pied de Port in the French Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain and then on to Finisterre, the end of the world.

There are many accounts, journals, stories written about the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage, my intent with this blog is to capture day to day memories of my journey.

Am not completely positive about when I thought that walking the Camino would be a good plan. I did preview the idea with a couple of girlfriends, Judy and Darlene, in 2009 or so and went to a Canadian Pilgrims presentation in Victoria. The idea fizzled though when life got in the way. After a hiking trip to Thailand in 2011 with +Sandra-Faye Nagy the Camino conversations returned and then the commitment and finally the planning.

So first some Camino background...

The cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, Spain is said to hold the headless body of the apostle St. James. Apparently these bones arrived in northwestern Spain after Herod Agrippa beheaded the apostle in Jerusalem in a.d.44.  The apostle`s friends smuggled his headless body and put it in a stone boat that, amazingly, without oars, sails or crew made a week long journey from Jerusalem to the coast of Spain. His body was buried inland in Compostela, the ``field of stars``, a remote hillside in Galicia. The burial site was forgotten for centuries and it was not until a.d. 813 that the bones were found by a hermit in what is now the city of Santiago de Compostela.

The King of Spain, Alfonso II, built a chapel there and declared St. James the patron saint of Spain. Pilgrims began to make their way to the chapel and Pope Alexander III declared Santiago de Compostela a Holy City in 1189. Now declared a World Heritage site, pilgrims of today come from all over the world to walk the Way of St. James.

Sandra and I are planning to take the camino frances, from St. Jean Pied de Port, in the Pyrenees mountains of France to  Santiago, a western walk over three mountain ranges, across the Spanish plains and through towns and villages steeped in Roman  and Spanish history.

I know that there are many traditions, and much history along ``The Way`` and do intend to keep an open mind and to be receptive. I am looking forward  to the pilgrim`s mass in Santiago and to seeing ``the end of the world``  as seen by pilgrims centuries ago.

The plan is have this adventure encompass both of our birthdays Sandra`s August 30th and mine October 8th  - approx. 40  days including flights times to and from Europe. We intend to fly from Victoria to Toronto and then on to Paris on August 29th. We will then take a train to St. Jean Pied de Port and begin our walk.

So my pack, boots and poles are ready to go! Let the adventure begin...