A rebel without a clue.

Coming down off the eucalyptus plantations I saw two peregrinos returning home the old way! One solo, to Italy, on the Camino del Norte and another with his dog (he wasn't conversational), but it was lovely to see their dedication... Then on the final few kilometres the old war wound was making its presence felt - shooting left foot pain - so I slowed down... Then I saw a Jay playing amongst the wood shavings so my mind went elsewhere for a moment: charming to see. *** After I'd checked into the Last Stamp hostel (top floor private €38 - very low ceiling, but a comfortable double bed) I went and ate caldo and chipirones accompanied by a couple of glasses of local vino(Rias Baixas and Rebeiro Sacra) in La Tita (a very popular, but small, eatery) then sought beer. A couple of Imperial Stouts later I was weeping at the futility of O Camiño. *** On only two occasions was I approached by people to beg money from me. Once, outside the cathedral, and just now in the bus st...

There are too many James's! I should know which Iacobus I am walking over these leaf strewn paths towards? It's James Zebedee bouncing on his joyous spring through the woods, still in the mist... It's not James the Just. So many ghosts in my mind pulling and pushing me away from the clarity which is always present. Prejudice is one such conceit. I simply want to let them be, but something projects all my hatreds onto something I have created: these images are pictures I have made to imprison my mind. Part of the walking was always to kill this irritating being totally. I get overtaken by it in so many instances.

The further from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port the more uptight I've become: some days I have been less wound up, but over the duration I've definitely become more and more like a coiled spring ready to release all its tension in one moment of expiration - with a bang and not a dampened whimper! It's as though the closer I get to reaching the goal the less happy I am to cross the finish line? During the second part of this Camino Frances I have had a couple of mind altering moments, peak experiences? Reaching Galicia on that tough day and then seeing echoes of home on another tough day... But otherwise empty? Buenos Días. It's foggy. There is a guy called Raphael who has walked from his home on the other side of the Sistema Central north of Madrid (Sierra de Guadarrama), along the same route I walked in December 2022, before the old war wound of the left foot broke my step coming into Segovia! This is his '100th' Camiño ... He's done loads! But that...