Yesterday had been a picture perfect autumn day with clear skies, golden sunshine, and golden and bronze trees all around us. Lovely for walking up to Roncevalles. Today was breezy from the start with a beautiful red sunrise. "...Red sky at dawn - sailors take warning." This was our first clue that today was going to be a very different day from the past few glorious autumn days. As we neared the tree line, and were at the bottom of the last steep climb, the wind picked up and I was grateful that it was at my back. I kept hearing one of Steve's favorite songs in my head -"You are the wind at my back..."- wish I could remember the name of the group who sings it! I had just put back on my wind jacket and when Sharon put hers on right near the top, we almost got blown over.
And that was the beginning of our windy 5 hour walk over the magnificent open hill and moorland on the Camino over the Pyrenees.
Windy does not give our experience justice. We experienced winds like I have never been out in. When it gets this windy like this at home, I go inside. But when you're on the top of the Pyrenees, you haul ass! So that's what we did.
On top of the wind, Sharon has had a hip pain that flared up in the past few days. While it was okay going up, something tweeked it (it may have been the massive, knee high pile of leaves we played in while walking through a high altitude beech forest) and every step became excruciatingly painful. Sharon has an admittedly very high threshold of pain, and this was clearly pushing Sharon's limits. Imagine walking and getting blown so hard by the wind that you have to brace yourself with your leg that is farthest from the wind, and that leg is the one that is sending shooting pain up your body. This was Sharon's experience.
We must have walked for 3 to 4 hours like this. At times I was just asking for help from the Camino to keep us safe and bring us down the mountain safely. I never really felt fear. I was with Sharon and she is an experienced mountaineer, and I knew that the Camino would guide and provide for us. And, I will say, it was a very intense experience.
Sharon thinks we may have experienced this today because I had said what I was quite anxious about was strong winds blowing me off the face of the mountain! Yet when I was up in it, I often experienced myself laughing at the craziness of it all, and even at the notion that this is what I had been really scared of and here I was experiencing it!
I kept thinking I would see the albergue at Orisson down the mountain as we would walk around the next curve. I knew we, and especially Sharon, would be okay if we could just get there. We had just rounded another curve with still no sign of the albergue when a car was coming down the hill. I immediately flagged the driver and asked for a ride to the albergue. He had been hunting pigeons up in the mountains with his dog who was asleep in the back of the car. I knew we had to give up walking and give Sharon's leg a rest. Turns out the albergue was closed so our "ange" (angel) took us to the village of Hunto and waited while we made sure we could stay here. In the less than 10 minutes we were in his car, we drove steeply down to well below the treeline, back to pastures and meadows with sheep and trees and farms, a distance that would have easily taken us another couple of hours. Just before he picked us up, I had been praying to the Mary's for their help since we had just walked by the statue of the Virgin Mary, Vierge d'Orisson moments before. She answered our prayers immediately. The man who picked us up was delighted to help us.
We have showered, lit a fire in the fireplace, had tea with our one apple, little piece of cheese and some figs, and warmed ourselves up. Tomorrow we will walk the final 6 kms into Ste. Jean. It may be in the wind, and rain, or not. However it is, it will be our completion walk of this initial leg of the Celtic Camino.
One last sharing. I realized today on top of the mountain with the winds purifying and cleansing me and my soul is that the Celtic Camino is actually an ancient and sacred Druidic pilgrimage of initiation. It is the Druid Camino. It is so obvious, so clear, that I laughed hard and loud at myself that it took walking several hundred kilometers to have the "eyes to see and the ears to hear" that this is a Druidic pilgrimage. Sharon and I have talked many times about the Druids - experiencing them in the woods and forests as we have walked. We have met pilgrims along the wqy who have seemed like Druids. The trees have held us, given us shelter and strength as we've walked in all the elements. The Earth has guided us letting us know when we were not on the Path. The rain, the sunshine, and yes, even the wind, have been our friends and our guides. We have begun the Druid Camino. We are just about to complete its first leg. And every step of the way I have been walking home into the truth of who I am and the awareness of that Truth. I have been walking home to wholeness.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Sarah, Druids are Celts, so yes you are walking the Celtic Druidic Camino. Buen Camino, Luiza
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