Author Archives: John

Planning on the Camino. Finding a balance. Ruta de La Lana

Planning on the Camino.  Do you really want to know where you will sleep tonight? I love maps.  The pleasure of relaxing on a bunk bed, weary legs propped high with a blanket or two and a guide book with … Continue reading

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Prayer – just letting it happen.

Prayer – just letting it happen. The great plains of Spain. One of the great joys of being on the Camino, especially walking it alone over long distances, is the emptiness.  Emptiness is everywhere.  There are none of the usual … Continue reading

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Finding self on the Camino (Part 2) Accepting Fascists and Sleeping with strangers

Finding Self on the Camino (Part 2)  Merida to Aldea del Cano Accepting Fascists. Sleeping alone in a field, under the stars, and awaking covered in dew surrounded by mist gave me a delicious sense of freedom.  It opened my … Continue reading

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Finding oneself on the Camino (Part 1): Via de La Plata Merida.

Finding oneself on the Camino    (part 1)  Via de La Plata:     Merida. The “Ego” in my rucksack.   The person I was when I set off on my first Camino, the Via de La Plata, in 2010 … Continue reading

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Experience of Communion. Two stretches of the Ruta de La Lana

The experience of communion. Mass in Campillo de Altobuey, Cuenca On the Ruta de La Lana, I arrived in Campillo de Altobuey the day after my “shock”, when I had a fierce reaction to antibiotics.  This had forced me to … Continue reading

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Pain, the body and Love: Camino de Santiago. Samos, Camino Francés.

Pain The suffering Pilgrim: pain, the body and love.  On the final 200 kms of the Camino the number of pilgrims doubles, then triples.  I am always impressed at the determination with which those who have newly joined the Camino … Continue reading

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Iona Community Prayers on the Camino de Santiago. No. 2

Iona Community Prayers on the Camino de Santiago “Dad, have you ever said sorry in your life?” On the Camino, in the hours of walking in  the quiet of forests or over the great plains of Burgos or La Mancha, … Continue reading

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Keeping reason in its place. Via de La Plata. Merida.

Disturbed by reason.  Via de La Plata  Merida. Almendralejo to Merida.   [mapsmarker layer=”15″]   I left Almendralejo on my 61st birthday.  My legs felt better after the ungainly exercises the doctor had demonstrated to me in the hospital the … Continue reading

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Railway lines on caminos de Santiago

Railway lines on the Caminos. They seem to go off into infinity. My Caminos often begin by a train journey, sometimes in the middle of the night. I don’t know why I like railway lines. I like the old ones. … Continue reading

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Money and food: Part 2. Alpera – Iniesta.

Money and food, part 2. A discourse on food. When others who walk long distances first told me that food became less important to them when walking,  I found it hard to believe.  It is counter-intuitive when you think of … Continue reading

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