A short story from my first Camino

[Bert45]

Hello
I became a member of this forum yesterday. My first Camino (the Francés) was in 2003. I started in St Jean PdP on 10 April, and arrived in SdC on 10 May. I did absolutely no training or advance planning. It rained on 10 days out of 31. I was advised at the Pilgrim Office in St Jean to take the Valcarlos route, as there was still snow up in the mountains. I took the advice, but in Roncesvalles I met some who hadn't who said how fantastic it was up in the mountains with blue skies and clean white snow everywhere. Anyway, my short story:
I met an American lady named Mildred in the albergue at Reliegos. After El Burgo Ranero, the scenery stays pretty much the same for hours until you get to Reliegos, which gives a sense that you’re in the middle of nowhere. The land is flat as a pancake and the road is almost perfectly straight. She told me she was on that road, thinking how boring it was, how she was walking and walking and not seeming to be getting anywhere. She was fed up. "Why am I doing this?" she asked herself. "God, show me a sign!" she cried. Just then a baker’s van passed her (on a road that maybe you might see two vehicles in four hours). The name on the van? - “Mildred”! Mildred Pastelería is a cake-making company based in Huesca. I don't think it is a very common girl's name in Spain. I am not religious at all, by the way.

 

[Peter Fransiscus]

Lovely story , thank you for sharing this.

Wish you well,Peter.

 

[HedaP]

Thank you, it’s a great story.
I don’t in any way want to detract from the main story but I would just like to add a comment about crossing the Pyrenees.
Exactly the same thing happened to me in early April last year. The Napoleon route was closed. I walked via Valcarlos to Roncesvalles and met quite a few pilgrims, including a family with young children, who had ignored the closure signs and local advice and walked through the snow on the Napoleon. They were lucky. It is closed for a reason.
Each day the Pilgrim Office in SJPdP gets a phone call from the gendarmes letting them know whether the Napoleon is open or closed. The gendarmes and the bomberos will be risking their lives if pilgrims get into trouble because of weather conditions so I don’t understand why pilgrims ignore their advice.
On the other hand I do understand why pilgrims walk the meseta. I love it!

 

[HeidiL]

Those wonderful coincidences...

For some reason, we keep walking into towns just as their Easter processions are about to start. If they have a morning procession, we'll pass their town in time to participate before we walk on. If there's a mid-day procession, that's where we'll end up for lunch. And if there's an evening procession, we will pass it just as we're getting out of the albergue to go look for food.

I'm more than a little in love with Spanish Easter.

 

[Purky]

Those wonderful coincidences...

About coincidences: walking through France I met a younger pilgrim from Belgium, who was a very nice guy, and we decided to walk together for a few days. During that time I remarked that it couldn't be a coincidence that every time we were in a village, no matter how small, the church bells would ring.

I claimed serendipity, some sort of sign, encouragement from the gods, and I marvelled about it to no end. It took him four villages to figure out that those bells rang every quarter of an hour anyway. We had a lot of fun, the two of us.

 

[nycwalking]

These coincidences are the reason there are so many camino stories. On way to Fisterra, a peregrina posed a question: "What will be my miracle of the day"?

I guess it is also why so many of us have walked time and time and time again.

 

[CdnDreamer]

It was getting to be 2 pm and I was walking alone and still far from the albergue that was expecting me to arrive by 2 or they would give away my bed. My phone wouldn't work as I couldn't get a signal. I was tired and upset, so I put on my music, and continued walking. A few minutes later, when the song "Personal Jesus" came on ... I wondered if it was speaking to me.
"Feeling unknown, And you're all alone, Flesh and bone By the telephone..Lift up the receiver, I'll make you a believer..."

So I got my phone out, had a signal and called the albergue! Somehow in that five or ten minute period I had moved into an area with a signal.

Another day I decided to put the "song coincidence" to the test. I asked a question "should I stop here?" and decided the next song that randomly came up would be my answer. The next song was the Beatles singing Hello Goodbye "you say yes and I say no, you say stop and I say go". I had a good laugh over that!

 

[Botaivica]

Coincidences

how many of you have experienced to lose, on the Way, some of the your equipment?

I am. I lose clothespin, which my friend Mori gave to me. It was Japanese clothespin which had an supplement, so I could hang the socks on the backpack to get dry.

One day I lost one. And I was sad and unhappy.

The next day I walked through the forest and in front of me I seen a pilgrim walking slowly. When I came near her, I saw my clothespin on her backpack. The day before she found my clothespin, she assumed someone had lost her, and put it on the backpack to see it.

Of course, in the first bar we drink a beer.

 

[Northern Laurie]

I started the Camino Del Norte with a wonderful group of a New Zealander couple and their Aussie cousin. We had our first spanish breakfast consisting of sweet croissants together. We would generally run into each other every second day or so between Irun until just before Bilbao, and then got separated at a full albergue. I didn't see them for weeks, and figured I never would because I was doing really short days.

Then, four days before Santiago, I hear "HEY HEY ARE YOU THE CANADIAN?". I had been tired and grumpy, and to suddenly hear the familiar voice and see friends was delightful. The joy of the reunion kept me riding high and walking long.

We did get separated once more, but I decided I wanted to catch up with them in Santiago. I reached Santiago, and my phone (with their contact information) died). As I was wandering through Santiago trying to find accommodation and a plug to recharge my phone, I hear "HEY LAUREEN... UP HERE". I look up, and there is my friend on a balcony, watching street life below. He spotted me randomly walking around.

Definitely a magic ending to a long walk

 

[Mark T17]

Coincidences are certainly odd experiences on the Camino. I lost my shell coming into Hontanas one night because it had worn through the string. I had no idea where it had fallen off, only to hear a woman arrive in my room in the same albergue, on the same night talking to her friends about how she had found a shell on the trail. I recognised the shell as the one I had lost due to a few chips and she happily returned it to me. I was so grateful and we chatted for most of the night about the usual camino stuff.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

In 2015 I met a couple from Switzerland and we chatted over several communal dinners and walked a bit together early on. I never saw them again until in Finnestere, when they called out my name. We shared a cup of coffee before departing. But the most interesting part of this story is that when I arrived in Santiago the following year after walking the Norte/Primitivo, the Swiss couple was sitting at an outdoor table, only this time I called out to them. They had just completed the Frances again. How unlikely it was to see them a year later on exactly the same ending day of our different Caminos!

 

[Peter Fransiscus]

My wife Marianne always says,
Coincidences don't exist things happen when they need to happen.

Wish you all well , Peter .

 

[Antonius Vaessen]

The OP's story reminds me of something that happened to me 35 years ago (not caminorelated) I lived in a village near the German border. One time I was biking with a friend to a nearby town in Germany. In between the villages there was a stretch of 5 to 10 km through a wood. There was only one house along that stretch. Everytime we passed this house my friend would tell me that a few years before, she passed this house when a heavy rainshower broke. She asked for some kind of shelter at this house but was refused, she found this very unfriendly.
When we passed the house this time there was a poster on a tree right in front of the house which said "Lässt uns nicht im Regen stehen" which means: "Don't leave us standing in the rain" ( it had to do with a campaign against acid rain) Nowhere else or never again did I see this poster.
For me this had also an advantage, we used to make bets between us, the price was always a fine piece of chocolate. When we had passed the tree a hundred meters or so I told her what I had seen. Of course she would not believe that such a coincidence could be true. ((This can be seen as a compliment to my imagination,, if she thought I was able to make such a story up) Of course we made a bet. We did not go back immediately but first finished our trip, to build up the "tension". The chocolate was very nice.

 

[MaggieP]

I befriended a fellow perigrino during my Camino last fall who shared an impressive story about manifesting a specific occurrence in his life (like 'The Secret' advents). So, to myself, I said 'I'm going to manifest this: on this trip, I'm going to see someone who knows me by name and they will say 'Hi Maggie!' I had a wonderful Camino, then spent some time in Barcelona. Nothing. I flew home. Then, when I was preparing to leave the airport at home - the very last moments of my vacation - I hear 'Hi Maggie! Are you just returning from Spain? I've been following you on Facebook. It's funny - I never see anyone I know at the airport!' Not really a Camino story, but a Camino-influenced story! I can't wait to walk again. It was the most wonderful experience.

 

[MichelleElynHogan]

I wonder what Mildred is doing now?