A Walk v a Camino ? Oh No. Not him again!

[Robo]

Sorry, he's back......... We talked for so long we got a whole series

 

[VNwalking]

Rob.

...You're apologizing!?

 

[JennyH94]

Terrific interview lads! You’ve both taken me directly to the Camino and I didn’t even have to pass Go!

The poignant pilgrim dinner David spoke of was at Hontanas in June 2017. Our hosts were Manuel and Svetlana, who’d met on the Camino at Foncebadon when Manuel was cheffing at one of the albergues there and Svetlana was a pilgrim - they had a beautiful love story which Manuel shared after the meal. They wanted to give their lives to be of service to pilgrims and to give back to the Camino as the Camino had given them each other.

As David said, I’ve got a pretty good memory! The Israeli couple were Jakob and Ella - Jakob was a rabbi and they lived in Tel Aviv. They were a really interesting couple. We met them again the next day at Castrojeriz and we were amazed that Jakob had made it there - seemingly easily - given the heat of the day and his bulk.

The strange thing about that very special evening was that we nearly weren’t there in the first place. We had planned to stay at San Bol - the lovely albergue with the well 5kms before Hontanas that night; however, when we arrived there was a fellow pilgrim who, shall we say, was warming up to be a right-royal pain in the “a” so we used our pre-arranged “get out” signal and explained to the group there that our friend Susan was waiting for us in Hontanas so we would have to leave. We trudged the extra 5kms on to Hontanas in the late afternoon heat and had a wonderful and memorable pilgrim experience that evening.

I hope David doesn’t mind me mentioning that at Hontanas both David and Jakob gave pastoral care to two people who really needed it - quite apart from the beautiful meal and the great company I felt that David and Jakob were helped by an unknown force unique to the Camino to be exactly where they needed to be in order to give that much-needed pastoral care.

Cheers from Oz -
Jenny

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Hi Jenny,
What a lovely story of the recounting of your day in June 2017, and the day's ending in Hontanas!
One question though...are there really occasional pilgrims who are a royal pain?

 

[JennyH94]

Hi Jenny,
What a lovely story of the recounting of your day in June 2017, and the day's ending in Hontanas!
One question though...are there really occasional pilgrims who are a royal pain?

Ha ha Chrissy! Yep - just one or two!
And thank you for your kind feedback on the Hontanas experience - it was really special.
Xxx from Oz -
Jenny

 

[JennyH94]

Listening to Robo and David’s conversation in the interview about the journey aspect of being on camino brought to mind a beautiful quote shared by a pilgrim on the Camino Pilgrim Discussion Group Facebook page yesterday. The quote was by Anthony Bourdain, the late chef and food writer. If you substitute ‘Being on camino’ for ‘Travel’ you’ll find the quote completely sums up the Camino journey. Here it is:

“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully you leave something good behind.”

I think Anthony Bourdain could apply this quote to the journey in his own life. He was immensely successful as both a chef, as a food writer - also as a tv presenter - but he was a troubled soul who sadly died before his time. He did leave something good behind - such humanity and goodwill - his legacy is huge.

Best wishes - stay safe and stay well -
Jenny

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

I so enjoyed this conversation that I had to go beyond just using the like button. I was feeling like I was entralled with the talk while sitting at a table in Spain. ♥