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I learned something; people from Halifax are Haligonians!Long, winding road calls to Haligonians
January 18, 2013 - 4:50pm By LOIS LEGGE Features Writer
THEY WALKED 650 to 800 kilometres on their vacations.
Saw vultures overhead.
Crossed ancient roads below.
And while that may not seem like much of a break to some, Halifax residents who’ve trekked the fabled, ancient Camino de Santiago (The Way of St. James) have a different story to tell.
One of spiritual awakening and physical perseverance.
Beauty and hardship.
And new ways of seeing the world.
Now they’re starting a local organization to help others contemplating the journey. Or to swap stories with people who’ve already made it across the paths, mountains, hills and valleys of Spain to the place Christ’s apostle St. James is said to be buried.
“I met one woman from Nova Scotia, actually, and she used to call it Camino magic,” says Kathy Kepkay, a Halifax teacher.
“There was a mystical aspect to the Camino as well.”
Kepkay is starting a local chapter of Canadian Company of Pilgrims with fellow Camino alum Cathy Cavanaugh, a Halifax nurse.
Over the centuries, the journey has been a religious pilgrimage for many, a physical endurance test for others.
Christians have taken the pilgrimage from many starting points, although the Camino de Santiago route — from France, over the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela, Spain — has been among the most popular.
Kepkay and Cavanaugh walked this route at different times. And for different reasons.
But both call it a life-changing, awe-inspiring odyssey that opened their eyes to nature and to themselves.
“The first part of it, I rehashed a lot of my past … a lot of the baggage I didn’t have time to get rid of over the years,” says Cavanaugh, who last spring walked about 800 kilometres with her husband, starting from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port.
“And just being able to think things through and to let a lot of that stuff go, just maybe different conflict you’ve had in life, things that you were carrying with you, or regrets.”
Cavanaugh’s dad died in 1999 and she still misses him “immensely.” But she felt him there with her in the lush mossy forests, with the transcendent scents of eucalyptus, and on the rugged roads to Santiago de Compostela.
“Birds always remind me of him because he loved birds, and I remember sometimes it was so hard to walk … so I would be walking and walking and walking and I’d see a little bird and he’d chirp at me, and then he’d hop a little bit ahead of me, and hop a little bit more ahead of me, and I’d think, ‘OK, Dad, already,’” she recalls with a laugh.
“And looking at the clouds, and you just have so much time to appreciate what we have … and what God has given us. You have so much time along the way.”
Kepkay remembers seeing vultures circling six metres above along the way. But she didn’t feel fear, just awe at how close she was to the natural world, a “heightened sensitivity” to her surroundings she’d never felt before.
Those surroundings were at times breathtakingly beautiful, both women say. And at times, excruciatingly treacherous.
“The terrain is absolutely incredible,” says Cavanaugh, 56, sitting in her Halifax condo with Kepkay, who took the trip in the fall of 2010.
“There’s flat, there’s cobblestone roads, there’s places where there’s vines, there’s places where there’s fields.
“We walked over the Pyrenees the first day from Saint-Jean-Pied. … That was about 25, 27 kilometres, so we saw everything … and we met everything there. We met rain, sleet, gales, winds, sun, fog, snow …
“We found a little lean-to and stopped to get a bite to eat, took off our gloves and then the snow just plummeted down on us, and I remember I had my can of sandwich sardines and it was filling up with snow.”
But Cavanaugh adds with a laugh, “You just continue on. We’re Canadian.”
Kepkay remembers one particularly tiring day when she and her travelling companions took a wrong turn and ended up walking much longer than they’d planned — about 10 hours on rustic, rocky, muddy paths.
“I could barely sit down, and when I did sit down, I could barely stand up.”
But both women say despite the hardships, including plenty of blisters, the journey was an experience they’ll always cherish and never forget.
Cavanaugh, a Catholic, was particularly moved when she reached Cathedral de Santiago de Compostella where St. James is believed to be buried. She attended mass there on the holy day of Ascension. She remembers a massive incense burner swaying across the ceiling of the ancient Roman Catholic cathedral and thinking about “how many people before me have witnessed this.”
“I just broke down,” she says. “It was just too wonderful.”
And Kepkay, who walked about 650 kilometres and took a bus for some highway sections of the route, is still astonished by all the simple moments along the way.
“I like to walk, but I didn’t know I could walk that far,” says the 60-year-old, who calls herself spiritual, though not religious.
“But I think what I learned about myself is that you kind of keep yourself open so that you can … see the little miracles in the ordinary of everyday life.”
The first meeting of the Halifax chapter of the Canadian Company of Pilgrims is scheduled for Feb. 3 from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Currie Room of Saint Mary’s Cathedral Basilica.
For more information, go to the local group’s Facebook page: Canadian Company of Pilgrims, Halifax chapter, or to the national group’s website, santiago.ca.
Buen Camino!
