scruffy1
Veteran Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Holy Year from Pamplona 2010, SJPP 2011, Lisbon 2012, Le Puy 2013, Vezelay (partial watch this space!) 2014; 2015 Toulouse-Puenta la Reina (Arles)
As anyone who has opened Google this morning already knows, Douglas Adams would have been 61 years old today should he have survived that heart attack. His religious beliefs are not shared by many here however he has left us an important document which parts should be adopted by every pilgrim namely the binding of this book reads
"DON'T PANIC"
in large, friendly letters on the cover" something we all should remember and of course THE towel. With apologies to D. Adams: "A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing a pilgrim can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold mountain of O'Cebreiro; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Fistera, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of the Meseta; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Ebro; wet it for use in hand-to- hand-combat ; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes of rotting potatoes in the frozen chips factories along the way; you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
In short, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a fellow pilgrim discovers that one has a towel, that pilgrim will automatically assume that one is also in possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, etc.
Happy Birthday Douglas Adams where-ever you may be.
"DON'T PANIC"
in large, friendly letters on the cover" something we all should remember and of course THE towel. With apologies to D. Adams: "A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing a pilgrim can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold mountain of O'Cebreiro; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Fistera, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of the Meseta; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Ebro; wet it for use in hand-to- hand-combat ; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes of rotting potatoes in the frozen chips factories along the way; you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
In short, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a fellow pilgrim discovers that one has a towel, that pilgrim will automatically assume that one is also in possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, etc.
Happy Birthday Douglas Adams where-ever you may be.
