Hi all - we have shared so many things over the years, sadnesses, joys, absurd humour, information to newbies - thank you SO much for all of that!! ... but I am late 72 now and will soon be 73 .. I have been going to Camino to do first aid and to offer pastoral care and to hopefully save lives (though only one I know for certain) since 2006 but I find that I now see this as the end of these things, the final bookend end of these things.
Sure, there will be vaccines, of course, but I ask myself when the Camino will be crowded again, and also when those new pilgrims will be willing to allow an unknown stranger to physically touch them to give first aid or put an arm around their shoulders and hug them so that they can cry in safety without embarrassment or guilt ..
If we get going properly by 2022 I will then be 74 .... I have been doing it so many years, so many years now .... so I have decided to not just 'wait and see' but to close things down. Many of you will know that I have an Ebay store that sells pilgrim items, the profits paying for my first aid supplies - well (Ivar, this is not an advert!) I have now put everything on sale, and will sell it all, nothing higher than £3 - anything left I will take to my local Catholic charity shop and give it all away.
I will sell off my unused first aid items such as the many new knee braces I have (you can't have too many knee braces!!
) and my first aid bags.
I will sell the lightweight aluminium hiking trailer that I designed and built.
So, for me, this is the end of Camino, this is the end of 14 years of first aid and pastoral care - we have a global plague and even when borders do open again I will not go to Spain early, if at all.
Maybe, sometime in the future I will get that urge again but if I do I shall go as a simple pilgrim with a very light backpack and first aid kit (a small one), anonymous - but, you know, I don't think I will.
I will stay with the forum a while longer perhaps. It is so quiet now - I have tried to enliven it with humorous content now and again, but it is soooo quiet, and, to be fair, so many of our veteran members have gone, some have just chosen to leave, or are too ill to stay -. oh dear, it is all so sad.
Anyway - I just wanted to let those who know me of my intentions ... they are mine, personal thoughts ... but, for me, I see the world, I see me, and Camino first aid, pastoral care? That has to be gone now.
Buen Camino all! (but don't be surprised if a funny post appears from me
).
Buen Camino