Hi Hi Jolene
I also had a red rash on my feet after the first two days. Turned out it was nothing to worry about
as others have said. Just a result of your feet get a little hot from all the walking.
After the first days walking I was giving my feet the once over in the albergue and another pilgrim
said "Oh my goodness, look at the state of your little toe". I panicked, had a look, then said, "it always
looks like that". The moral? Don't start over analysing.
As for being on your own. I started in Pamplona and had my first night "on my own" in the Jesus y Maria
Albergue. All very strange. I set off on my own in the morning. That night I stayed in the Padres Reparadores
Albergue. There I met lots of pilgrims, two of which are still in touch with me 5 months later. So it continued.
My "family" grew and grew. I'm looking at a picture now which one of the pilgrims from that second night sent
me for my birthday. Twenty of us gathered outside the cathedral in Santiago. This is only perhaps a fifth of the
people I met and talked and ate with along the way.
Ah, but perhaps you think you're different to me. Well, I hope so, because normally I get out as much as a
tortoise gets out.
I'm painfully shy, but the Camino saw to that and helped me. The Camino is not like
everyday life. It's like life should be.
Since I'm already in rambling mode can I ramble a little longer and give you a little quote ?
"And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: "Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown"
And he replied
"Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer
than a known way"
So I did. I walked out of Pamplona in the darkness and into the light that is the way.
Buen Camino