Day 3!

September 16, 2010

Day 3 on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela

Zubiri to Pamplona 

Begin the morning with usual breakfast, bread, butter and jam with tea, leaving by 8 a.m. with a slight drizzle in the darkened predawn.  Rain gear seems to be the order of the day.  Just when I think the hills and mountains are a thing of the past, the very first 5 mins. are straight uphill in the light rain.  Again, I am taking it slow. No snails on the path today, not like day one - but still I take it slow.

Trekking through forests and farmers’ fields today. Have to step on the roadway for some of the trek and the traffic feels like the Autobahn. Vehicles zoom by close, spraying water at the pilgrims.

Pass several little villages.  Stop at one cafe´ for a hot tea, just to get out of the rain, this is where the owner takes great fun in verbally abusing us all - `hurry up and order so I can throw you out of my cafe´ - he yells in Spanish, and I’m the only one understanding his words.  He is quite a character.  My Spanish is helping me some - I´ve been translating for some pilgrims - but this is mostly Castellian Spanish, not a form of Spanish I am comfortable with even though I understand.

Sit on the side of a home is a hamlet to have lunch, ham sandwich with coke.  Other pilgrims use the wooden benches too.

A long, exhausting day, I am wet and cold. Don´t think I´ll get the clothes dried by morning.  Three cities come together to make Pamplona, finally after what seems to be an endless day walking, make it up to the old city of Pamplona - just beautiful.  Row upon row of three or four story buildings joined together, each fighting for its own identity by their decorative fronts.  Colours and flowers abound in windows and on balconies. Visit the City Square for a beer and tapas.  Visit a church for a quick ‘thank you’ to St. James.

Trek today - 21. 5 kms = 37,966 Yazie steps.  Off to Puenta la Reina tomorrow.

Blessings from the Camino -

Yasmin

p.s. Don´t forget Raise a Reader and donations, please contact Cherie Morgan at the Penticton Herald to donate to my walk, you have only until Sept. 29th.

My personal thoughts for today - There are now pilgrims from previous days and we are forming a kind of community.  

Day 2!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Day 2 on the Camino de Santiago

Roncesvalles to Zubiri

Up early, feel okay. Give quick thanks to the ‘Silver Virgin’ at the church for my feet free of blisters.  Leave Roncesvalles at 8 a.m. after a quick breakfast.  The sign for the Camino de Santiago, across the roadway from St. Jean Pied de Port says it is 790 kms. to Santiago.  The guide books says 788 kms.  I’m beginning to be confused about just how far I have to walk to reach Santiago.

The trail starts off with several uphills like the previous day.  Not to have a repeat to my leg muscles, I take the trails slowly - using up time for each climb.  Lovely countryside with forests and rivers. Today seems to be the day to meet other pilgrims from different countries - 4 funny ladies from Korea, a Finnish couple who are both doctors, loads of Spaniards, some on foot some on bikes, French, Germans, two teachers from Canada - one from Peterborough and one from Quebec. For each uphill is a treacherous downhill with loose gravel making balance difficult.  Make it to Zubiri - 21.8 kms = 30,611 steps for me. Very exhausted - due to the many climbs up and down this section takes close to nine hours.  No blisters. Tomorrow off to Pamplona. 

Blessings from the Camino,

Yasmin

p.s. Remember - Raise a Reader is Sept. 29th.  Please donate!

My personal thought for today - Can’t wait for dinner, Spaniards eat supper at 9 or 9:30, so I feel like a real pilgrim, eating supper in my room - bread, cheese and salami wash down with a coke.  Off to bed early! 

Day 1!

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2010

Day 1 on the Camino de Santiago - 

St. Jean Pied de Port (France) to Roncesvalles (Spain)

Sept. 14, 2010

Hello Blog Readers,

I’m writing this blog on the 15th as I am having problems finding internet cafes to send the daily blogs - so here is what happened yesterday - the first day of walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela.  I will have to wait until I find a compatible computer to download the photos.

Take a taxi to St. Jean de Pied de Port at 7 this morning - St. Jean is a lovely French village - with lots of ´Bonjours´ everywhere. Get the Camino Passport book stamp and go in search of a Camino walking stick. Buy a pilgrim walking stick, which says St. Jean de Pied de Port and the symbol of the Basque Region, looks like a fleur du lis. Find out the trek is over 25 kms. not 19.5 like the guide book states!  Most pilgrims take the Napoleon Route over this Pyrenees.  I decide on the trail less traveled as I want to see the field where King Charlemagne of France camped on his return campaign from sacking Pamplona during the Moors occupation. 

After a steady climb from St. Jean up the Pyrenean Mountains, pass fields and picturesque villages, get to Valcarlos (Valley of Charlemagne), the Spanish side overlooking the valley where the King camped, while, his cousin Roland, a most heroic knight, was being attacked and killed closer to Roncesvalles.  Some of you may remember the epic poem about this story- of Roland blowing his horn - Here the countryside is beautiful, with majestic mountains, rolling hills and green plateaus, bleating sheep and cows with tinkling bells around their neck. 

All is well until the last 5 kms. (later found out it was more like 8 kms.).  For some reason in all my training for the pilgrimage walk, I had only blood blisters under my toe-nails, but here on the trek, I pull a muscle in my right leg, which spasms upwards!  I want to die!

Out in the middle of a lovely beech tree forest, with the sounds of water, from the river way down below in the valley, I come to a standstill.  I see white lights and I really want to die on the spot! No place to stand level - the terrain is either straight uphill or keel over and tumble down where I just climbed.

I want to thank all those who have sponsored the RAR walk I´m on and all my friends who are ill and for whom I´m walking and praying - Thank You - if not for you I would have stopped right there and prayed for someone to find and rescue me off the Pyrenean Mountains.

All day long, snails cross my path, beautiful big black snails and slugs - I believe trekking the Santiago Road, gives you life lessons - I use this lesson to go on with my pain.  I become the snail.  I stop often - every 10 yards, say a prayer, and continue up, in pain all the way. I reach the mountain where Roland was killed.  Now it is all downhill. I finish the day’s trek, still hurting and I do a little painful happy-dance - in front of the Roncesvalles church, where each night they host the most beautiful mass on the Camino for the pilgrims.

To have you understand what I did this first day - 25.5 kms (as mentioned the guide books did not tell the truth) is farther than I expected. For those of you who use a ‘step o matic’ my walk measures 33,743 steps.  

I celebrate with the other pilgrims at the pilgrims dinner - grilled lake trout, french fries and yoghurt.  I shed a few tears writing this blog, cannot believe what I did today.

Blessings from the Camino de Santiago!

Yasmin

p.s. Raise a Reader day is September 29th.  Please donate on or before that day!

My personal thoughts for today - I did not know who St. James was when I began this trek - however, today while I was in pain I prayed to St. James to help me complete this day for myself - not for RAR or to prove to anyone I could do this - but just for myself - my thanks to the Apostle for making me strong this first day!

September 13, 2010

September 13, 2010

Hi All,

Arrived in Roncesvalles - will travel to St. Jean de Pied de Port at 7 a.m. and begin the first leg of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela.

Here I go!

On my way - leaving Penticton for Madrid

September 8th, 2010 - at the Pentciton Airport for 9:10 a.m. flight. 

Will travel to Vancouver, to Toronto then Madrid - however, Air traffic Controllers on 'work to rule' in Toronto - watching our flight path on my TV, I am surprised to see our path over Toronto take on the look of a French horn with our plane circling high above the clouds - worry about the connections to Madrid.

We make it in time, hurrying all the way to our gate.  I notice two women in the waiting line have back packs too, and learn they are on their way to walk a different route of the pilgrimage.  Theirs will take then along the coastline of northern Spain.

Even though I was once a flight attendant I have become a nervous traveller. Once on board, I take a little pill to help me get over my apprehension and maybe get some sleep to ward off jet lag.  It works - and I sleep.  Arrive in Madrid by 11:10 a.m. local time on the 9th. - below are wonderful views of large olive groves from my window seat.

Grab my Raise a Reader sign for the Metro ride from the Madrid airport to the hotel - shower and get a few hours sleep then out to visit the streets of Madrid in search of dinner.

Will rest in the south of Spain (Marbella) for a few days to climatize - jet lag is plaguing me - still on Penticton time and I am awake for long periods in the middle of the night.  Take the fast train (Renfe) to the south on September 10 - will return north to Pamplona on Sept.13 - then by bus to Roncesvalles to spend two nights - this is actually the first stop along the Camino, but will spend a night then travel by bus to St. Jean de Pied de Port early morning on the 14 to begin walk - I will walk the 19.5 kms across the Pyrenees back to Roncesvalles to spend the second night at the same hotel.

Wish me luck! 

Reminder - scroll down to click on to photos at Photostream.

Click on the link below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53002820@N08/

Raise a Reader (Herald Article)

Where in the world is Yasmin John Thorpe?

By KEELY COVO/Special to The Herald

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

During September and October, Penticton‘s Yasmin John Thorpe will be trekking

across Northern Spain to raise money for Raise a Reader.

Her route is 780 kilometres – 30 km less than driving from Penticton to Edmonton

– and she hopes to complete it in 40 days.

John Thorpe just turned 60, and that was a big part of what inspired her

pilgrimage.

“It‘s the one big thing I want to do from my bucket list,” she said. “I feel good and

I wanted to do something strenuous.”

The added pressure of doing it for a cause will hopefully give her the push she

will need when the journey gets tough, she said.

John Thorpe has visited several schools in the Okanagan, and she hopes that

students from every one of those schools will help her now raise money for Raise

a Reader.

She plans to write to the schools, suggesting that the principals keep a can on

their desks so that, every morning, kids can drop in a few pennies or whatever

change they have.

Students and volunteers will also hawk newspapers on the morning of Sept. 29

as the primary Raise a Reader fundraiser.

For her part, John Thorpe is donating a dollar for every kilometre of her trek. She

said she will give it in advance, just in case something happens and she doesn‘t

complete all 780 clicks.

However, John Thorpe would like more than just change from kids. She said

she‘ll need lots of encouraging messages on her blog, which she will update

every night from Internet cafes along the way.

“I‘m sure I‘m going to question myself after the third or fourth day,” she said.

“That‘s when I‘ll need encouragement and motivation.”

For a year now, John Thorpe has been training herself for this pilgrimage, called

the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, starting in St. Jean-Pied-de-Port in

France.

She is up to 18 km a day. By the time she goes, she‘ll be at 23 km a day. Once in

Spain, her stages can vary from as short as 19 km to as long as 39 km.

Through training, John Thorpe met a young woman who had done the same

pilgrimage before. The young woman offered many words of advice, as well as a

scallop shell that travellers attach to their backpacks to identify them as pilgrims

to Spanish separatists.

What she finds especially interesting is how many people have travelled the

same path. The shell that she has may have been on this journey several times

before. She said tens of thousands of people do this pilgrimage every year.

It is named after Saint James, an apostle who travelled it trying to convert people

to Christianity, and it has a deep spiritual and religious effect on many who travel

it.

“They say the journey changes you,” John Thorpe said. “That‘s what I‘m looking

for in my life. I‘m looking for some sort of spiritual change.”

Her blog site isn‘t set up yet, but the Herald will publish it on the first day of John

Thorpe‘s trek, which will be 19 km over the Pyrenees Mountains.

Count Down to Santiago

Hi All,

Getting close now - count down has begun - everything that could go wrong has not spared me but instead has paid me a visit.

Practicing my up and down hill climbs in preparation for the Pyrenees I trained a little too hard. Got blood blisters under my two big toe nails - podiatrist says I gave myself a typical tri-athlete's injury - yeah me! I was not even training for the Ironman, but got an Ironman injury.

Nails continued to plague me - and I wondered if I should get larger hiking boots to accommodate swelling of my feet - took the plunge and although I had been following all the best instructions about breaking in the boots I would eventually use - I got new (one size larger) hiking boots. Nails are still yukky - in fact ugly, but no pain, so I may still lose them on my trek, but for now they are being kind again - taking all the pounding I give them.

Next to go awry, even with my best interest in mind, I had opted for a small back pack - wanted to take no more than 10 - 15 pounds - as every book or person who has done the Camino says they took too much or they unloaded 'stuff' along the way - however, even though I had been training with weights in my back pack, this past week when I actually laid out my essentials - half didn't fit in my back pack - wow, what a wake up call so off to the store I headed.

Along the way I met with someone who had already traveled the Camino who was kind and offered to a loaned me a pack which had already conquered the Camino - now all the gear fits and it only weights 11 pounds without my water bladder filled.

Just two sleeps left and one none sleep via Air Canada and I'll be in Spain - Ole'.

Three prayers for the Camino -

1) To be safe

2) To be injury free

3) To finish that day's walk - taking one day at a time.

Hasta Luego - or until soon,

Yasmin