If anyone has ducked over to our travel blog, Wise Monkeys Abroad – then you will know that we are walking the Camino.
We are doing the Camino for several reasons, including raising awareness and money of Angelman Syndrome, for another travel experience and ticking off another UNESCO Heritage List.
But the main reason, the idea even came about was because we were ready to do some inner searching, both spiritually and personally. This played a huge part in us also trying to live our lives with a different perspective, hence this blog!
Anyway, as we embark on this pilgrimage and experience each day, we hope that we will be able to (subject to wifi) share our thoughts, reflections, experiences on this blog. This segment, will be our Camino Diaries series.
We think that for us to truly see the goodness and positivity of everything in our lives that we also need to challenge ourselves mentally, physically and emotionally. No better way than to walk 800km (rain, hail or shine). 800km of thinking, 800km of endurance, 800km of slowing life down!
In fact, we start the pilgrimage this Friday, the 5th September, that is 3 sleeps away! So before we have even taken one step of the Camino, we have already experienced our first Camino story to share.
We are now in Bayonne, which is a town about 51km north of St Jean Pied de Port where our Camino will start.
With only a few days to go and after 7 weeks of travelling, we wanted somewhere to go that was close enough for us to unwind and mentally prepare.
The plan was that on Thursday, we would arrive in St Jean Pied de Port and pick up our Camino passport as well as our shells. Instead when we arrived in Bayonne, we visited the Cathedral of Bayonne. Inside, we met a man who provided us with the camino passports and shells. We sat and spoke to him for a brief moment when a lady came up and spoke to him in French. She handed him a handwritten note in an envelope and left.
The gentleman wound up our conversation with him and wished us well and as we got up to leave, he said to us, “Can I give you a mission?”
To which we both sat back down and nodded.
He said, “That lady just came over and explained that an Italian lady doing the Camino has had to stop due to injury but she would like this letter to go onwards to Santiago. Can you take it with you?”
“Of course!”
We felt such a gush of emotion that the Camino for us, although 3 days away, was already starting! We cannot wait to see what lies ahead but as our purpose is to slow life down, we are going to take each step, one at a time, and just take each day as it comes for the good and the not-so-good.
But regardless, we will take the opportunity to really “see-the-day”.
"Sees" the Day 