In the groove ... Making it "OUR Camino"

We could hear the feet rapidly approaching from behind on a narrow stretch of the early morning trail. Without enough room to get by, the elderly lady impatiently said, "Putt putt.  Putt putt."  Though not the right reaction, I felt like pretending to trip and knocking her off the trail,  "Putt, putt" indeed!

Lorraine and I are currently "in a groove".  It may not be the groove we envisioned, but it is a groove, and as grooves go ... It's not that bad. 

At home, we walk a lot, so when we envisioned the Camino, we saw no reasons to think that not only would we do it, we would do it easily.  When we were done, there would be lots of time (not to mention energy) to do some other major hiking in Spain. Our biggest concern was that I naturally walk faster than Lorriane - a lot faster.  (My one hour route at home takes us 1:25 when we are together.) Would I be content to slow down enough that she would not need race across Spain.  

We knew the first couple of days would be a stretch. You can't leave the flat lands of Easten Ontario and head over the Pyrenees without any repercussions.  So we met that challenge head-on, and with gusto.  10.5 hours later we were at our destination, feeling exactly like we expected - bone-tired and exuberant! 

Ditto for the rest of week one: set our destination, increase it by one town ... Walk, socialize, eat, sleep, and same thing next day. A little bit behind my schedule, and well ahead of Lorraine's - and that's the way we expected the Camino to continue.

No one dreamed of a nagging injury. A minor injury that would make walking difficult.  But suddenly that happened, and now there are decisions to make.  So far, all the decisions still include finishing the Camino, but this far from home minor decisions are not so easy.  

- Should she bus ahead for a day or two, or even a week?  (That would mean separation, and she's not really keen on being alone in Spain.)

- There are other possibilities, too difficult to explain in one short blog.

- the route we have chosen to take is to forget about anything after the Camino, and do as many short days as we need to finish the Journey.  Mathematically, we could do 10 km per day for the next 60 days and still meet our deadline.  The decision includes doing whatever is necessary to make the short days possible.  Start late? start early? Rest often? Swallow pride!

"Our" Camino cannot be a race against John Brierley's guidebook.  "Our" Camino can no longer be measured in time.  The guideline for "Our" Camino will now be, "What you did, did you do it together?"

This is the way that "the Camino" becomes "our Camino". The sabbatical is not about walking across Spain.  It is about walking across Spain together.  So for as long as we can make 10 km days without increasing the injury, that will be us you see, going west, west, and further west.

So, we're in a groove.  It may not be the groove we intended, but at his point it is still a groove that leads to Santiago.  

"Putt, putt" indeed!