Blackberry memories

Today dawned sunny and bright on the coast and I was happy to get started at first light for what I knew would be a long day.  The usual place to end from my departure point at Solana is Laredo but I had decided that it would be worth another 7 kilometers of walking to be in a quieter town for the night.

The path quickly became rural as it cut inland before later returning to the Atlantic Coast at Laredo.  The scenes of the day felt very familiar as the climate is not unlike the Northwest.  Forests are pine with lots of ferns and the annual rainfall amounts maintain a green landscape. It is steeper and rockier and the expanses of range land larger than is usual at home.  It is not uncommon to encounter sheep, horses, goats, or cows with bells around their neck to enable the farmer/rancher to find them. The family gardens are overflowing with vegetables and trees are laden with lemons, limes, apples and figs.  There are lots of grapes grown in the area and kiwi fruit.

I also found wild mountain blackberries just ripening.  These are the small blackberries I remember picking in the woods as a child; not the large Himalayan variety we see by the roadside at home.  I haven’t see wild mountain blackberries in years and it evoked a flood of childhood memories of my mother taking us picking with our little coffee cans fitted with string handles and getting nettle stings and thorn scratches as we managed enough for a few blackberry pies – well worth the effort. The real beauty in this trip though is that it brought back so many thoughts for me about my mom and I actually had the time, clarity, and lack of distraction to be able to stay with those thoughts and memories for as long as I wanted. This is something I totally had forgotten how to do and how rich and meaningful it can be.

Another moment today was seeing an old woman  cutting the long grass around her house with a scythe.  It turned out she was 80.  She asked if I was going to Santiago.  I replied I was and with my limited Spanish and the help of a Spanish speaking friend I was walking with when I saw her, I learned she was asking that I say a prayer for her in Santiago when I arrived at the Cathedral.  I agreed to do so and she returned to her work and I to my walk but it was really very special.  I have a great photo of her but I took it with my “real” camera so can’t add it to the post.

I was struck today that I have completed a week. Some of you will understand exactly what this feels like as I  liken it to reading a really exceptional book, maybe the best you have ever read only it isn’t someone else’s story or their experience of self discovery, it is my own.  And like the very best of books you suddenly want to force yourself to read more slowly even though you want so much to know what is yet to be revealed. You know you will be sad when it ends and the end will come too quickly.  I had that feeling today about my Camino  I want to slow my pace, savor the details, examine my thoughts, feel my emotions and take my time. The end will come more quickly than I will be ready for.

A last note – while Laredo is a stunning beach, it was as I imagined a bit of an assault to the senses emerging from my day of quiet walking.  I walked through town on the long beachside promenade but was happy to tuck into my Albuergue for the night – an Albuergue with wifi!!