For those of you returning for this sequel installment of Foot to Earth, I'll let you know that a few things might be different. For one, I won't be able to spend 8 hours per day lovingly crafting each post whilst sipping Beaujolais wine.
I'll be blogging from my cell phone, whenever I hit wifi hotspots. So there will probably be fewer hilarious links. Ok, fewer links overall. And less overall crafting (sorry Nanoose Bay ladies, no crafternoons on this voyage!) ;)
I am still working on how to upload photos.
One thing that will remain is an illustrated narrative of me traipsing through the countryside. But I'm getting ahead of myself... leaving out the wheres and wherefores... so let's get to it.
After returning from France last summer, inspired, but not as refreshed as I had hoped (I'm sure the broken rib didn't help), I spent the academic year with a drastically reduced workload, in an attempt to alleviate my ever-increasing burnout. It only somewhat worked: instead of crashing and burning, I glided that plane down to a somewhat softer landing. But on the ground I remained.
Facing 40, I had to admit that my academic lifestyle was not working for me. It turns out that Homer Simpson was right: all work and no play makes Jenny something something...
My body was giving out and my emotions were in the tanker. Over the last few years, I had poured all of my energy into my career; but without anything else to refuel me, the reserves were emptying fast. So I completed all my pre-arranged work contracts, and let work go. Fortunately, I have a very supportive partner who is willing and able to give me this healing time.
I turned to my health professionals to get my HPA Axis back on track. The result? A daily routine of vitamins and amino acids, adrenal supplements, no more caffeine, and much more sleep. Much much more sleep.
I also bought a set of BOSE Quiet Comfort 25 active noise cancellation headphones. Expensive, but wow a life changer for me. For me, these are not for music, and months later, no music has ever run through them, although of course they support this function. The key for me is that they cancel out most ambient background noise, especially any "consistent" or "steady" noises, like the humming from machines or appliances, noise from blenders, fans, etc, most vehicle engine noise, and even some sirens, while letting in the "inconsistent" noises at a dampened volume (i.e. great for bus stop bells/announcements, bird song, and conversation). So I use them the way a helicopter or aircraft pilot might use theirs. They work because the headphones "capture" the outside sound, and create a wave of equal amplitude but opposite phase, which cancels out the original sound wave within the headset (this is called "destructive interference"). The reason that it cannot cancel out inconsistent or variable noise very well, is because the original wave changes too often for this system to keep up. However, my headset has, on a few occasions, successfully completely taken out a repeating variable noise, e.g. a steady cymbal line in a song playing outside, or a repeating car alarm.
Coming back to Vancouver after living in Chamelet was an acoustic shock for me. I hadn't realized how much energy I had been using fighting off ambient city noise. But with my new headphones, living in the city became much more bearable. After listening to me rave, several of my introverted friends also bought themselves a pair of these. (If noise bothers you, you owe it to yourself to at least check these out! I literally sigh in relief when I click that "on" button. And no, I don't get any money from BOSE. lol.)
Taking more cues from my joy found in the French countryside, I also started eating a daily morning croissant (with decaf!), and kept walking my 10-15km every day. Vancouver Canada has many lovely walks, including a 22km stretch of seawall (around Stanley Park and False Creek), a 10km run of connected beaches (at low tide one can walk from Kits to Wreck), and the intertwined trails in the endowment land forests of UBC. I did these daily (usually with my headphones on!), but still longed for for open farmlands and the silence of the countryside.
I turned my attention towards doing things that fed my soul. I started checking things off my bucket list: a sleepover in the sloth sanctuary in Oregon. Seeing William Shatner live. Eating a seafood platter for two at Joe Fortes all by myself. Ok, maybe I dream too small, but ya gotta start somewhere!!!
First, I didn't have a walking partner. My first choice would be to go with Colin, since we worked together so well while hiking in France, but Colin's knees wouldn't permit the distance. So then I considered going by myself, but I was nervous about the safety of traveling such a large distance alone, as a single woman. As an introvert, and a burned out introvert at that, the idea of getting stuck with a chatterbox--or worse, a "Camino family"-- for 3-5 weeks terrified me. I only have 1-2 hours of chatting in me per day, then my eyes cross and I snap.
By chance, my cousin Cathleen was in Vancouver in January, and we had dinner together. She shared that she, too, had the Camino on her bucket list, and she, too, wanted to walk it alone, as a contemplative spiritual journey. She spoke to me of her stress and fatigue, as her husband faced a painful but so-far undiagnosable illness. I watched her fade out after about 1.5 hours of conversation and thought: "hmmm... this could actually work!!" My Spidey senses were tingling: here was someone on my wavelength regarding both physical fatigue and socializing. We toyed with the idea of going together. Then she returned home to Prince George.
First obstacle possibly surmounted, the next obstacle was that I never had enough time off work to complete the trek. Oh. Wait...
So after many Google messenger conversations, we are heading to Spain, to walk the Camino Primitvo, which, despite assumptions you might make based on its name, means "the original Camino." The oldest records of a spiritual pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela are from the 9th century by King Alfonso II the Chaste, who went to confirm that the relics in Santiago de Compostela did indeed belong to the Apostle Saint James.
(Green is the Primitvo; yellow is the Frances)
The Camino Primitivo is not as famous as the Camino Frances, made popular by the movie The Way, starring Martin Sheen. The movie was great--maybe a little too great-- as numbers of pilgrims on the Frances jumped up to an astounding 15,000 per day. Now, I'm a hard-core introvert with a big love of open vistas. Contemplating walking nose-to-tail for 750km was almost enough to put me off the whole trip. Cathleen agreed. In contrast, with 15,000 per YEAR, the Primitivo became a very attractive option. We switched our plan to the new route.
At 350km, the Primitivo is shorter than the Frances, but a more difficult trail. It is not only more physically challenging, but also has fewer resources along the way, which means pilgrims really need to plan ahead. First it crosses the Cantabrian Mountains, then passes through pastoral land and forests. Towns are few and far between, meaning that on some days a person could walk tens of kilometers without passing a store or restaurant. Albergues and hotels are also fewer and smaller, meaning it is worth reserving in advance.
Luckily, I excel at planning. ;) I made up a detailed walking itinerary, booked a hotel at every town I could (there were a few towns where non-reservable albergues, aka hostels, were the only option), and entered everything into an offline version of HERE maps. Mindful that we were both suffering from burnout, I scheduled our first 10 days at 10km or less, and our longest day (not by choice) at 25km. We promised each other to stop and smell the roses, and take lots of naps. What could go wrong?
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