Secrets of My Nomadic Heart

On my second day of the camino, I had a rude shock to find that we were not allowed to stay for another day if we wanted to rest. In fact there are certain rules of the camino one has to obey.

1) Everyone must leave the albergue between 4.30am to 7.30am. Unless one chooses to stay in a private hotel or hostal and pays more for that.
2) Lights out at 10pm. Completely pitch dark. If you find yourself still shuffling your belongings, you´ll have to use a torch light.....and we should be in bed by 10pm anyway.
3) Siesta hours should be respected because they close when they close. So lunch needs to be planned for usually.

Áround these ´rules´there is a certain rythym to the camino. I´d find my fellow camino walkers up and running, ready for the day´s walk by 7.30am. And we usually try to get to the place we want to get to before the sun sets. The walk for the day is usually around 20-30 km per day....and one can walk from 6 to 8 hours. It´s hard work, really. Sometimes I think we must be nuts to people who are witnessing this from afar.....why all this trouble and effort.

But the joy is finding our own rythym in the midst of the camino. We define the way we walk, what we want to see, who we want to discover more, where we want to sleep, how far we want to walk.

I´m learning everyday how I want to define my camino, my own pace, my own rythym. They say that the rythym of the mind, and the rythym of the body, should be aligned with the rythym of the day, the walk.