Earliest morning until now - I had set my clock to wake me up at 5:30 - woke up a bit earlier and had to go to the toilet at night for the first time on the camino. Pretty annoying when you are in the upper bed and want to be quite to not wake up the others in the room. Anyhow - it was a good sign that my dehydration from yesterday was being repaired. When I got up and had backed my things, I felt not well.
Really tired, a bit irritation in my throut, and low on energy - so much that the rest of the group asked how I was and what was wrong. Start of walk was also slow, and it took an hour before we got to the first breakfast place. We passed a sign showing 550 km to Santiago - and that means that we are already 1/3 on the way, nearly 250 km walked - crazy.
After breakfast, I told the others that I preferred to walk alone today and I stayed 10 minutes after the other left to do a bit mindfulness. That helped, and I started to get up to speed - why not exercise yourself out of illness, and I got my pulse up at 140 during uphill climping, and it felt great. I continued great speed around 6-6.5 km/h the next 18 km, just with a short break. For the first time, I listened to music, and the combination of high intensity, favorite music and drinking lots of water to compensate for the dehydration yesterday was great. I really got into flow and reflected about the experience of the camino, and the appreciation of my family at home and the group we have built here. It was quite emotional and I am just appreciating and enjoying life so much at this journey. Living in the moment without concerns about the future or considering the past and feeling the flow and appreciation of family and friendships is very strong and I hope to be able to inspire others to see the power of walking for reflections and conversations.
With the high speed, I passed a lot of other pilgrems, and I catched up to others that I have walked with earlier. I met Nobert, the Hungarian and Leena, aka Jesus just before lunch, and we had lunch together after 24 km - just 4 km before the end point, which today was Ages. I also catched up with Pedro and Tarik, and they also stopped same place for lunch.
For lunch I got Paella - the seafood version - and this time did not make same mistake as yesterday with a drink and Camino Crossfit.
We left the lunch place and I walked with Pedro the last 4 km to the hostel. We had deep discussions on the insights the camino has already given us, and how we can give back to the world to help and inspire others to experience the same.
Pedro and I first met at the hostel in Bayonne, where also Meerel and Corne were, and we travelled in train together to the beginning of the camino. Pedro and I are walking the camino for same reasons - to find the vision for our lives and what motivates us. Even though I am double the age as Pedro, in some way we are same place in our lives in our search for deeper meaning and vision. Pedro actually quit his job before starting the camino to be completely free to decide what is next for him. It is very interesting - and also an universal question that many people are struggling with - and, I think, many are just ignoring. Walking and reflecting can help a lot on this, and we discussed how being present and focus on relationships and having conversations on these topics have given us a lot. Both of us have been surprised on how much the community has meant to our experience.
Pedro had not decided if he would continue or stay in Ages, and after some talk I convinced him to stay to be with the group for dinner in the evening.
At the hostel, they apparently had missed our booking, but luckily they found the message and confirmation and we got beds for the all 6 of us including Pedro that had not booked. I got my bed, did my unpacking, took a loong nice cold shower to cool down, did a bit of washing clothes, and then out and sitting at the terasse with some of the group to have an afternoon drink and relaxation.
Now its soon time for dinner, and we have not yet decided where that should be.
Addition after publication:
Before dinner we went to the local church that is basically a ruin but still being shown to pilgrims and the my depend on donations. Only 20 people live in the town we are visiting. At the top of the church a pair of Storks had build a nest and inside the pricess of the Camino got permission to ring the church bells.
For dinner we went to a restaurang that only served burgers - but want amazing burgers, undescribeable.
And in evening at the hostel I talked to a german guy that had brought with him an ancient sword that he had got a blacksmith to create, and he now carries it on the camino to get it blessed by priests and keep it for his kids that can also carry it on the camino when they grow up. We certainly all have our own ways to walk rhe camino.
