Day 14 – 30th September 2015, Najerra to Santo Domingo de la Calzada.
Hello friends!
Another nerdy fact alert, Najerra lies 584.4km or 363.1 miles away from Santiago, which means I have walked 191.8 km or 119.2 miles from St. Jean Pied de Port. No wonder my feet and knees are tired!
Laurie and I left the pension in the dark, crossed over the bridge from the darker side of town towards the light in search of breakfast and ended up at the same cafe, where I had that lovely pizza marguerita topped with cold veg. Thankfully, breakfast was better, but you can’t really go too wrong with a cafe con leche and a pastry.
Afterwards we click clacked our way through the narrow streets past the church to pick up the Camino trail. Top pilgrim tip – if you happen to get up so early you leave a place in the dark and you feel like it is hard to spot the tell tale signs of the Camino, head for a church which may or not be near the main Plaza. More often than not the ancient Camino route passed by several churches so you are sure to spot the trail!
Just by the church, we bumped in to fellow pilgrim Ryan, a young man in his 20s from Texas. We walked for a while with him and we had a fascinating discussion about dreams and their meanings. Ryan has Inca heritage in his family line and dreams vividly and often. He is in the process of collating his dreams into a book. I felt intuitively that he could be an old soul with a natural gift for healing. Ryan was interested in reiki, so both Laurie and I could relate some of our own experience. It is my hope for Ryan that the Camino journey will help clarify his life purpose, as it will for so many of us who walk the road.
A little while later, after the sun had come up, Ryan decided to walk on ahead. Laurie and I decided to take a coffee break at a little cafe in Azofra. I sat down at a table outside and could feel a sheer wave of emotion well up inside me, when I recognised the song playing in the background. It was “Time to say goodbye”, by Andrea Boccelli and Sarah Brightman. I chose this song for the committal service at the crematorium for my mum’s funeral because she loved it so much. Laurie gently said “Your mum is with you.” I was comforted by this.
Back on the road, we came to a picnic area with a brightly painted signpost, which had a verse in Spanish on it. Here it is.
I googled it and was amazed to find that it belonged to a poem about wayfarers by Antonio Machado. The poem is beautifully written and very apt. I hope you enjoy it. May it touch your heart like it did mine.
Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino, y nada mas;
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace camino,
y al volver la vista atras
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante, no hay camino,
sino estelas en la mar.
And here is the English translation:
Wanderer, your footstèps are the path
and nothing else;
Wander, there is no path,
the path is made by walking.
Walking makes the path,
and on glancing back
one sees the path that will
never be trod again.
Wanderer, there is no path,
just waves in the sea.
Extract from “Proverbios y cantares XXIX”, Campos de Castilla, 1912, by Antonio Machada.
I think I will leave this post here and continue the story of day 14 tomorrow…
Peace, love and light,
Sarah xxx
Wayfaring Sarah 
Thank You so much Sarah for this wonderful post… Looking forward as always to your Camino updates. Hugs..
LikeLiked by 1 person