Something Shimmering and White

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I wish I knew what you were looking for

Might have known what I´d have found

(Under the Milky Way - The Church)

So I walked the first stage today, climbed almost 1400 metres, and am still alive to tell the tale. I´m now at the hostel at Roncevalles (as in The Song of Roland) and feeling much better.

Woke at 3.00 and didn´t get back to sleep. I felt a bit anxious about it until I realised this was 1.00 in the afternoon in Melbourne. I´m anticipating no such problems tomorrow. I´m very tired. But I was the first person to arrive at the hostel this afternoon, passing even those people who started 8km down the road. I am now a god to these people.

I also might overdose on a surfeit of beauty... The weather for the last two days has been fine and warm, although it was a bit windy up on the heights of the pass today. Saw circling Griffon Vultures and miles and miles and miles. The computer in the hostel won´t let me upload pictures. I´ll try on facebook later.

Enough of the sickening details. The camino was associated in medieval history with the Milky Way, as it mirrored the east-west orientation of the route, and the shepherd who found the bones of St James was said to have followed stars to make the discovery. All well and good, if completely unbelievable - there are hundreds of shepherds who discovered gazillions of relics - and they always were led there by stars.

However, during a particularly beautiful stretch of walk today through beech forests, completely on my own, I decided to put on my iPhone and the first random song that came on was... well you don´t need me to spell it out. I found it profoundly affecting somehow.

It´s one day in, and I´m already starting to have mystical experiences... what am I going to be like after five weeks.

Cheers

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