Tag: Spain

Walking from León to Somewhere West of Astorga

The virtual walk through Spain continues. The sky looks like it might clear this morning, and if the rain stops, I’ll try to walk a few kilometres west to León.

Here are a few photographs I took on the actual journey several years ago.

DSC00233

DSC00245

DSC00247

DSC00249

DSC00257

DSC00263

We met on Zoom Monday night—Tuesday at noon for Neil, who is in Australia—and we agreed where we would stop this week, but I can’t remember what we said! I hope my photographs haven’t gone too far ahead on the journey. Once again, I’m surprised by how few photographs I took. Even fewer were successful or worth sharing. I take more pictures now. I’ll take that as a lesson learned.

Looking Back on the Walk From Logroño to Calzadilla de los Hermanillos

My friends and I are still walking virtually through northern Spain. Here are some photos from our walk in 2013.

DSC00092

DSC00095

DSC00102

DSC00119

DSC00123

DSC00136

DSC00140

DSC00166

DSC00169

DSC00170

DSC00190

Looking back at the photos I took, I wish I had taken more, and more of the people I was walking with. Some days, it seems, the camera didn’t leave its case. And that photo Geoff Travers took of my backpack! What was I thinking, carrying all that extra stuff? Live and learn, I suppose. Walking is like anything else: you learn how to do it by doing it, by making mistakes, and in Spain, I seem to have made a lot of mistakes. I would do things differently now.

One last thing—I was motivated while walking one sunny day after a week of rain to write a poem, and I thought I would share it here:

Picking my muddy way

Along the Rio Ucieza

I pass another field of sunflowers,

Their black and heavy heads

Bowed as if in silent prayer.

 

Why might a sunflower pray?

To give thanks for the season’s rain and sun?

Or to ask for courage against the

Whirling combine, the oil press?

 

Walking from Pamplona to Logroño

My friends and I are walking virtually through northern Spain. We’re hoping to get to Logroño (I think that’s where we’re headed) by Monday. I think we can do it, but I’m going to have to get walking if I don’t want to get stuck taking a virtual bus to catch up.

Here are some pictures (including my first-ever selfie) from my first walk between Pamplona and Logroño, an 85-kilometre walk through Navarre and Rioja that took several days to complete:

DSC00047

DSC00056

DSC00063

 

DSC00072

DSC00067

DSC00075

DSC00083

It was a beautiful walk; the further west we got from the Pyrenees, the hotter and drier the landscape got. We walked through groves of olive trees and vineyards, slept in hostels on bunk beds, ate whatever we were offered and drank cheap and delicious local red wine. There was constantly something new to see, but at the same time, I think we were coming to know the places where we walked with our bodies: the hills, the wind, the hot sun. We made new friendships and chatted with other people we never saw again. I don’t know if I’ll ever have another experience like it.

 

Walking in Basque Country

My friend Geoff Travers posted some photos of walking from St. Jean Pied de Port in France through the Pyrenees to Pamplona on his blog yesterday, and those images have inspired me to dig out the portable drive where my photographs live and post some of my own.

DSC00017

DSC00028

DSC00036

DSC00043

DSC00045

DSC00046 edited

I’m surprised by how few photographs I actually took over those three or four days of walking—and how few of the ones I did take are worth sharing. I think I tend to get absorbed by the walk (and by conversations with the people I’m walking with) and forget to take pictures. Also, most of my photos from the Pyrenees are foggy from the rain and mist that collected on the lens of my camera. But despite everything, these pictures do help me remember the beginning of my first long walk.