405.8 km

So, about half-way. I have 14 minutes on this computer in Carrion de los Cordes, and there is a "farewell message" (i.e. prayer) to be spoken soon, so I must be quick in checking in at this, the roughly half-way point in my pilgrimmage to Santiago from St. Jean Pied-du-Port.

In short, excellent. It is supremely rewarding, in life, when those few things you accord the highest of expectations to actually measure up. So it has been with the four of the seven wonders thus far visited, so has it been with this impossible, grand, sweeping, but (above all) oh so beautiful thirteen days of walking across Northern Spain on the ancient Camino. It truly is a treasure.

There are many thoughts to try and compress into the few words and minutes, but important to do so now, when optimism on finishing in the alloted timeframe remains high, so as to compare this feeling with that at the rightful end of the journey.

The weather has thus far cooperated grandly - but for days 2 and 3, the sun has rained down, and it was certainly good to have seen the potential of what can hit home so drastically at the outset, to truly appreciate waking up each morning to a clear sky.

You think a lot of the same thoughts repeatedly when you walk for the better part of days on end. You really do appreciate the joys of simplicity, of holding only one main goal at the height of mind - that of crossing off kilometers and so getting ever closer to Santiago. But the genius of the Camino, or that as appreciated thus far, is that it is a simplicity intermixed and mingled with such variety - variety in countryside, food, towns, terrain, and (of course) fellow pilgrims. Every day is the same and yet different: you wake (the worst part of the day) to begin anew a walk that must encompass enough territory to ensure that you remain on course to reach your destination at the appropriate hour. I have fallen into a routine quite easily, of starting immediately with the walk at sunrise, and after an hour or two (at the next village) stopping for a quick rest and rejuvenating coffee. Those first hours are my favourite, when the entire day is ahead and the silence is broken only by the wind and the song of the finches. Also loved is the end of the day, the feet tired, but when the destination is in sight and you know you will have enough juice to see you home into the "albergue" - the way-station for each night that is always less than $10 Cdn and never fails to offer the most hospitable of rests.

The "farewell message" or prayer at this place of worship is about to begin, so I must off. More from Santiago in two weeks or so. I am eminently pleased and blessed - by what deity(ies) I know not - to be here and appreciating the grandeur and magic of this... this undefinable, glorious "thing".

"Buen Camino", Spaniards keep saying as you walk past. ¨"Bon Chemin". "Good Way", or "Good Road" it means in English, literally. And Yes it is. Now, just the same again to go. Hasta.