…….or ‘the unravelling.’
I arrived back home October 25, 2025. My plants had survived their neglect. In fact three orchids that rarely bloomed were in promising bud. I met pilgrims for coffee on the 26th and walked with another group of pilgrims on the 27th. I obviously never get tired of walking and talking. The following Saturday, Nov 1, I manned a table for authors at an all day pilgrim event, reconnecting with a lot of people I knew and meeting some new ones, including a gentleman who was planning to walk a Camino at the tender age of 91.
After all my socializing, I had to address the issue of my hearing loss. My stitches were completely dissolved from my fall and my severe cold was finally over. What never resolved itself, though, was my hearing. Several appointments later, I had water drained from my right ear and was told I could buy hearing aids for $5,000.00 which included a government rebate of $1000.00. The price alone would turn me to stone. I declined and have an appointment with Costco for hearing aids at a fraction of the cost.
Added to the medical complications of my life were – 1) The early onset of winter. The snow started mid November and there is no sign of it easing anytime soon. 2) My son and his partner along with their dog came down from the north for a few months. The forecast for where they were living – about 7 hours north of Toronto – was for temperatures of -45C. They weren’t equipped to deal with this for 4 or 5 months and I agreed. It’s one thing to live off grid. It’s another thing to freeze to death from a lack of sunshine to power your heating. 3) The snow turned to ice with any mild thaw, which prevented me from walking in the ravines with the other pilgrims. I have been walking but it’s a little boring.
What has saved the day (or month and maybe year) is the fact that my youngest has decided to walk a Camino. He had been reading these posts and since he had vacation time to use up before April, he thought that it would be a great adventure. I offered to go with him and he accepted.
So one Camino rolls into another. I have now booked our airfares from Toronto to Madrid. As it’s early in the season, we have to change planes in Montreal. I have booked accommodation in Madrid for one night and in Sarria, where we will start. What I have not been able to do is book train tickets from Madrid to Sarria. The Spanish national train line, Renfe, is fine as long as you are not trying to use their almost impossible website. Google has given me some suggestions, which I will use, once I have transferred money to Paypal. Apparently, Renfe routinely rejects foreign credit cards. Alas! I have ordered our credentials from The Canadian Company of Pilgrims plus two of their new badges and given my son a list of the “stuff” he will need. I will post here as usual for this Camino which is really part of My Camino France´s from the Fall. Sarria to Santiago is about 100kms and it’s part of the 200kms I missed after I fell in October. I will be still short a few sections for a complete Camino France´s, so this post may not be so much of an unravelling, as it is a transition from one phase to another. The Camino works in mysterious ways.
I’ll keep you posted. Buen Camino.