Second to last day, wow. It is sinking in that this is almost a done experience. Only 20KM left to get into Santiago. Plan is to get up early and push through to get there before rain n hits, it’s expected to be rainy for the next few days, snd when it rains here, it can rain very hard and for a long time.
Today was more of the same scenery wise. The forests though with a lot more eucalyptus trees, the fragrance so strong feels like you just inhaled from one of those Vicks Vapour cold nose inhalers. Tomorrow should be even more dense eucalyptus.
Had a chance to spend walking time with an Italian couple I met at a communal dinner at one of the country home rooms I stayed at. A retired banker and his wife a special needs teacher, specializes in working with autistic children. Learned lots from her today.
I figure tomorrow will be very exciting and I may not have time to file my last day blog, so I did the math tonight on my statistics (all the numbers tracked by my Apple Watch and the Health App on my iPhone 13):
Total distance walked since I started the Camino on April 23rd in Saint Jean Pied De Port in France including today: 785KM ( so adding 20 for tomorrow) the total will be over 800.
Total number of steps for the above distance as of today May 29: 1,070,354 Steps ( tomorrow should about 30,000, so final # around 1.1 Million steps.
Total cumulative ascend for the above up to today: 12775 Meters. This means I walked up hill the equivalent of almost 40000 feet in elevation. Tomorrow will add 720Meters to the total.
I would have never believed I would have done the above, explanation for another day, for now feeling accomplished and thankful for having the opportunity to go on a 38 day self retreat. I have done some retreat before but max 3-4 days, this is another league in what it did for my ability to stay in the now, reflect, think and enjoy a beautiful country, it’s people and it’s cuisine while the legs did the walking.
With gratitude. I am a very lucky man living a wonderful life surrounded by people I love and respect. In a country that has made everything possible for me.
Very hard for me, specially after many many daily KM to express myself through these blogs. I am so humbled by the number of you who have followed my journey, taken time to like the posts, write me personal inspirational comments, THANK YOU!!!! My plan is to put together a presentation of sorts that I can share with anyone who wants to hear the details of the journey and specifically what did I really gain by doing this. I am thinking of a combined live and Zoom gathering after I had a chance to pull it all together. Selecting just a few images from the thousands will take done doing.I will let everyone know via a final blog when I get home what the plan might be.
