Pre-Camino Thoughts #2 – 37 days to go

Buenos días peregrinas y peregrinos! I hope you are keeping well wherever you are reading this. Here in Ireland, it is a Bank Holiday weekend and the sun has made an appearance. Typically on days like this, I would be taking in as many walks as possible. But not this weekend.

Today, I ventured north of the border to have my toenail removed and I was surprised by how simple and straight-forward the process was. The whole procedure took less than 30 minutes and I was on the way back to Dublin on the bus before too long. While it’s not paining me too much, I’ve been asked to take it easy for a few weeks. I should be on the Camino in September which is a great relief.

Newry is a great little town with many signs leading to St Patrick’s Trail, one of Ireland’s many pilgrim paths. I was previously in the Newry region around the Ring of Gullion, with Camino Society Ireland, a few months ago on one of their walks and really enjoyed it. It’s a beautiful area if you spend time there. My time today however was to be kept to a minimum.

Speaking of walks with Camino Society Ireland, they are holding a walk in Ticknock Forest on Saturday the 10th of August for members and friends. If you are interested and want to meet fellow Camino-addicts, jump over to the Camino Society Ireland website for point of contact details. I would love to go but I want to give the toe some recovery time. Ticknock forest is a lovely part of the world and great practice for a future Camino.

And finally, and more importantly, the 200,000th pilgrim was awarded their Compostela in Santiago this year, 12 days before the same statistic was reached in 2018. Will 300,000 pilgrims arrive in Santiago before the year is over? I wouldn’t be surprised.

Just over a month left to go before I leave for Lisbon and each day I look forward to taking a step toward Santiago. For the next few weeks, the right foot is resting but there will be plenty of dreaming!. More updates soon!