Strong Camino Woman

By Pauline Finlay

When Pauline, a mother and grandmother, set out to walk Camino Frances, she had no idea how trying a journey it would be. She had John Brierley's guide and the best of hiking gear. Also she had read extensively about The particular camino and watched hours of video on youtube. Going solo was the only option as she could find no one who wanted to walk the 790 kilometres with her.

With her Gregory Jade backpack, North Face jacket and Black Diamond shock absorbing walking sticks she set out on the long journey from Torbay, Newfoundland to a small village St. Jean Pied de Port to begin her walk of a lifetime. Along the way she would encounter untethered dogs, difficult terrain and ambivalent situations. She would make a decision about which part of the walk to skip as time began to run out.

The generosity and wisdom of pilgrims she met on her camino would prove to inspire the author each day. She would walk beside an Australian lady who helped her cope with the huge hills and her general poor physical condition. Three Slovenian ladies later on became her closest allies, taking her under their wings and walking into Santiago de Compostela with her. A young Greenland girl helped her remain strong in her earliest days. The people she met on her camino gave her the most hope and strength. This is a story of perseverance and courage, where a 58 year old Canadian woman believes that anything is possible if you believe in yourself and remain strong.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pauline Finlay
• Release date: Jun 10, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310725418

Pauline Finlay

Graduate of Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador: M.Ed, B.A.(Ed.), B.A., B.Sp.Ed.Teacher for 35 years in four provincesReflexology Therapist 2018-PresentWalked Camino Frances 2013 , Camino Portugues 2014 and Camino Del Norte 2015Published three books:1. A Cornucopia of Ideas for New Teachers(First Choice Publishers) 20102. St. Shotts,Newfoundland: Our Home, Our Anchor(48 stories,36 writers, St. Shotts Publishers) 20123. Strong Camino Woman(www.smashwords.com)2014Loves to travel for weeks at a time(Countries include France, Spain, Portugal,Germany, Cuba, Dominican Rep., U.S., Mexico, England, Slovenia, Austria, Croatia, Italy, Canada,etc)Happiest when spending time with family and/or friends; travelling; and reading/writing

Book preview

Introduction

When I decided I wanted to walk the Camino in northern Spain, what was I thinking? God only knows, because I have no recollection of those first thoughts of insanity. I was going to walk 500 miles, 790 kilometres, by myself. My husband was working, and even if he hadn’t been, he had no intentions of following his crazy wife across a country he knew nothing about. Sleep in beds where hundreds of other peregrinos had slept, perhaps encounter bedbugs, for God’s sake. Walk on paths where thousands, no millions, had walked for centuries. Not in his lifetime!

So it was onto YouTube day and night, so much so that I had to get more gigabytes of data and purchase John Brierley’s guidebook as he is the king of guidebooks on the Camino. I should have known I was crazy after I read that book. Me … walk 30 kilometres a day? Yes, what was I thinking? I watched Matthew and his wife Victoria carry their baby Indigo on the Camino in the winter time (Google beyourpotential). I watched it twice and thought if they can do it in the middle of the winter with a baby in tow, I should be able to do it solo with a knapsack in tow!

Searching for the right knapsack and other items proved costly for this first-time hiker! The most I had ever walked was as a child, going on a school hike. Besides that, it was places close to home like the road to Cape Pine or the trail around Quidi Vidi Lake to pacify my husband. He had a need for me to get healthy; I had no such need! So when I walked, it was mostly against my will.

My search for the correct knapsack was helped along during a trip to Calgary where my runner/athlete son Byron took me to Mountain Equipment Co-op. It was then I realized what a mammoth job it was going to be to equip myself. I saw so much and had no idea what I really needed. I tried on several Gregory packs and liked the Gregory Jade. It could hold 35 litres of stuff, whatever that meant, and I liked the color! Not a great way to pick a bag. But it fit snugly and comfortably, so I later checked on eBay and purchased it for under $110. It is a $200 bag, but I bargained with the seller and got it for $105 postage included.

That day I also tried on umpteen hiking boots without luck, and trying to get ones to please myself and my son was difficult. I liked the $200 ones on for $49 and the purple ones, but none fit properly, so I made finding a pair my big goal for the first month after I returned back home to Newfoundland.

I had my first two items picked out and I felt joyous. Why was this so much fun, I wondered? I love shopping for bargains and good quality so I felt great. My son had purchased a headlamp for walking at night or just getting to the bathroom in the dark in the albergues. It was a favourite of mine when I arrived on the Camino and did not want to wake anyone or needed light to pack up the last items at 6 a.m., so I was very thankful for this purchase from one of my son’s gift cards!

And on and on it went from there. I will list the items I felt were good for everyone. Not the Shewee! While useful for some women, it proved a disaster for me and is no longer in my pack. In case you have never met this creature, it is a device for women so they can pee standing up. It worked the first time but the next time, when I was bursting to get the job done, it failed me terribly. The directions suggest practicing in the shower but I had not heeded this and was totally devastated and damp for quite some miles! It is way overpriced and takes a special Camino lady to get the knack. After all of that walk, I learned that peeing with your poncho on is the way to go. No one can see anything, not even the person trying to be discreet. The Altus poncho was a godsend and I would recommend it for all your rainy hiking days. It cost me 40 euros, but after a day of nearly freezing in the dampness and downpours, I would have paid 100 euros! In fact, I bought a new fleece and the poncho for 105 euros, so I did part with over a hundred bucks. But if you’ve never been chilled out hiking you have no idea what you will do to get warm!

I kept getting all these comments from my friends who hardly walked more than 10 kilometres at a time, some less than that, about how I was so brave! Well, to dispel the myth, there was not a brave bone in my body. I was afraid of insects (scorpions in particular and mosquitoes in general), bears (as I heard there were bears in the mountains), dogs (once bitten, twice shy), and men with ill intent to rob or rape me. So, how did I overcome all these fears? I bought alarms, five in all. Only one proved loud enough to scare me, so I figured it might alert fellow pilgrims that I was being accosted! I tried them out on friends of mine who wore hearing aids or perhaps should be wearing their hearing aids. I equipped myself with the blue one, bought on eBay from the UK, guaranteed to work for five years, approved by the police. And would you know it, I never had to use it!

One day deep in a forest at about 7:30 a.m., I saw a very tall man carrying a huge backpack coming toward me. He looked like Paul Bunyan at a distance, although I’ve never encountered Paul on a trail. I had my Black Diamond hiking sticks with shock absorbers, which I was smacking the rocks pretty hard with and saying to my brain so that it would remain calm and brave, I’m a strong Camino woman. My sticks are weapons that can prove deadly if this man messes with me. I’m strong. I’m brave. I heard that self-talk was good in such situations. Then I figured out how I was going to unload my pack at great speed and outrun this tall giant with my short legs! So folks, I had it all figured out, as there were only two of us strangers on a collision course in the middle of the woods. To say that this pilgrim ignored me was an understatement. He didn’t even say the usual Buen Camino, which was a greeting to all you met on the trail. He walked on without any change in gait, perhaps after having a booze-filled night in Santiago. Or perhaps he was trying to figure out how he was going to handle this strong, ferocious-looking Camino woman? I like to think it was the latter.

Like Synnove, my Camino friend from Norway, who had informed me that no one would mess with her, according to her adult children, because she looked like a formidable woman. And yes, she does look like she is afraid of nothing she encounters. You are indeed a formidable woman, Synnove! There were many formidable characters on the walk, and perhaps I gained courage from their bravery. One German lady I slept beside in Monte do Gozo had done the walk four times alone. She looked like one strong woman, very slim and trim, but had it all figured out, and had all the right gear. I guess if I had done it for the fourth time, I might have had most of it figured out too!

The three Slovenian women who befriended me were examples of bravery. They travelled together, all keeping up to each other and supporting each other, when one was robbed of 550 euros. They shared their food with me and we became bosom buddies along the trip. I wished I could walk as fast as them, but no such luck. I came to be known as their Pauline, and they walked the last five kilometres with me into Santiago and we’ve kept in touch ever since.

While I’ve had bad reactions to mosquito bites, I have to say that I got NOT ONE bite on my trip! Amazing really when you consider if I go to a resort in Cuba or the Dominican Republic, I always get several nasty bites. I even got a spider bite in Mexico. But on this nearly six-week trek, I didn’t get a bite. Who would believe that was possible! I always say I’ve got such sweet blood from eating so much honey that insects can’t resist taking a piece of me!

As for dogs, yes, there were dogs. But I think when I banged my walking poles on the ground that the dogs were more afraid of me than I was of them. Most are working farm dogs and they are just protecting their territory.

Prayers

Prayer to St. James, the Greater, the Patron Saint of Spain

This is an ancient prayer that comes at the end of the Pilgrim Mass said along the Camino de Santiago. The feast day of St. James is July 25.

Oh, God, who brought your servant Abraham out of the land of the Chaldeans, protecting him in his wanderings, who guided the Hebrews across the desert, we ask that you watch over us, your servants, as we walk in the love of your name to Santiago de Compostela.

Be for us our companion on the walk,

Our guide at the crossroads,

Our breath in our weariness,

Our protection in danger,

Our albergue on the Camino,

Our shade in the heat,

Our light in the darkness,

Our consolation in our discouragements,

And our strength in our intentions.

So that with your guidance we may arrive safe and sound

At the end of the Road and enriched with grace and virtue

We return safely to our homes filled with joy.

In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Apostle Santiago, pray for us.

Santa Maria, pray for us.

A shorter Pilgrim’s Prayer from the Office of the Pilgrim, Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela

Pilgrim’s Prayer

St. James, Apostle

Chosen among the first,

You were the first to drink

The cup of the Master,

And you are the great protector of pilgrims,

Make us strong in the faith

And happy in hope

On our pilgrims’ journey

Following the path of Christian life

And feed us so that

We may finally reach the glory of God the Father.

Amen

May 4, 2013 Day 1 To Valcarlos with my Aussie Friend