One challenge at a time

  Lugo is a lovely walled town but I was appreciating it less this morning than last night. I had taken a while to get to sleep last night, in part because of the man taking a long shower in an apartment above us, so it sounded like it was pouring with rain outside, and partly because the wind was whipping through the shutters and making a terrible racket... Sonia had drifted off straight away but it seemed the pseudo rainfall had woken her up... so sleep for both of us was a little broken.  We got up pretty early, it was still dark, had a quick shower and then packed up our kit. There was just about room for all the food we had bought and I was pretty pleased with how neatly I had squared everything away. My pack though not light was a decent weight and felt balanced when on my back. Something had gone a little awry with Sonia's packing though and her rucksack sat at a jaunty angle on her back. Happy enough though, so we set out ready for our first few steps on the Camino. As soon

I know who I am... Sonia knows who she is... Neither of us need 'to find ourselves'.. And yet we are about to become pilgrims.  Today we find ourselves in Lugo... the start of our Camino Primitivo, one of the many routes to Santiago De Compostella. The plane ride, courtesy of Ryan 'we will charge you for anything extra' Air, was short and sweet... A row of seats to ourselves and more legroom than I remember. Sonia almost missed the entire flight having nearly nodded off in her row of seats before coming to join me in my row. Having landed and seeing something we remembered from the dim and distant past... blue sky and sunshine.. we strolled out of the airport, to the bus ticketing office, conveyed our need en español for 2 bus tickets to Lugo and then sat and waited.. Sonia said it reminded her of Barbados... I think we were looking at a different view. That said the forest that stretched out beyond the airport as far as the eye could see did look really pretty.  The bu

I woke up having slept extremely well. 15 miles through hard terrain will make you a little tired. Today’s plan was for a slow walk back to Sauraha, seeing if we could find any animals on our way.  It was a beautiful morning with sunlight dappling the forest floor. I felt the peace and calm infuse me with a sense of such well being. I had to suck it all up today because tomorrow I would be heading back to the chaos of Kathmandu via a probably long, cramped, uncomfortable bus ride.  And it was a lovely 12 mile walk. Along the way we didn’t see many animals, the forest seemed to be asleep today. We watched some langur monkeys move through the trees with delightful abandon and then came across a troop of rhesus macaque monkeys including a mother and her baby and some other younger ones scampering through the trees. We walked through the sal forest, eyes scanning the ground for ny sign of the King Cobra, but no luck today.  We sat on the river bank for a bit with some other tourists, waiti