Not sure what happened today, but what a difference a day makes. Maybe my body said if I survived day 9 then anything is possible. Maybe it was the good meal and sleep. Today I had no aches or pains out of the ordinary. I think my foot pain is arthritis. I did develop another blister on my heal but got it covered.

With yesterday and today I have to have faith in the process. I can do all the planning I want and if it doesn’t pan out as I planned it’s because it wasn’t meant to happen. The process has a better plan or approach to how I can accomplish this journey.

So Lesson 1 from today is have Faith in the process.

This is an example of what we face. Step after step after step….. If you enlarge the photo and zoom in to the top right hand corner you can see the road continuing with pilgrims walking.

Today I was faster than I expected, so I was thinking, I can stop at Santo Domingo or take a break and keep going to the next stop, which was 6 km away. I knew I had it in me to do it. However upon reflection I told myself that this is not a race. There is no gold medal at the end. The race is with ourselves. Pitting mind against body and there is interference from our feelings, thoughts, emotions, hopes, dreams, actions, behaviours. I have all the time to complete this journey. I met someone from France who does 2 weeks a year doing the Camino; they started from their home in Paris!

Lesson 2 from today is slow down.

Rita W passed along some good wisdom “The Camino Provides.”When you need help, a bandaid will appear, when you are thirsty water will appear. Early in my walk yesterday I came across a few people gathered around a person laying on the ground! This person (travelling alone) tripped, fell and cut their forehead. One person was looking after the cut, while someone was asking to see how they were feeling, trying to assess if they had a concussion. They said they were fine to continue on but one said I’ll walk with you just to make sure. Pilgrims helping pilgrims. Unknown to us, we are forming a community. Hopefully we can carry this off the trail.

So lesson 3 is you are not alone.

Another example of the Camino providing is the small village, I passed through today, Azofra. It is too small to have a farmacia (pharmacy) so instead they have a vending farmacia, where one can get bandages, sunscreen, painkillers, etc. So if you need something, have faith that it will be there.

This section of the trail was similar to yesterday; no shade, blazing sun, no water stops along the way. However today the sun did not appear until 4pm. Even had a few sprinkles of rain. After the summer we had in Nova Scotia, actually everywhere, I never thought I would be so happy to see clouds again!

Well time to get ready for day 11.