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Andy, Adam, Ramsay on a mountain outside Pamplona

Journal entry, Tuesday 20 April 2004, 5pm:
I am lying in paradise. On damp grass in a park in the middle of a little town just outside Puente la Riena, where we were going to stop tonight, but we found a lovely new Refugio right here and decided to stop.

Sorry I didn’t write yesterday. It was a shit day, and writing probably would have made me feel better. The rain on Sunday soaked my pack and made it impossible for anything to dry, so along with Ramsay, who had really bad blisters, and Adam, who needed a rest as well, we decided to have a rest day. I am so glad we did. Yesterday was a bit shit for me because I got sick again and felt awful. I was in a bit of a haze all day, taking Frenedol and juice and trying to get warm in the freezing cold of the pension we stayed in.

Anyway, I don’t want to talk about that stuff. Today’s walk was magic. We walked out of Pamplona into green fields, the four of us, pretty refreshed and feeling rested. I felt a bit apprehensive because today was a long way – nearly thirty kilometres – and there was a bit of a steep climb up the mountains south of Pamplona. But actually the climb wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be, and it’s been pretty much downhill then since we came over.

It feels like there is so much to tell, that I can’t tell because I don’t have time to write down everything that’s gone through my head today. I feel myself healing now – maybe part of it is having Ramsay around, who does healing medicine, and who gave me specially blessed lavender and tea tree oils from India to use for my cold yesterday. And most of all of course it is the walk. Getting some sun today has been exactly what I’ve needed to start me on the road to getting better. The first stop we had, a couple of hours into the walk, the sun came out from behind the clouds and fell on us perfectly, and now I am feeling, after an afternoon, that it is getting into my bones and warming me up after the long cold winter.

So much has been going through my head. Today we’ve walked through the most amazing countryside. Grass so green I feel like it’s feeding me just looking at it. On this side of the mountain there are so many more wildflowers out, things in bloom. We passed almond trees, fields of sweet peas, fields of yellow flowers interspersed with red red poppies. Every couple of kilometres there is a little village with church, steeple, against the backdrop of green mountains reaching away into the mist. Today, from the top of the highest point of the mountain we climbed, ribbed with wind generator after wind generator, we got to look back over Pamplona and, beyond that, the valley we have walked up since the beginning. It is amazing. It amazes me that I am here, doing this, and that I am able to do it. After feeling so low yesterday, and feeling completely fucked over by it all, I actually felt refreshed and re-energised today and found the walk much easier than I had expected.

Apparently the next three days are pretty much like this, which will be fabulous. Even if it rains I will be happy, because yesterday I invested in an incredible green rain poncho which I love and which will stop my pack getting soaked ever again and makes me look like a big sexy tortoise as well.

Wondering read "A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys", by Nathaniel Hawthorne. She loved it so much that she picked out a very old version at the used bookstore to keep for her very own. And, then she decided to do a book report on "The Paradise of Children" chapter. She included this poem, which describes the paradise of children…

There’s beauty and grace
All over the place

Flowers are blooming
Life is not zooming

Birds are singing
Bells are ringing

Apples are ripe
Boys play their pipe

The children play
Against the sun’s hot ray

~Wondering Wood, 4.2007