One of the things that distinguishes travel choice between people is the level of comfort and/or service they expect to have on their experience. I have several great friends who, as much as we love and appreciate each other, look at me sideways when I talk about some of my pursuits. The women wonder how I could subject myself to the discomfort that some of them entail and the men usually want to help me find a way to avoid it.
For four years I tried to convince someone to join me in training for an Ironman-Distance triathlon race, and for four years no one seemed remotely interested. We try to journey out West on our bikes for a week each year and of all the necessities that are provided, I don't think any are more important to me than running water and a decent meal. The rest is inconsequential. I don't care who I sit at dinner with, if there is a cafeteria or room service, an outhouse or a spa. I tend to gravitate to fewer amenities for the levels and depths of experience directly associated with them. It usually means you are going to remoter areas, with fewer people who share a more specific focus, interest and ability.
The Camino, because of its duration, will be particular in this respect. I like the idea that I share the same desires for pursuing the walk as many that I have read about (physical, spiritual, intellectual). I've heard tales of not finding shelter and having to travel several more miles into the night to find a place to rest, bed bugs in some of the hostels, mean dogs along the way... The thing is, there are experiences from my past where sleeping in strange places, sometimes infested with insects, rain infiltration, limited food supply, prolonged exposure to the elements - all have become a part of life that I accept and even embrace for the raw nature and feeling of oneness that comes with it.
2-week canoe trips in Algonquin Park carrying 70b packs started it off when I was a teenager. Spending weeks crossing oceans on small sailboats with two other crew members in all kinds of weather and with carious personalities added to it in my 20's. Testing and endurance limits in swimming, running, and biking over the last 15 years has given me confidence in pursuing and embracing my goals, whatever they may be and whatever they may bring. Let us not exclude the kind of contribution that raising two boys on my own can foster in terms of caring, patience, strength, perseverance and resourcefulness!
The window of opportunity is always limited in terms of time and physical ability, but I believe that I have enough of both of those to get through most of my bucket list, and that as the items on that list are pursued, my body will respond positively and that the window of opportunity will be extended and the list will grow as well.
May these posts serve to chronicle the journeys, or at least the hope for them.
