Reflections on St James and ... Caterpillars

So far, in our highlights, we've mostly talked about things which were incidental to our pilgrimage, albeit very welcome accoutrements (we do like that word!). But after all, our walk was, first and foremost, a pilgrimage, so how was the actual pilgrimage in the highlights stakes?

We've already mentioned the pleasure we had meeting fellow pilgrims and of course, had we been able to make it to Santiago this trip, arrival at Santiago cathedral would have undoubtedly been a highlight, even though, because of swine flu, we couldn't have kissed St James' feet!

We really did like all the reminders along the way that the route we were walking was more than just another 'GR' path. Because the Camino is the way of St James, and his emblem is the scallop shell, the path was frequently adorned with scallops which came in all materials, shapes and sizes. In terms of natural scallops, we thought this wall was pretty special as it was covered in scallops, many of which had pilgrim names and messages written on to them.


As for man made scallops, we really liked these metal ones which did wonders to what would otherwise have been a rather dull path, leading into the city of Logrono.


While the scallop shell was a potent reminder of St James, there was nothing quite like seeing him in the 'flesh', or should we say nuts and bolts.


This was our favourite image of him made out of old car parts: spot his exhaust pipe staff!

I (Giovanni) was lucky enough to have my own pilgrim's passport, in which I, along with my minders collected stamps from the places we stayed along the way. It was a very special moment for me when I received my first stamp from the cathedral at Le Puy.


I was so proud to be finally officially starting this great walk, which we'd been planning for years, that I had to have a picture taken with my first stamp. By the time we stopped, I had many pages of stamps, at least one for every day of our trip, and I can hardly wait for the time when we will return to Spain to complete the walk to Santiago, as we will then be able to exchange our passports for Compostellas.

We'll be back soon, to tell you a few of the disappointments we experienced along the way - there always have to be downsides. Sorry if we've gone about this the wrong way round, as we really should be ending on a positive note.

For now, at least we can end positively with a favourite picture of ours. It doesn't belong in this post and should have been included in the last one, in the food and drink highlights section, but we forgot it. We want to include it now, as we were extremely appreciative of this special camino fuel, sent all the way from England to the French town of Condom.


We will always be very grateful to Fred's Mum for the wonderful parcel of marshmallow Colin caterpillars she posted to us. You can see from our photo how much we enjoyed them.

Back soon, love from the Camino bears xxx