After a long silence I am back writing and sharing my thoughts… I’m not sure why I went silent. Perhaps it was the busi-ness of Christmas, birthday and New Year celebrations or the dull, heavy feeling, the stupor that follows the festivities, or perhaps a desire for inspiration. Inspiration that was either avoiding me or very difficult to find while pounding suburban pathways!
Today, it arrived! Smacked me right between the eyes! And just all good surprises, totally unexpected 😅.
Let me start at the beginning 😌 after weeks of getting up early and walking at least two hours, I honestly 🙃 was not in the mood to walk, even though I had suggested a longish country walk. In fact, I was trying to hide when Bill enthusiastically suggested we leave for a well worn path in ten minutes. Reluctantly I donned my new hiking gear and pretended to match his enthusiasm! I suggested a different route, one we had not taken.for a while… a circuit which included a new coffee place!
I had checked everything on Google… distance, opening times and other places of interest nearby… all good. We set out with some shade and a babbling creek on our left, a coolish breeze offered just enough incentive to push on over the hot open sections of the trail and then onto the industrial section of our loop! Despite the hour, 10ish, the heat, the dust, the trucks and the ugliness of industrial estates we were really looking forward to the coffee.
Yep, you guessed it… we arrived at our destination… a brand new industrial estate, brand new sign heralding Wonder Pies, a coffee machine visible through the shop window 😋 and workmen all over. It was closed! Disappointment had two names… Bill and Pina. Workmen were friendly, chatty and sympathetic… so much so that once they explained our plight to one of the owners\staff. He chased us down and insisted we enter, he made us a coffee and then went and got some pies! Never had two, sweaty, thirsty, hungry pilgrims been more grateful! Disappointment turned to joy and wonder at the generosity of people. Even at home, away from the Camino path, the Camino provides and keeps on giving!
pindun on the road to Santiago de Compostella 