Hike the El camino trail

“This morning when I awoke to my aching tendons, I decided to hike as slowly as possible. Think walking meditation in hiking boots. Once I slowed down, I saw a lot more of the world around me. I watched the thick mist crawl through the valley below. I had a lovely conversation with a cow, who kept batting her long eyelashes to shoo away the flies. Instead of hurdling past every bar, I stopped to rub my feet and enjoy a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.”

“Our walk to the tiny town of Villar de Mazarite was… as if I were in a dream. It rained almost the whole day, bending the long reeds low with raindrops. The path sloped onwards over the hills where poppies sprung from their stems. White and purple wildflowers tumbled into the ditches that ran alongside the road. I had one job: to walk. One foot in front of the other. Before I’d begun to walk the trail, I had worried so much about the rain. But when the rain came, it rained. Nothing more and nothing less.”