I often write short true stories about my travels, and they have sometimes been published in various magazines and newspapers, in England, and here in Spain.




I have walked 800 kms of the Camino de Santiago across north Spain several times in recent years. And sometimes I have returned there with my motorhome, and then I become one of the many ex-pilgrims who return there with a vehicle as an unpaid volunteer helper..... to give First Aid, help and assistance to any pilgrims who need it. Over 400 a day pass by any one spot in mid summer, and many of them get blisters, tendenitis, insect bites, scratches, abrasions (when they trip and fall ), bruises, sunburn or sunstroke ( if they have no sun hat ) or simply run out of water to drink .... and they all get very thirsty under the Spanish sun.


One day, when I was in my motorhome parked on a rough track at a very lonely place on the Camino de Santiago on the sun scorched Meseta some distance west of Burgos in central north Spain, amongst the throng of passing pilgrims a woman and a man arrived together. In fact they were very close together, for the man was blind - and his wife was leading him by the hand. They were in their late twenties - early thirties, both had heavy backpacks, and they had already passed over the Pyrennees and many other mountains in north Spain. Now they were enduring the many days laborious trudge under the blazing Spanish sun, trecking over the desolate scorching undulating treeless Meseta. But they were slowly and determinedly making progress towards Santiago.
As they sat under the shade of my motorhome side-awning and sipped the glasses of ice cold drinks that I had offered them, I thought with admiration of the extra arduousness that these two loving pilgrims must endure before they reach the Cathedral at Santiago, still 450 kms away. And then I realized with sadness that when they get there, the man would never experience the breathtaking magnificence and grandeur of the enormous building that is the focus and the terminal point of the long Camino. He can touch and "see" with his sensitive hands the outer walls of the Cathedral at ground level. He can enter, and he can touch any part of the inside. But no blind man can feel the thrill of vertigo when confronted by the awe-inspiring soaring spires and towers, nor can he experience the emotion and everything else that the rest of us feel ( even non-religious people like me ) when we see that enormous structure with our seeing eyes for the first time....... after walking hundreds of kilometres for many weeks to get there.
Then I remembered something that I have had for some time in the rear locker of my motorhome, ever since it was "unloaded" onto me by a passing pilgrim some time ago (because it took up valuable room in her backpack) and I hurried to get it out. It is a plastic model of Santiago cathedral, the kind that you see for sale in the touristy shops in Santiago city. It is only about 20 centimetres high, but almost faithfully correct in all its miniature details. (see photos) Even the zig-zag staircase at the main entrance is faithfully reproduced in this inexpensive "souvenir" toy model (probably made in a toy factory in China) and as I placed it into the hands of this sightless pilgrim, I saw a look of rapture on his face, as his searching sensitive "seeing" fingers slowly traced every minute detail of the zig-zag staircase, the entrance, the nave, the towers and the spires of this simple toy plastic model. There, next to my motorhome parked in the rolling parched landscape of the Meseta, blind Geoffrey from near Sidney in Australia "saw" the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostella in far away Galicia, and smiled and sighed with contentment.
Soon it was time for these two very unusual pilgrims to walk on. I helped them to shoulder their backpacks, and as Eileen his wife began to lead Geoffrey away by the hand, I saw tears in her eyes as she gave me a smile and a silent nod of gratitude.
There are some days when I get extra pleasure from helping pilgrims.
That day was one of them.


John Francis .

I will return to the Camino again soon....... and wish that I had a walking - travel - helping companion.... who will go there with me.

Good on you John

Nice

Welcome to the Poems and Creative Writing forum. Great story...