A loss.
A twenty-dollar Ray’s Outdoors loss.
How to quantify an experience? How to put a value on anything? How to define loyalty?
It is out at Finisterre, and maybe someone will rescue it and it will be a sculpture. I have one left to bring home. I’ll have to be lopsided for a while.
On Tuesday I fly to Barcelona to complete my pilgrimage.
Yours is done, but I must see Leonardo and Ricardo. They have walked every day with me, called me, asked if I needed money or assistance. They have loved a stranger as though I were their own. And so they have become mine, and I will go and complete that stage with them.
After that .…
Well, I’m not entirely sure yet, but I’ll keep you posted.
I have about ten days and want to try to sift through the six thick notebooks and the two thousand photos before I get home. I don’t know what, if anything, I have made out here on the road. Hopefully a bit of stillness will answer that question.
For now, there is gratitude and there is the present.
This moment.
The sun is shining brilliantly. It will be thirty-four or thirty-five degrees today. Among the cool stone colonnades of Santiago, I won’t be bothered. I’ve had my walk, so the body is happy. I can watch and ask a few questions.
And be still.
Thank you, my village, for your care and your support. There are not words. That is the truth of it. There are not words enough for you.
I send love and gratitude from Santiago. From world’s end. And from my full, full heart.
Ailsa x
After Words
This email was waiting for me in Santiago, from my sinner who confessed to adultery, and who thought she would never find a relationship.
And while you have been journeying, I’ve been having a quiet pilgrimage of the soul in a room in Australia.
I have met my fella.
I have just spent the day with him and we spoke our true feelings for each other, and we are so happy to have finally met. Or, as he says, met again.
It’s a lovely story, which I won’t go into here. But we both feel the same, and we want to share our time, our minds and our hearts together.
I am so happy.
The sin you carried for me is now well and truly put to bed. I don’t have to carry the weight of it anymore. It is now ash. In Finisterre. On the Cape. Done. Dusted. Clean cleared away.
Less than a year later, I read a poem at their wedding.
Other sinners made changes, too. Big and small, lasting and temporary. The more honest they were with themselves and me, the greater the change. Or at least, that is what they have told me. I remain in awe of their courage.
My brother is well. Brett did some crying for me when I called from Finisterre! He mourns, talks, goes silent and laughs. He remembers. He’s getting on with living.
Leonardo and Ricardo gave me ten days of pride-testing love in Barcelona. They call me hermana—sister. They are my new, and yet not new, brothers.
German Chris is now a happy Aussie. When last I spoke to him he was on top of a crane on a building site. He said he could see forever—all the way back to Spain.
Paul has left the white apartment in Salamanca, but he emails about books he has read and journeys he is making. His mind and his door remain open.
My compañero continues his work. Not a day goes by without me making my simple prayer for him: ‘Please let him be all right.’
Il Capitano and il Soldato enter downhill ski competitions, rescue hikers in the mountains and send messages about future walks. They keep walking.
My amigo didn’t return to the world of high finance. He is volunteering for an aid organisation. He says he is still deciding about his life. But he did complete his camino. He kept his promesa.
I don’t hear from Herr Theologie. I hope he is happy. And strong.
The Stuff in the Swag
On top of the sins, this is what I carried. All weights are in grams.
The beloved mochila 1500
I carried an Aarn backpack. It hails from New Zealand.
Kiwis know all there is to know about walking, hiking and feet.
Inside the mochila or on my body
Sleeping bag 500
Merrell Siren Ventilator boots. Loves of my life 920
(now discontinued)
Crocs. Ugly but good! 280
2 × New Zealand thick wool socks (100g each) 200
3 × quick dry Nanna undies. Uglier, but good! (40g each) 120
2 × crop top/bras 120
2 × hiking pants (Target and Kathmandu—well worn in!) 800
2 × black fast-dry Silk Body T-shirts 200
Rain pants with a split! 180
Rain jacket/godsend 370
Pashmina. An essential 140
Sarong. Modesty-protector, tablecloth,
bedsheet, sunshade and more 140
Icebreaker thermal top and leggings. New Zealand again 280
Mini quick-dry towel 150
Mini Maglite torch 20
Camera. A borrowed baby Canon 400
Notebooks. They got heavier, but I got stronger 500
Purse with comb/credit card/cash/passport/drivers lic, etc 300
Mini Swiss Army knife 20
Electrical adaptor 30
Buff. For keeping neck and ears warm or hair off face 30
Mobile phone. A chum’s old Nokia 100
Mobile charger 60
Sunglasses 20
Hat 80
Medical bag—elastic bandage, essential oils, Panadol, hair ties 250
Pens 20
Needle and thread, safety pins, whistle and cleats 40
Soap, deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrush, sewing kit, razor 300
Moisturiser and sunblock 200
Plastic bags for food carrying and rubbish collection 20
Toilet paper and tampons 100
Olive oil is the best nurturer for the body. I bought it along the way and mixed it with ti-tree, peppermint, rosemary or lavender essential oils to make my rubbing oil.
I didn’t carry water holders. I bought 1.5-litre plastic bottles and refilled as I went. On long days I had to carry three of them—an extra 4.5 kilos!
Sinners, Saints, Guardian Angels …
Heartfelt thanks to my friend-colleague-sponsor-benefactors. They had faith at the beginning, when it sounded like I had lost a large bag of my marbles. Their faith sustained me every day …
Anthony Adair, Janet Andrewartha, Jeni Bethell, Donna Blake, Paul Brasher, Hugh Colman and Anthony Fong, Beverley Dunn, Liz Egan, Paul English, Alan Fletcher, Carrillo and Ziyin Gantner, Susan Greaves, Diana Greentree, Sonia Gurbiel, James Hagi, Elizabeth Horne, Robert Kirby, Nina Landis, Tamblyn Lord, Tracy Mann, David Pledger, Angela Punch-McGregor, Hannie Rayson, David Ross, Graeme Samuel, Pierre Sauzier, Michael and Helen Sedgley, Kat Stewart, Adele Swain, Leith Taylor, Louise and Theo Van Embden, Nicki Wendt, Janet Whiting, Necia Wilden, Jackie Woodburne.
Particular acknowledgement goes to the Australian Business Arts Foundation, and my project officer, Sharon Nathani, who grasped the concept immediately.
My gratitude to all at MUP, and most particularly, heartfelt thanks to Colette Vella for seeing the book that could be and editing with amor and atención. Also to Anouska Jones for her eye for style and ear for tone.
James Laurie. Friend, agent, good counsel and touchstone.
Alanna for computer wizardry, reading, re-reading, and saving me when a hacker hacked. And for being a most excellent hermana.
Sue in Manly, for reading the first manuscript, which led me back to Spain.
Hannie, for the courage to give tough feedback.
George, writing and life
teacher extraordinaire.
Louise, for going so many extra miles.
Tart, for the big lesson and the big faith.
Susan May, for shelter and commonsense in Rome.
Carl and all my walking buddies, who warmed me up for Spain as only walkers can!
My poetry hounds, who kept feeding me the good stuff.
My extended camino family, who ‘get it’ without explanation.
My home village, so many of whom are not named specifically here, but who wrote and wished and cared. And amazingly, still do.
My family—sisters, brothers, in-laws—who are without peer. The best.
My father, for making me a book of my walk before I had begun to make my own.
Brett. For saying yes. To me and to life.
Mum and Sue. For walking with me.
All the people I met on that hard but beautiful journey.
And Peter at base camp …
Gracias. Grazie. Merci. Obrigado. Danke.
Thank you.
I walk with you in my heart.
VICTORY BOOKS An imprint of Melbourne University Publishing Limited
187 Grattan Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia
mup-info@unimelb.edu.au
www.mup.com.au
First published 2012
Text and internal photographs © Ailsa Piper 2012
Design and typography © Melbourne University Publishing Limited, 2012
This book is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means or process whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publishers.
Every attempt has been made to locate the copyright holders for material quoted in this book. Any person or organisation that may have been overlooked or misattributed may contact the publisher.
Characters in this journey have had names and some other identifying features changed to protect their identities, and some characters have been melded together for the same reason.
Permission to reproduce the line from Dorothea Mackellar’s ‘My Country’ by arrangement with The Mackellar Estate, c/– Curtis Brown (Aust.) Pty Ltd.
Cover design by Trisha Garner
Typeset by Sonya Murphy, TypeSkill
Printed by Griffin Press, South Australia
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Piper, Ailsa.
Sinning across Spain: a walker’s journey from Granada to Galicia/Ailsa Piper.
9780522861396 (pbk.)
9780522861402 (ebook)
Piper, Ailsa—Journey—Spain.
Pilgrims and pilgrimages—Spain.
Hiking—Spain.
Walking—Spain.
Spain—Description and travel.
796.5109461