I am walking

In the last decade I have had a complicated relationship with walking. Walking has given me both my best moments and my biggest heartbreaks. I thought our long separation was to be permanent, but the past two weeks in the Azores have given me a taste of all that I have missed. 

In  the summers of 2009 and 2010 I walked 750 kms across France on the Camino de Santiago.   Although this is one of my proudest achievements, it also led to a devastating heartbreak when I had to stop at St. Jean Pied de Port because of ongoing back problems. 

After many attempts to get back to walking failed, I completed the pilgrimage through Spain on bike while Gord finished it on foot.  I didn’t realize at the time that I would be parting company with any serious walking for years to come. 

It was not lost time by any means, I just stopped walking. Gord and I have enjoyed fantastic trips with our bikes. I am very grateful that I have been able to complete a number of pilgrimage routes on bike, and cycle across Europe, Thailand and Laos, but I have missed walking. 

Either the stars have aligned or with the right combination of modern chiropractic care and new orthotics I am once again walking!  I have not walked as much as I have in the Azores since we were on foot on the Camino. Although I know the relationship is temperamental and might be fleeting,  I am so grateful to be able to walk right now.  I will never take a beautiful walk for granted, even if it only rolls into town once a decade. 

These are nature's original slow cookers, where volcanic steam is used to cook stew at a public picnic area.