Starting another walk. The Ignatian Way or Camino Ignaciano.

This morning Mary and I set out on a days travelling that would get us to San Sebastián and the start of another walk, the Ignatian Way. This walk will take us in the footsteps of St Ignatius of Loyola who in 1522 walked from his hometown to Montserrat overlooking the fabulous city of Barcelona. This is a walk that joins the Atlantic to the Mediterranean crossing the mountainous Basque Country and then through deserts and plains  in Navarra, La Rioja, Aragon and Catalunya before finishing in Manresa. During the walk we will be joined by our daughter, Aisling, who is nearing the end of her one year world adventure. This will seem very tame to a girl who in the past twelve months has travelled through South America, Australia, India, and the Far East. To someone who has climbed Machu Picu, climbed Mount Everest, cycled down the Road of Death in Bolivia, trekked in jungles  and salt deserts to name just a few. Will walking with a slow pensioner like me ,who used his senior citizen card in order to get free transport to Dublin Airport, be a real bore? I have been told, purely for journalistic integrity, to point out that Mary had to pay for her bus journey to the airport since she does not possess a Senior Citizen card. On the bus I received an email from Karen Robinson our Portuguese Camino friend from Tasmania who at present in nearing the end of the extremely difficult St Olavs walk in Norway. Compared to the challenges this hiking legend has overcome, in wilderness conditions, our walk will be relatively tame. Mary and I would like to congratulate Karen on this wonderful achievement. It's getting to become quite boring sitting in the plane so I'm going to share with you a song that has been in my head all morning.
From the Atlantic to the Mediterranean we are going for a walk. This should be sung to the tune of Candystore by Dickie Rock. This will mean nothing to most of you reading this blog unless , like me, you have a Senior Citizen Travel card and of course a weird sense of humour. This last piece won't appear on the blog because Mary will veto it.