The September trip is for mind, body and soul

On Wednesday, after a year of careful planning, I fly from San Francisco to Portugal with four friends to try to find the meaning of life.

OK, that sounds a bit exaggerated.

But seriously, we know we don’t have 30 or 40 years left to lace up our hiking boots, throw our stuff in a 20-litre backpack and head out to conquer the world. We’ve been through a lot. Bunions, knee surgery, hip problems, plantar fasciitis and a bilateral mastectomy as a proud breast cancer survivor – we’re ready to tackle the Camino de Santiago (for clarification, I’m in the bunions and hips group).

For some of us, this Camino is just a way on our journey to find our spiritual selves or simply to reconnect with our inner thoughts and meet other pilgrims from around the world. We’ve met this year to plan routes, download apps, walk in the park and start our own little chat group, “Camino Gals”. There we share funny stories, like the one about one of us who looks for donkeys online in case our backpacks are too heavy and our feet too tired. Or the time the farmer caught me with a few too many Amazon packages one morning and said, “I thought you guys were hiking?” Or the one who bid on the first class upgrade because she didn’t have her reading glasses on and confused $1175 for $175 (don’t worry, she was eventually outbid).

With the right attitude and mindset – and plenty of Amazon gadgets and Osprey daypacks – we are ready for the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

Some readers may have even walked this route, better known as the “Way of St. James”, themselves. Millions of people from all over the world have been making this Christian pilgrimage for over 1,000 years. Along with the pilgrimages to Rome and Jerusalem, the Way of St. James was one of the most important in the Middle Ages.

I am not a religious expert, but Saint James the Greater was present at important events in the life of Jesus, such as the Transfiguration, where Jesus revealed his divine nature to his closest disciples. In the Gospels, James, his brother John, and Peter are listed as Jesus’ three closest disciples.

The history of the Way of St. James dates back to 814, when the tomb of Saint James was discovered on the Iberian Peninsula. By the 16th century, it was hardly used. The modern Way of St. James was created in the 1980s by Father Elias Valina Sampedro, priest of the small Galician village of O Cebreiro, who marked the old route with yellow arrows to help pilgrims find their way. In October 1987, the route was declared the first European Cultural Route by the Council of Europe and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The shell is a symbol of the Camino because it is believed that pilgrims passed by the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela and walked to the coast where the body of Saint James arrived by boat, according to historians and theologians. Many pilgrims picked up a shell on the beach as a sign that they had completed their journey.

Today, pilgrims tie a scallop shell to their travel bag to symbolize their pilgrimage to the tomb of the Apostle James. As of August 28, exactly 341,855 pilgrims have registered their visit to the tomb of Saint James this year. Yesterday alone, 2,171 pilgrims arrived in Spain.

On Friday, September 13, the five Camino Gals are scheduled to arrive at the Patron Saint of Santiago rest area after six hours and 30 minutes of walking, or 25.8 kilometers, whichever comes first. With a little luck, some Apostle red wine, a donkey, an Uber or two, and a positive attitude, I know we can do it.

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This is my official announcement that I will not be on the opinion page in September. Don’t worry, I will be back in time for the walnut harvest as my farmer needs me to help with the shelling.

And a simple request to groundwater managers and flood control officials: Don’t do anything too crazy with our local water laws while I’m away. On Monday, the county postponed the Garst v. Tehama County trial scheduled for Wednesday. The unexpected postponement is odd and raises the question of why notice wasn’t given sooner.

And if readers really want to follow my journey, I will be blogging my experiences on WordPress if I ever figure out the intricacies of the format. You can find me writing at little old me.blog (Happy is my soul when it wanders).

I wish everyone a nice September.