Camino Photo of the Day: Small Towns, Big Ideas
After Moratinos and about twenty minutes of Meseta walking, we spied the next little village half-hidden in the distance. This is San Nicolás del Reál Camino, population 43. It was in this little stretch that an idea for a Camino novel came to me, along with its last line. Although it’s evolved over the years, at its core it’s still what I wrote in my journal all those years ago.
Camino where every kilometer takes you back further in time. Narrator unaware? Reaches Santiago de Compostela as the Saint’s tomb is discovered. “… And then I turned around to make my Way back to the home I only dimly recalled, like the earliest childhood memories.”
It’s a solid idea, but I find myself unable still to begin it. On my 2016 Camino, I kept a small notebook with ideas for the story – filled it really – and more or less lost it immediately upon my return home. There’s poetry in that.
Date: 17 April 2013
Place: between Moratinos and San Nicolás del Reál Camino (Province of Palencia, Castilla y León, Spain)
Today started: Terradillos de los Templarios (Province of Palencia, Castilla y León, Spain)
