2012

 Camino 2.0 begins. 

Last night I stayed in the runis of the San Anton monastery. It was spectacular, looking through an empty window which once held stained glass through to the moon, and up through where the roof once was to the stars. 

This was mine and Mykey's goal for the last few days. Before that Ingrid had proposed the destinations for the next few nights. And before that there seemed a fairly obvious itinerary. But but now it seems like the wide open road again, literally, as I pass through the Meseta, and figuratively, with no compelling destinations for the coming days. 

The hospitalero last night made a speech about this section of the Camino saying we should go alone, and walk alone, and not follow the script of the guidebooks which propose specific larger towns for each night. Mykey is particularly keen to do this so we'll stop tracking together for awhile and perhaps meet up in Leon, if not Santiago. 

And today is just two weeks since I started the Camino, last Thursday, since I walked out the door of the hostel in St Jean Pied de Port in the darkness, turned left, and started walking not knowing what was to come. Perhaps it is the same again now. 

So today took me through a couple of low hills which gave great views over the valleys below, bare and browner though they be. But the altitude makes the clouds seem closer and beautiful. 

The latter section of the walk was along the Canal de Castille with irrigated farms along the way with contrasting bright green.

The end point for today, for no reason other than 28-29km seemed like the right distance was the town of Fromista. But having slept in a little at the monastery this morning by the time I arrived there by 2.30pm everything was already booked out. Fortunately the next tiny town of Poblacion del Camino was only 3 more kilometers further and had plenty of beds left. As I write this in the early evening the albergue is now filling up with people like me who missed out at Fromista. 

So this might be the next phase of the Camino too - booking ahead. Tomorrow needs to be either 15km or 32km, there is no town in between. So I don't want to go 32km and only to find no beds again, so for the first time, but perhaps not the last as busyness of the Camino increases I have booked a bed. The public "municipal" albergues don't take bookings, but the private albergues do with the price differential being only 8 - 10 euro. 

Plenty of time to reflect today on 2012, which needs to start with the end of 2011. 

I had known for some months that I would likely be moving to Kincumber in the near future. The priest whom I had concerns about back in Toukley was parish priest at Kincumber, but had been stood aside for some months, and the bishop had me lined up ready for when the investigation concluded if it was to result in his dismissal. 

So when my life long friend Amanda asked whether I thought that Holy Cross Catholic School at Kincumber would be a good school for her daughter Lauren I had to bite my tongue and contain my excitement. I could honestly say that I thought it would be a good school having already met principal Gerard McGilvray at music conference some months prior and being impressed by him. 

So I started at the end of 2011 and with Lauren starting school in 2012 Amanda and her family joined the parish too. This was so wonderful for me personally, but also a great opportunity to engage with the school community. 

Kindergarten parents, especially first timers are always so good connect with, as they're eager to do whatever is best for their child, and getting involved in the wider parish so that there is a consistent message between home, church and school is a good thing to do. I always try to go to the parent welcome sessions for Kindergarten. But with Amanda and Jason being part of that parent cohort it became a great way to connect more deeply with those families, and there were a particularly wonderful cohort. 

Amanda and Jason took the lead in a new Sunday night band, and brought in friends from Woy Woy to assist. Sunday night had been the least popular Mass of the weekend, but we soon rebadged it as the family Mass and youth Mass and it soon grew in popularity. Again, another new experience that in a beach suburb all the young families will be doing Nippers on Sunday morning, so an alternative evening Mass worked well. 

Pictured below is yet another Boys Beach Pilgrimage drawing from around the diocese as a WYD follow up in January 2012.