We’re heading towards Balmasete , via Bilbao Northern Spain. Thoughts not just of the walk ahead ( Too hard this time ? Are we up to the long days and heat , or cold? Maybe I shouldn’t have ditched thermals) . Looking out the train window at the shadowy mountains, another realisation of why we Camino.

I’m on my way to a new path. The pack on my back is all I have for the 2/3/4 weeks of walking . People, familiar places, obligations and jobs have gone . The way ahead is uncertain , unknown . A contrast to my home life whose trajectory is relatively predictable, and brief. On the path it seems like time has expanded, that the future is open ended, possibilities emerging : nebulous and unshaped, but they are waiting for me .