PEGGY COCK

The previous day having been spent in the cybercafe typing, had left me with a headache. They only had artificial lighting in the room and it had the affect of bluring my vision. I spent the morning partly typing, partly listening to Klaus, who was such a lovely guy. He had plenty to talk about, I got the feeling that like me, he needed this chance to share his thoughts, with someone who knew what the experiences were that he had had, and could possibly share some enlightenment as to their meanings. (I have no idea why he was asking me.) we seemed to talk a lot about relationships, particularly, ones that had begun on the Camino. We had both had this experience. One or both of us had followed one or more relationships since our beginings of camino experience. I had to reflect somewhat, as my own thoughts returned to last spring. So many great adventures, and so many new camino friends. The love shared between some of those aquaintances as ever alive, sharing messages of support and friendship, even a camino reunion last autumn in Bavaria, with three of the four ´Kings of Leon`. And without doubt, these relationships were what the camino became all about. I wrote some poems during that camino, as a way of remembering the experiences, and my responses to them. (blog still active) As you can read, some of the people I had met feature heavily in my own camino, and they became ímmortalised in literature, beacause of their part in changing my view of the world in which we all live. I really hope I have done these wondeful people an honour, by this memorial.....

Klaus had discovered, by chance, a very odd set of scenarios he needed to work through, and one of his ´Camino loves` had helped in this endeavour immensly. But largely, this was what was holding him back. He found that his thoughts had not yielded a totally fruitful harvest. I hope that I was able to shead some light on the burden he carried, over choices he had made then, despite two people having been involved. We swapped contact details, as Klaus was readying to leave, I was going to miss him. But of course I have my own rhythm, and he had his camino to walk. I am sure we will remain friends, people like Klaus are hard to come by. Hugs and best wishes declared, I set off back to the grind of typing, Klaus set sail on the oceans of change, towards Santiago, ahead of me.

Staying the extra night in Zafra had been a good choice, a wonderful rest for me. Of course here were new pilgrims coming to the Albergue, and as ever they were a varied bunch of people. Too many to name, but surely some of the people to become important in my camino from here onwards. The present camino for me, I hoped would take in a wider view than before. Not only did I want pilgrims to be the ones I met, but local people too, people who witnessed this passing of strange folk through their cities and towns. I wanted to know what it meant to them to be hosts to such travellers. I had the pleasure to meet, and spend time chatting with, a young courting couple, who noticed me as a pilgrim and began asking lots of questions. Antonio and Maria Jose made a lovely couple. He an open minded young Spanish guy, she a talented, pretty young Spanish woman. I have to say that talking with them, reminded me about what my camino should show. Not just about the love and kindness of people trecking across the countryside, but the way in which for centuries the local populations have lived with the passage of wierd folk, who cover huge distances daily on foot. Antonio and Maria Jose, to me, were the epitomy of the openness of this nation. They showed me a care and friendship, that is lost in so many european cities, towards immigrants, or people passing through. I was asked so many things, and hope that I was able to be clear and relevant to the interest showed, hopefully setting seeds of consideration to the young people of Zafra. Maria Jose, who could read English reasonably well asked if she could have my Blog address. It was both my pleasure and wish to them both that they one day might follow their own camino, to find out first hand what this camino was about, and the joy to be found following the ´Way`.

Surprisingly, as I had been one of the last to rise, I seemed to one of the first to actually leave the Albergue. This was another of the five star accomodations provided by the Junta de Extremadura. The day was cool, but temperatures were likely to rise, by mid morning. strangely the track seemed to head off almost towards the sun, which at this time of the morning signified an Easterly direction. I began a climb into the hills outside of Zafra, and soon tuning more Northward, I felt happier. As I was passing through the next village, Los Santos de Maimona, I met up with a pilgrim who, as yet I had not had the pleasure of meeting. Peggy all the way from South America, was a young  and vibrant pilgrim, who drew me to her peacefulness immediately. We walked together for a few hours before finding ourselves in a small town, and stopping for refreshments. I remarked on how her name didn´t sem to be typically from her region of the world. She explained that some time during the 1960`s there had been a beauty queen from her country, named Peggy Cock. Her farther had been very enamoured with this pagent winner, and thus named his daughter in that memory. I had thought to myself at the time, surely Peggy Cock had not been as lovely as the pilgrim Peggy. Funny how some people choose the names of their children. Walking with Peggy was another of those fabulous experiences as we shared stories, talking a lot about following peaceful routes in life. Oddly enough my friend had left her job recently, as things did not seem to hold the same value to her anymore. A familiar story to me also. Taking some time out of her ´normal` life, to rest her body and her mind, had been what she had decided to do, though walking the kind of distances she wanted to do, would hardly give her body much rest. I sensed a bouyancy about her, desperate to share her passions. When we arrived in Villa franco de los barros, I deceided to stay, Peggy wanted to go on, as she had a plan to cover a lot of road before she stopped for the night. We had our drink together, and then hugged our goodbyes. Despite the blisters that we all get in the begining, she still wanted to move on, it was only early afternoon. She said that she didn´t expect to meet again on this camino, as her rhythm was strong, strangely I felt that we would definately see one another again. The pain would get her for sure, no-one can keep that pace up, I knew from my own trials. I wished her well despite this knowledge, and she set off along the road. Having been the victim on several occaisions of my own stupidity, I knew that despite the will of the mind, the body, untrained could not take this kind of punishment. It needed time to immunise itself to this type of regular activity, before setting huge challenges.
I set myself up, under a tree in the town square, in the shade, just besides the church. I was ready for siesta, and also found this to be a great way to soak up the energy and mood of  towns and villages I passed. Incredibly easy to feel their rhythm this way, even with my eyes closed. In fact, possibly because of this !!