Up Up and Away!

Hikingdan is Off Again

I am sitting in Pearson International Airport eagerly awaiting to board my flight to Paris, France!

This marks the official start of my second hiking of El Camino. This year, I will only hike 500 Km, not the full 800 Km.

It’s not the total distance that I’m excited about doing.  Its so much more than how far I hike.  I thrive on the overall experience of being out on the trails, looking at the beautiful countryside, taking photos, thinking about the next steps in my life, meeting wonderful people, and being an environment where everyone is just simply kind to each other.

Imagine spending your days with total strangers who are just utterly kind to each other. They always are willing to have conversations and learn about you,  be interested in what you’re doing,  who you are,  and sharing a magnificent hiking experience with you.

The hiking isn’t easy by any means. It can be an extreme physical challenge which leads into a mental challenge.  But in the end, there’s a euphoric feeling you get that you just absolutely love and want to keep getting more of.

My journey upon landing tomorrow morning will see me arriving in Paris and immediately boarding a train to Bordeaux France.  I will spend two nights in Bordeaux exploring taking photos and experiencing the beautiful French city .

I will leave Bordeaux  early in the morning and take the train to a small little picturesque town on the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains called Saint Jean Pied de Port. I love this little town!

I will have two nights here to explore and look around take more photographs. I will discover a little bit more than I did two years ago when I only spent about 12 hours here.

This is the town where the Camino Frances 823 Km route starts. Day 1 will see me climbing about 8 Km up the mountain  and I will stay at a wonderful hostel for the first night .

The next day will see me climb further up the mountain,  traverse over the top, and then descend, crossing the border into Spain and staying at the foothills for another evening – total distance 23 Km.

I will blog about that once I cross the mountains as there is no Wi-Fi as we are going over it.

Tonight  I will settle into my seat on my flight across the Atlantic and land in Paris in the morning  to start the next leg of my journey .

There is  not much more to say tonight except I’ll see you in September.

I’m looking forward to what lies ahead and I will blog every exciting moment of it and share some good photos with you all.

I will also track every step that I take with my fit bit. Each day, I will post the total steps I took that day and the overall accumulative total steps.  I hope to reach 1 million steps on this journey!

I promise that my blog posts moving forward will be more exciting than this.

So my friends,  until tomorrow!

Remember to always keep walking !

KEEP WALKING!