We used good ol’ paper maps more than I ever do these days, two of them living in the outer side pocket of my backpack, within easy reach. We became well-versed in the cereal crops of northern Spain we really saw every tree and rock (i.e., shade and rest) we took in the cultural landscape (architecture, people, food etc.) at the pace it deserves. Nothing beats endless, slow walking for contemplating your environment. Not to be a preachy “stop and smell the roses” guy, but it’s true that especially in the day of GPS-enabled navigation, we don’t often get to know the places we move through. For me, the trek is most meaningful for the family experience, but the geographer in me had a pretty good time, too. We didn’t exactly set out with any grand purpose, but with weeks of walking, often in quiet solitude, one starts earning that “spiritual” checkbox on the form that’s filled out at the end. People walk the Camino for a variety of reasons: from making the traditional Catholic pilgrimage, to escaping stress at home, to tourism. 38 days after departing Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France, we arrived in Santiago de Compostela. Walking long distances day after day was a lot harder than expected despite my fairly frequent strenuous hiking near home (my feet didn’t stop hurting for a few more months), and my dad especially endured a lot of aches and pains, but he never quit or even took a day off, impressing fellow peregrinos we met along the way. My sister had done this walk before, in 2012, and sparked an interest in my dad of “some day” doing it, which became “now” before time grew too unkind to one’s ability to walk 800 kilometers. These maps went into a commemorative photo book that we put together as a Christmas gift to my dad. The pages are mostly empty still, but they’ve got a handful of sketches mapping a summer highlight: walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain with my dad and sister. (Side note: see video of the conference talks!) Tanya Buckingham (recent NACIS executive director, current candidate for local office) has always kindly handed out thank-you gifts to people who help with the meeting this time it was a lovely “Maps” notebook, in which I’ve vowed to work on hand-drawn cartography skills. Back in October in Montréal I finished my term on the NACIS board of directors at the annual conference.
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