The temperature today had dropped about 20 degrees. At least that’s what it felt like. We were lucky, because we’d never have managed today’s mountain tracks in yesterday’s heat.

Our camino is definitely not about speed or about getting from ‘A’ to ‘B’. It is all about the journey itself. About us, together, being able to do this. Up vertical tracks, across rocks as big as the Rockies themselves, through grass as high as our hips. When it eventually started to rain we had reached a paved section of the Camino and smoothly rolled down to where today’s journey ended and tomorrow’s will begin.

For the past couple of days, we’ve had a very late ‘lunch’ (in Ireland we’d call it dinner:) in a restaurant across the street. As we always arrive around the same time, the same stuff is on the telly. A twenty minute weather forecast that leaves everyone completely confused, and the Spanish soap ‘Servir y Proteger’, serve and protect, described by the Spanish public broadcaster RTVE as “Un melodrama policiaco con gran peso femenino y un reparto de auténtico lujo” – you don’t need much Spanish to understand that:) What really surprised me was the ‘peso feminino’ in the series and the dialogue, for example today when one of the female police officers referred to one of her male colleagues as un ‘verdadero machista retrogrado’. On public and publicly funded state TV! How times have changed in Spain!

An old friend of Pádraig’s (she calls him ‘Paddy’, so she must be a swimmer:) sent him an email wishing him all the best and recommending to him (and us) to listen to a piece of music she performed with a group of musicians in different parts of Ireland. It’s called Path of Miracles by Joby Talbot and comes in four movements (one for each of the four cathedrals on the Camino Francés) – with ‘Santiago’ being her favourite one. We were listening to it this afternoon after our walk and it truly evokes the spiritual and meditative side of walking the Camino. She says, one day she’ll be walking the Camino. I know she will!

Which word would describe today on the Camino Celta, the Celtic Camino for Pádraig and the rest of us? I’ll remember it as an uphill battle, literally. Forget the hills of Dingle. What we went up today was the equivalent to rock climbing with a wheelchair.

It was getting close to 30 degrees celsius today and it felt like 40. You know one of those days when you’re sweating so much that you can drink sheer endless amounts of water and never have to go to the toilet? Today was one of these days.

But it was magic. There were no nerve-racking incidents today. It almost felt as if we were getting into a routine. Getting Pádraig ready in the morning, down to the hotel lobby in granny’s wheelchair, transfer into his 4-wheel-drive equivalent and off we went. It definitely was a good idea to have a base for a few days here in Órdenes and to get to the day’s starting and back from the day’s finishing points in a taxi. Note: Órdenes has one (!) wheelchair taxi who’s driver, Ramón, is a great man and very helpful when we try to push the MoutainTrike into that gap in his car that is just about wide enough to accommodate it.

When we decided last year that we were going to finish the pilgrimage to Santiago that we had started years ago, walking every year for a few days during Easter week towards Santiago, we didn’t have a clue what we were getting ourselves into. Even now, I’m not sure whether we fully understand what we are doing.

But that is not important. – What is important is that we are doing it.

To me, and I think for Pádraig too, this is a life-changing journey. I’ve heard of people making this journey is a wheelchair. But I’ve never heard of anyone with an acquired brain injury as severe as Pádraig’s walking to Santiago.

Are we mad doing this? – Of course we are. And I’m sure that Pádraig feels that too. And I’m extra double sure that this is the reason, the overriding, principal reason why he is enjoying this trip so immensely.

Buen camino.

PS: You might want to check out my first (!) article in TheJournal.ie

Most important thing first: Pádraig and the rest of us successfully finished our first day on the Camino Celta, the Spanish leg. Now, how we did this is a slightly different story.

Having been at the Church of St James in the morning, we set off in the morning passing by the beautiful cruise chip that had docked overnight, making our way down the Camino.

Yesterday, we found out that the MountainTrike fits into a Caddy (but not into a standard RENFE train). Today, we found out that it does neither fit into lift nor through the room doors in the hotel we’d booked in Órdenes. Following (long) moments of panic and wrecking our heads to find a solution, one of the employees of the hotel got Pádraig here grandma’s bog standard wheelchair which he will be able to use to get into the lift and his room. There are really caring people around!

I’ve been thinking over the past few day that we re really pushing the boat out. This truly ain’t no ordinary journey. Never mind the walking. That’s the easy bit of what Pádraig and us are doing.

We’ll sleep really well tonight  – although a group of tourists moved into the place earlier who seem to have a problem with sleep, telling their life story to one another. On the corridor:)

What a journey. We made it. Tonight we are all about to go to sleep in A Coruña. From Dublin to Santiago and on to this beautiful city beside the sea with gorgeous bars and narrow roads where we pushed Pádraig’s MountainTripe and everybody else pushed each other. It was beautiful mayhem.

Tomorrow we’ll walk and will stay overnight in Órdenes which will become our base for the next 4 days or so.

But for now – good night and ¡buen camino!

Actually, it won’t be Seville but A Coruña and Santiago de Compostela and the barber up the end of our road that we went to today is not from Spain at all but from Central Europe. But it sounds like a nice connection anyways, doesn’t it:)

Tomorrow morning, Smart will be heading up to the airport with that super-cooper MountainTirke to catch an early afternoon flight with Air Lingus to the land of our celtic brothers and sisters to walk in the footsteps of the Wild Geese.

Are we prepared? You bet we aren’t. Life is too short for that, right? Whatever is going to happen will happen, and we’ll have no other choice but to let it happen. We’ll take it easy and enjoy every moment of it. Because that’s what life is for.

It really is. That simple.

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, two hours drive east of Holyhead, a smart guy set up this business in an unmarked “industrial unit”, manufacturing the equivalent of a four-wheel drive wheelchair.

When everyone in Ireland told me Pádraig’s existing wheelchair could not be ‘pimped’ converting it into a track ‘n field wheelchair because it was built for long, even corridors of ‘institutions’ and that whoever was sitting in such a chair was also not meant to travel the great outdoors, I asked Dr Google if he had a solution. He pointed me to three or four companies. The one in the middle of nowhere in Brexit England managed to manufacture one especially to fit Pádraig’s height, just in time. It has mountain bike wheels and air suspension with a wide wheel base for extra stability and comfort. They had never done such a huge customised chair. In beautiful green, sparkling colour! Ready for the Camino Celta!

This morning, Pádraig, a good friend and myself set sail on the Irish Sea’s fastest ferry to Holyhead, drove to the middle of nowhere, collected the chair, got some final adjustments done, drove back to Holyhead, and return on the flying catamaran to Dublin. After a long day with tons of excitement we’re exhausted and tired, but really happy and grateful that all worked out  – I couldn’t say ‘as planned’ because today was too complex to plan. Little details we had never thought about enough, like: how would the two chairs fit into the car on the return trip? It came all together. Like magic.

No idea where this day went. It just disappeared into thin air. I have a list of what happened: PAs arrived at 7am, the speech and language therapist (SLT) at 9am, physio at 10.30, massage at 11.30, lunch at 12.30, TG4 film crew 13.30, music therapy at 4pm, friends at 6pm, TG4 film crew left at about 8pm, camera man at 9pm. The camera man very kindly left me some pretty cool camera to film our adventures on the camino!

Tomorrow will be easy and straight forward in comparison. Ferry will leave at 8.45. We’ll drive about 2 hours to get to the manufacturing plant for Pádraig’s Mountain Trike specially manufactured wheelchair. With a bit of luck we’ll catch the fast ferry back a around 5pm to arrive back in Dublin at 7pm.

To be honest: my head is spinning a bit but I’m sure it’ll all sort itself out and all will be just alright.

Got the confirmation today that Pádraig’s new all-terrain wheelchair will be ready by Thursday. We’ll have to collect it in England, just over 2 hours’ drive from Holyhead to make sure it’ll fit him and to be able to make any last adjustments if needs be. It’ll be a long day but after that we’ll hopefully be ready to go on that big adventure and pilgrimage

In case you missed it, as I did, there was an article in last Wednesday’s The Herald reporting, again, on the bed closures in the NRH, together with a statement by the HSE saying there are plans to change things for the better in their 2017 Service Plan. Mmmhhhhhh….

It’s  Easter Monday and it’s Independence Day.
Two brilliant things happened today.

First, two of Pádraig’s friends came by and went out with him on a walk. I thought they’d never come back, it seemed so long. From what I heard, they had a really good time and are planning a follow-up with a variation on the theme of ‘independence’. Really, we (the old guys) don’t have to be involved. We’re not indispensable. We’re not really needed. At least not all the time. A strange-feeling and absolutely brilliant and makes-me-so-happy realisation. I guess it is good for all of us to have us around, but we can (should!) also have an independent life. All of us.

Then, Pádraig’s sister re-activated his Facebook page because the plan is to have im sending messages out to his friends and getting messages and stuff called ‘likes’ (I think) from them. I don’t know what the page looks like (never really did, thinking about it), but the idea of getting back online to me sounds and feels like another huge step of getting back into life. An Saol. Dreamboaters Ahoy!

Went out to see the ceremony on O’Connell Street – which we missed, but where President Michael D. shook Pádraig’s hand –  had something to eat in the Greshams, and walked back up to Glasnevin cemetery – all in all a good Easter Sunday and a bit of training for the camino next week.