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.

I want to sleep. To be in my dreams. To be with the ones I love. The ones that love me. No troubles. No reason to complain. All in tune. All in balance.

So that’s what I’ll do tonight. Ready to roll this big stone from the opening of the tomb to let in the light. For Pádraig to see.

The light guiding the dreamboaters, guiding us on the way, the way of life. An Saol.