Chapter 39
Hola Peregrinos,
Welcome to stage 39 of my daily ‘Tales from the Trail’, a 600+ mile journey that has seen me walk the full height of Portugal 🇵🇹 and a decent chunk of northern Spain.🇪🇸
This is my penultimate day on what has been a most beautiful trek.
Hard: for sure.
Bruising: at times.
Sad: for obvious reasons.
Uplifting: every day.
Beautiful: every hour of every day.
I’ve shared this trip with both family and friends; both established and new friends.
I’ve loved it.
It has been my best ever ‘solo’ expedition.
I don’t want it to end:
But actually?
I really do.
The time is right for me to head back to the people I love: my tribe.
To the UK.
To Yorkshire.
To Pateley Bridge.
To my home.
I’ve come to Portugal and Spain to do what I wanted to do.
To walk the height of Iberia.
To blog every day as I walked.
To share the joys of Portugal and Spain.
To spend a few days with my wife in beautiful Porto.
To mourn my lovely niece Hannah.
To support my lovely sister Lizzie.
To support her beautiful family.
(Even when they proclaim their Welshness!)
Lizzie was born in Norwich!😜
Her boys born in Trowbridge!😜
To make sense of what ‘still makes no sense’.
Whatever your belief system, life will throw situations at you that make no sense.
The only sense is, to keep going.
“To trust and obey.”🎵
That’s what Lizzie and the Jones family CHOOSE to do.
It is a CHOICE!
Every day.
It needs recognition.
It needs support.
It needs celebrating.
That’s what so many people who read this blog have done.
Thank you so much.
Over £3,100 raised.
I only aimed for £1,000.
So I’m bowled over!
Lizzie and her family are.
She sent me this message earlier today:
“Wow—this is amazing!
I’m truly overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity… there are so many books. Hannah is still helping to educate children, and her legacy continues to grow.
Like the sunflower we’ve chosen as our emblem, the charity began as a small seed. Thanks to support like yours, it’s quickly blossoming into a whole field of sunflowers. It’s incredible to see, and we’re so excited to keep growing Hannah’s legacy.
Thank you so much Mart and to all your friends and supporters too.
💛🌻”
I’ll add my thank you, here too!
Amazing and absolutely humbling support.
If you don’t know, my reason for walking, it is detailed in the link below.:
Mu niece was a beauty with a wonderful life ahead of her.
Sadly that life, at the age of 24, was snuffed out by a reckless act.
But her legacy lives on in the charity registered in her name, and established to celebrate her legacy.
Liz sent me today’s fused glass image. She was sent to hospital to check out the reason for her knee injury, sustained on my Camino, just one week ago.
“Thankfully the x-ray shows no stress fracture which is good but it shows arthritis on the inner side of the knee which is where the pain is and it shows a narrowing of the joint space.
There’s calcification in the soft tissues near the medial condyle, which is probably a sign of a previous sprain of the medial collateral ligament (MCL)
I’ve got to go back to my doctor (haven’t managed to get a rdv until Tuesday) and he will then either want to do an MRI to look at the meniscus or go straight for an infiltration which is a cortisone injection into the knee.
xx.”
Good news and bad for Lizzie.
No stress fracture, but a longer term issue which will need management.
A long road to freedom.
Luckily my sister is pretty resilient.
I have every confidence that she will nail her recovery and return to complete the Camino she has “started, but not finished“.
Lizzie also wrote back to me later on.
She helped to paint a picture of the impact this tragedy has had on Hannah’s other siblings.
There are 6 of them!
“I think about my other children often when I write about Hannah.
I wonder what it is like for them to read these words, or to hear me speak her name so often. Whether, at times, it feels as though she has taken up more space — in my thoughts, in my voice, in the stories I tell.
But that isn’t true. It has never been true.
I love my children equally — completely, instinctively, without measure. That kind of love doesn’t shift or rank or favour. It simply is.
But life isn’t equal.
And neither is loss.
Losing Hannah has unbalanced everything. It has pulled the centre of gravity in our lives towards her absence — towards the place where she should still be. And so, inevitably, she is spoken about more. Written about more. Remembered out loud.
Not because she was loved more,
but because she is gone.
We always wanted a big family, but I’m not sure either of us could have predicted we’d have seven children. It was only after the arrival of our seventh that we felt our family was complete.
Having such a brood has not been without its challenges, but what a blessing it has truly been.
Maria, Sarah, Bethan, Daniel, Hannah, Francis and Patrick are the most incredible humans, and I have to pinch myself that I had even the smallest part in their creation. Each of them makes the world a better place — bright, loving and funny, they make me proud every day.
Maria, Bethan and Hannah went into teaching — Physics and Chemistry, English, and Primary respectively. Dan worked in IT for the Fire Service before moving into the Conseil Général. Sarah works incredibly hard as an Aide Domicile covering clients around the town where she lives.Francis is in the British Army, and Paddy is about to go travelling around the UK before beginning professional barmanship studies in Toulouse, with a view to one day opening his own bar.
We are an extremely close family, and I am incredibly proud of how they have supported — and continue to support — each other, and David and me, following Hannah’s death. It is a situation none of us should ever have had to face, but they have done so with exceptional dignity and grace. The sight of the six of them carrying Hannah’s coffin into the church is something that will stay with me forever — heartbreaking and pride-making all at once.
The others remain — living, growing, moving forward. I see them, speak to them, share in their lives in ways that don’t always make it onto a page. Our love continues in the everyday — in conversations, in laughter, in the ordinary moments that don’t need to be written down to be real.
But grief is different. It looks for somewhere to go. And for me, it often finds its way into words.
Writing about Hannah is not a measure of love, but a response to loss — a way of holding on to her, while still holding on to them.
Not more.
Never more.
Just different now.”
That sister of mine has a way with words!
Gulp!
Gulp again.🥲
She really needs to write that book!
🌻🥾💛🌻🥾💛🌻🥾💛🌻🥾💛🌻🥾
As I type, I have completed my 32nd walking day on this trip.
My latest stats are in:
633 miles walked.
1018km in metric terms.
1,362,078 steps.
2 soles of my feet that are less sore! 🙏
“It is well with my sole!” 🎵
And my soul!
Yesterday’s (Wednesday 29th April) walk was the usual ingredient.
I hope it doesn’t bore you: but it is true.
Beautiful.
Epic.
Peaceful.
Bewitching.
I’m sure you must read this blog and think: “REALLY?”
Honestly it was!
Possibly the best!
It started with Donna from Australia and I, walking into Comborra, to take in the early sunrise.
Then we walked up a steep hill, but this was no problem, as the weather was brilliant: cool and perfect.
We caught up with our other 4 C’Amigos and visited a monastery, before descending the other side of the hill, alongside a beautiful river/stream, before ‘shortcutting’ our way to our next hostel.
I would love to write more, but at 7pm, after walking another 30 km, I’m absolutely shattered.
Sometimes ‘a picture can paint a thousand words!’
My laboured writing efforts are unnecessary.
This was the best ‘eye candy’ day ever.
(Besides, fewer words could mean no typos!
My ‘blessed friend’ (🫣) Sarah still managed to find 4 yesterday:
So it is now:
‘TRIPLE OR QUITS”
I have only a few chances to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat:
Last minute.com:
Typical!
“Oh so Bristol City!” 😜
Please Lord!
Not one typo.
Mike modelling on a 16th century toilet.
In an all American battle, Marcos could not resist modelling his own 16th century toilet,
All too soon, after ‘such a perfect day” 🎵(part 2) the race was on to get to the hostel first.
Australia took the ‘purity route’. (ie they followed the route by the book).
I took the shortcut!
It was sweet, oh so seeet, when I beat both Donna and Jenni, by 100 metres!
And they both ran!
Thanks so much for the read.
Santiago is tomorrow.
I come home Sunday!
Buen Camino
Martin x
Ps my daughter Rosie has threatened to remove me from the family group chat, if I show one more photo of my sore feet.
I actually blame Charles from Coco Joe’s hot chocolate shop in Pateley Bridge!
He did ask me to show my feet.
Maybe he doubted me?
But I do need to show you the feet of Marcos.
Perfect!
‘He’s got perfect skin!’ 🎵
Not a blemish!
“That’s the way to do it!”
Adios Amigos.
🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻
Martin Moorman is a 61 year old retired Headteacher who lives with his wife Nicky, daughter and her family in North Yorkshire, UK.
Happily married for 36 years, Martin and Nicky have 3 grown up children, all happily married too. In his spare time Martin loves walking, photography, football, renovating cooking and talking rubbish to anyone who will listen!
Martin Moorman 