I spent the whole day on the internet booking things. I honestly don’t know if I’m gonna stay in half the places I’ve booked, but they are there if I need them and they are all cancelable at the mo. I’m having to be organised and I hate it. But Japan is small and crowded. Even in the rural areas. And apparently spring is a popular time so perhaps I’m gonna be part of the human centipede when I walk this route.
It’s tiny. When I think it took me over 40 days to get to Santiago from Lourdes, this is just like a stroll to the end of the garden. If I walked my usual Camino days I would only need two nights maximum on the trail. I always think the Camino people online are behaving as if something easy is difficult so I still smell a rat when people do it about Kumano Kodo. I bet I get there and I’m part of a conveyor belt pilgrimage. But this idea they all have, that it is far flung and there’s only one bed and you have to fight sumo wrestlers to earn it? I’ll buy it as far as I have to. I’m not gonna risk getting stranded. Well, apart from one night, when I’m totally gonna risk exactly that because the internet is turning up blanks and the only way to book a night in that village is by contacting one of the travel agent resellers and I hate them so I’d sooner walk all night or sleep in a bush.
Most people regularly replying to Facebook groups only leave the house on special occasions. a the outdoors is big and scary. But they are right that there’s no online availability for these places so maybe that means something. It might not bear out when the real world is happening, but rather than take the risk of multiple nights sleeping rough I’ve reduced those chances to just one night and I’ve got a nice hostel in a town with hotsprings the day after.
To do that I had to book everything backwards, so I’m walking counterflow. The retired emperors used to walk counterflow anyway – it is only the tour groups that have imposed a direction on this walk. I guess it’ll mean I see a lot of people, but it also means I won’t have that experience I had a few times on Camino when I’m walking through a glorious wood and there’s group in earshot behind me making textbook small-talk about “What’s your favourite whatever the hell and why?” “If you were a glurk, would you be ergen or splurgen?” Like some people do on dates. yuk.
Then I went to a late Scene and Heard rehearsal. That is still fun. I’m happy about how it will all play out. A really lovely team and out of all of them I’m the youngest. Well, if you discount the writer who’s ten.
AlBarclay 