Divine inspiration
ABSOLUTION of your sins is one outcome of completing the arduous Camino de Santiago trail, which probably is a bit of a motivator for older walkers, says former MP Di McCauley.
The 73-year-old has just completed more than 200km of the ancient Catholic pilgrimage route from San Sebastian to the St James Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, in northwest Spain.
The legend is that the bones of the apostle St James were brought by boat from Jerusalem to northern Spain and buried under the cathedral site.
For more than 1000 years this trail has been used by Christians. It is considered by them as one of the three pilgrimage routes on which all sins could be forgiven.
“I had a friend who had done it and I read a bit about it,” Di said. “I also mentioned it to my husband. Ian said, ‘Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t possibly do that’.
“He may have said it deliberately knowing that if he laid the challenge out for me, I would take it up. I was hoping he would join me, but his health wasn’t up to it.”
Di said Ian was impressed by how she applied herself to the task of getting ready. As a fairly non-active person, Di spent 12 months on the road, accompanied by her small dog, starting every day at the unfamiliar hour of 4am. At first it was 1km each day, but by the end of the training period Di was up to 10km a day.
“I noticed an improvement in my fitness level so quickly once I started walking,” she said.
By the end of the Camino walk, Di was walking up to 25km a day. “It nearly killed me,” she said. “There were a lot more hills than I thought, but I was determined.
“You really do it in a spirit of introspection and reflection, and just simply enjoying.
“Although, there was one day when I was climbing this hill and it never seemed to end. I swore madly and yelled, ‘When is this effing hill going to stop?’. Our guide, who was a very funny fellow, would sidle up to me every morning and say, ‘More f ****** hills today, Di’, which was hilarious.
“On the last day I just cried all the way. I was crying because I just knew I was going to do it. It did mean a lot to me.”
The Camino trail walk had been on Di’s bucket list for some time but until this year she had been distracted by her many non-travel activities.
For 20 years from 1987, Di was in the thick of the Queensland Parliament as the National Party member for Callide. She held various positions, including National Party spokeswoman on health from 1990-92, spokeswoman for women’s affairs from 1991-92 and Local Government and Planning Minister
ON THE LAST DAY I JUST CRIED ALL THE WAY. I WAS CRYING BECAUSE I JUST KNEW I WAS GOING TO DO IT.
DI MCCAULEY
from 1996-98.
On happily retiring from politics, in 2004 she wrote the book Diving Off The Ironing Board – “I had a few things to get off my chest” – and has since thrown herself into quilting, embroidery, her award-winning garden and her family.
Di and her husband moved from their cattle property to 200 hectares (500 acres) outside Mt Kilcoy 10 years ago so they could look after their elderly mothers, who were in their 90s. Both have since died.
“We did enjoy the last years with them,” Di said. “I did learn a lot about ageing,” she added with a chuckle.
Since returning from the Camino journey, Di admits she hasn’t done a lot of walking, but now that there is a walking trip on the rail trail through the Brisbane Valley and another at Easter to Mount Patrick in Ireland on the radar, she’s determined not to let her fitness decline too far again.