Three Hours

I went for a little walk yesterday. I left at 7:30 am and arrived at Melriches Coffee Shop, tired but elated because it was 10:30 am. Yes, three hours.

Early in the walk, I realized that it was feeling like I was already on the Camino because I wasn’t thinking “oh, this will be a long walk”, I was thinking, I have a good walk in front of me, and it seems to be going nice and fast.

It was a great day for walking – good practice for the Camino because it was cool and for several periods it was misting heavily. I’m expecting that I will have rain on this Camino, so it’s good practice to walk in it.

My route took me around Stanley Park on the Seawall. I love walking there because there is so much going on, even at 8 am. There are other walkers like me, there are runners, sometimes in packs, training for the Vancouver Sun Run, there are people on bikes. And there is wildlife. Right now there are a lot of migratory birds on the water so I get to see several varieties of ducks, Canada geese, Great Blue Herons, (they nest here in a huge heronry), and a bird I swear is a kingfisher, or is it a woodpecker?

But this is a Mallard Duck. I loved the strong colour of its head. The ducks are having a great time right now.

And this is skunk cabbage, nicely lit and not smelly yet.

And there’s lots of activity out in the bay – boats moving hither and yon, freighters awaiting their turn inside Burrard Inlet for loading or unloading, a tug or two. I haven’t even mentioned the scenery. Crossing the inlet is the famous Lions Gate Bridge, tall and green, and beyond that the Coast Mountains with their covering of snow higher up. It’s easy to see the rain coming from that direction with the clouds that swirl around the mountainside and sweep down the valleys.

So three hours of walking becomes a pleasure, not unlike the pleasure I remember from our 2004 Camino – all the things one sees that keep the mind entertained and away from thoughts of tiredness, or pain, or boredom – never boredom.