Unique pilgrim talking the walk

Lifestyle – Breandan Ó Scanaill returned to Clifden last month after a six-month pilgrimage on foot from his home on Beach Road to Santiago de Compostela – a journey of some 3,500km that took him across Ireland, Wales, England, France and Northern Spain. In his final column for  The Connacht Tribune, he reflects on his experiences and the people he met.

Having travelled through Ireland Wales and England, by the time I reached central France in mid-Summer, the temperature was getting hotter by the day.

I’d say it topped 40 degrees on several occasions, but was in the high 30s almost every day.  I managed to keep walking, and found myself thinking of the old song, which I changed one word of, “Mad dogs and Irishmen go out in the mid-day sun”. I probably was mad to be doing this but I was being very careful.  I was drinking around six or seven litres of water each day and anywhere I found water I would pour it over my head.  I also had a light towel around my neck which I kept wet at all times, while my wide-brimmed hat kept the worst of the sun off my head and face.  I would shelter from the heat for an hour or so in the mid-afternoon.

This heat the fires which were raging just ahead of me in France were constant worries and on a number of days the paths were closed and I had to take to small roads to move forward.

One of the hottest and strangest days was just north of Bordeaux.  I was walking in a forest which was not closed but which had warnings about the risk of fire.  It had all the feeling of a Hitchcock film.  Nothing stirred, there was no breeze, no insects, no animals and the heat radiated up from the ground.  The grass and leaves below my feet cracked and broke, they were so dry. I was completely alone and I was fully expecting someone to come emerge from the bushes armed with a large knife.

I finally arrived in Bordeaux to be given the expected bad news, all the trails south were closed and it was against the law for anyone to be found crossing that part of the country. There were a number of reasons for this. One was the obvious risk to life, another was that anyone embarking on these trails was putting the fire fighters’ lives at risk and also taking them away from their main task, which was trying to control the blaze.  A further reason was that as thousands of people had been evacuated, homes were at risk of being looted.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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