the Camino network Part 1

It sounds like a secret society, but the Confraternity of James is an open global network of supporters of the Camino de Santiago. In early March, I googled it (http://www.csj.org.uk/australia.htm) and left a message for the co-ordinator of the Sydney group : Sandra Collier.
Within 30 minutes, Sandra called me back to confirm that the next meeting would be on the 3rd April at 12 noon at the Spanish Club in Liverpool St, where else? the only place in Sydney which provides temporary autonomous zones (TAZ*) for random gatherings of revolutionaries, charities and/or hispanophiles for a nominal charge. As the meeting was so close to our departure on the 7th April, Sandra offered to meet me for a coffee beforehand at Zigolini's in Woollahra where the Italian hot chocolate is as thick as lava.

On Friday 19th March at 5.30 , there was traffic and I was five minutes late. A green-eyed woman wearing a sports jacket was walking out of Zigolini's with trekking poles in her hands. 'Sandra?'
We sat down and like Mary Poppins, Sandra kept on bringing things out of her bag - photocopies of altitude charts, accommodation lists, cultural-heritage maps that we'll find on our way, a Pilgrim's Passport or 'Credential' with the gorgeous colourful stamps from every place you stop, a shell. As I sat there on the sidewalk of Queen St, the trip started to become real, especially the shock that the hardest days would be Day 1 and Day 2 from St Jean Pied de Port to Roncesvalles; an ascent of from 200 metres above sea level to the Pass Col Lepoeder (1450). Sandra confirmed that there are services that carry backpacks from one accommodation to the next. Make note to investigate. She spoke with the steady voice of a teacher and engaged the girls. It was becoming a reality for them too. They could practice using walking poles at home with broomsticks.

The waitress at Zigolini's having managed to find a place for the chocolate meringue cake amongst all of Sandra's material, announced with an Italian accent and sweet pride : 'I did it - I went to Santiago - I cycled there from Italy, 2,000 kms!'



*Thanks to Peter Lamborn Wilson who coined this term for his cult classic book _Temporary Autonomous Zones_ in the early 1990s.