On Walking...
Field musings on the Camino de Santiago
Last month we completed a month long pilgrimage by the Northern Coast of Spain through the Northern route of the Camino de Santiago. We documented our journey here: Camino de Santiago: A Pilgrimage Through Cave Art
This, however, is intended to be a brief on the ground documentation of our journey. Some of the music that carried us through the way, and some of the themes behind our pilgrimage.
Most of the days we were walking, we tried to do it with as little distractions as possible. We did not have headphones, we did not listen to podcasts or audiobooks. But we had a couple of songs which we would play only once everyday.
The first song that we will bring up here, is one that has become of great importance to us. Because our YouTube channel and this project is named after its album.
Before we embarked on this trip, we had been debating for a while on what this new project would be called. A lot of names came to mind, but it was when we listened to Henry Kaiser and David Lindley’s '“A World Out of Time” that we knew we had come across something special.
The album features a compilation of Malagasy music, from Madagascar. The island's unique history, with a blending of cultures from South Africa, the Middle East, and India, makes for a music that sounds like no other.
The wondrous, strange and unique feelings that this album evoked was something that we wanted to strive for with our project. And the name, was just perfect. So we grabbed a little (or a lot) of inspiration from this album.
This song right here is one of my favourites:
In between songs, we would discuss ideas and the themes we wanted to touch on if we were going to document this journey. We were clear that we wanted to expand our understanding on the meaning of walking. The work of Bruce Chatwin entered our conversations quite a lot. In fact, I carried a copy of his book “The Songlines” during the Camino.
The book attempts to answer these questions: Why are humans the most restless, dissatisfied of animals? Why do wandering people conceive the world as perfect whereas sedentary ones always try to change it? Why have the great teachers -Christ and the Buddha- recommended the road as the way to salvation?
Despite the profound nature of these questions, Chatwin skillfully delves into the world of the Songlines in Australia while exploring them. The Songlines are labyrinths of invisible paths made of song, recognized by hunter gatherers in pre-colonial times. This YouTube video explains them in much better detail than we could: What are songlines?
Here are a few quotes from the book which caught our attention:
“ He who does not travel does not know the value of men” - Moorish Proverb
“ It is good to collect things, but it is better to go on walks” - Anatole France
“ I do not have a mill with willow trees
I have a horse and a whip
I will kill you and go” - Yomut Turkoman