I have just posted this on the forum – I’ll discuss it with you over there…

Please join up and join me…

http://www.pgsthewayforum.com/forum

A foolish man and a pretty young girl…

I met this beautiful young girl on my walk –

She was Italian, and she was dressed all in white. Flowing diaphanous white scarfs and robes. She had dark skin and dark hair and flashing eyes. When she smiled, you reached for your shades. It was dazzling. She was dazzling.

Thing about this girl – she wasn’t wearing a backpack. She didn’t even have a daypack.

I got talking to her, as you do, and she told me she was having a problem with one of her legs. It was sore. And a man had come along and offered to carry her backpack for her. He had his own backpack, but he carried hers as well for about 10kms along a tough and difficult section of the track.

I thought this was a very chivalrous thing for this man to do. Later I met up with him. He was mid 40s I guessed, and had gone ahead of her and was sitting by the side of the road, the two backpacks on the ground beside him. Both were large, and both looked heavy.

He looked exhausted from carrying the two packs. He asked me if I’d seen the girl. I had seen her. She’d gone ahead of me, her leg apparently not that sore, then met up with a very handsome young Canadian boy. The last I saw of them, they were canoodling in a field by a creek.

I didn’t wish to tell this man what I’d seen. I got the feeling his offering to carry her backpack had not only been an act of chivalry, but also an expression of romantic intent. Certainly the girl was in no hurry to leave her Canadian beau and reclaim her backpack.

I walked on, wondering how long he would wait for her. Or whether he’d carry those two backpacks back along the trail, and discover the Italian white vision in a clutch with her new Camino buddy… if so, how would the man react?

Was he an old fool? Had the girl artfully manipulated him?

I’ll never know – one of the great mysteries of the Camino.

What do you think?

Bill