The Story of a Tree

A few days before my departure, one of the radio stations in Pretoria did a brief interview with me regarding WetNose, the donkeys and the Camino.

It so happened that a retired reverend  heard the interview and phoned me shortly thereafter. He told me that a colleague of his, from Swellendam in the Cape, had done the Camino earlier in the year and that perhaps I should contact the reverend pilgrim.

I receive valuable information and tips from this fellow pilgrim.  He tells me that every year on his birthday, he has the tradition of planting a tree and that it could not have been different this year even if he was walking the Camino.  The tree he buys in one of the bigger towns in Spain and carries it for two days until he finds the right stop to plant it. The sign he had made in South Africa with the phrase 'Give a little water', in various languages, is posted next to the tree.

As so it is that I have a mission to go look for a tree, somewhere in Spain on the Camino de Santiago. 

He explains that the tree was planted just after one of the hills, on the flat section, not too far from a fuente, a fountain.  It is where the Camino and a farm road intersect, and that I should give her all my water for I can fill up at the fuente.

My hope is that when I find her, that she will be well, growing tall and strong, and lend her shade to wary pilgrims on the road.

And I think of the pilgrim from the tip of Africa who has kept his tradition in a foreign country and by doing so, be a blessing unto generations of pilgrims yet to come. 

Buen Camino!

Jovita 

30 September 2013