Teresa and I at the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela after completing the 779 km Camino de Santiago Frances. What an incredible emotional sense of accomplishment walking into Cathedral Square.
Trying to decide on what to do for this year's vacation. What if I told you about an adventure in France and Spain that you would have to allocate roughly 45 days for? You would start your trip in St. Jean Pied de Port, a small town in France near the Spanish border. Your ending point would be Santiago de Compostela, Spain. The catch? You are walking the distance between the two points carrying everything you need in what will likely be a 20+ pound knapsack. You will rise around 6:00 am every morning, sometimes have breakfast and be walking before 7:00 am in the dark for at least an hour. You will walk every day for 35-40 days, 20-25 km per day. You will walk rain or shine, in 35+ degree heat with no shade or zero-degree temperatures, in pouring rain, hail and gusting cold winds. You will climb mountains with ascents as steep as 1,400 metres. The descents will be just as challenging and the trail will be rocky, rugged, slippery and at times very dangerous. You will sleep in a bunkbed, sometimes on the top, in communal spaces with up to 50 other people. You will have a hard time sleeping because of other people snoring, talking and moving around. You will wash and shower in shared bathrooms, some separated by gender, some not. You will share meals with people you have never met before who may or may not speak the same language as you. You will be susceptible to knee, back, and shoulder injuries, blisters and all kinds of foot problems. You will miss your family and become homesick. You have to figure out your daily destination, itinerary, accommodation, food and laundry. You will find this experience more physically and mentally challenging than you expected.
So, how does that sound? Ready to sign up?
How about if I describe it this way?
You will need to allocate 45 days for this experience. You will start your journey in the small French town of St. Jean Pied de Port near the Spanish border and complete your pilgrimage in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. You will follow a path that has been walked by pilgrims since the 10th century. The completion of your journey will be at a place where it is believed the relics of St. James the Great were discovered in the 9th century. You will have an experience that is nothing like anything you have ever done before. You will feel like you have joined a community of people from around the world, that have travelled to Spain to accomplish the same thing you are trying to do. You will meet people all along your journey from different countries, cultures and backgrounds and figure out ways to communicate with them even though you don't speak the same language. From these conversations, you will learn things about them and the countries they are from. Some of them will share very personal things about their lives and their feelings. You will listen, talk and share with them. You will embrace the physical and mental challenges of the Camino. You will get better at picking a destination, finding accommodations, and dealing with injuries. You will miss your family but will share what an incredible experience you are having on video calls, Facebook and Instagram. These people you meet will become your Camino friends and in some cases friends for life. You will have Spanish locals be incredibly helpful whether it be with directions, accommodations, restaurants or bathrooms. You will have emotional experiences like when you and your partner place a rock brought from home at The Cruz de Ferro, a place of prayer and reflection for pilgrims. Of course, you will be filled with emotions as you finish the Camino, see the cathedral for the first time, and obtain your certificate documenting the fact that you completed the pilgrimage. It will be as or more emotional as you wait in the cathedral square and meet your Camino friends as they finish their journey.
Both of these paragraphs accurately describe the Camino experience. While the first paragraph is accurate, I will say that virtually every pilgrim we met during our time in Spain would use words more closely associated with the second paragraph. People love walking the Camino. We met many people who had done the trek 4, 6, 8, 10+ times!
The Camino de Santiago or in English The Way of St. James, is a network of pilgrims' ways or pilgrimages leading to the shrine of the apostle James in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. Created and established after the discovery of the relics of Saint James the Great at the beginning of the 9th century, the Way of St James became a major pilgrimage route of medieval Christianity from the 10th century onwards. But it was only after the liberation of Granada in 1492, under the reign of the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, that Pope Alexander VI officially declared the Camino de Santiago to be one of the "three great pilgrimages of Christendom", along with Jerusalem and the Via Francigena to Rome. In 1987, the Camino, which encompasses several routes in Spain, France, and Portugal, was declared the first Cultural Route of the Council of Europe. Since 2013, the Camino has attracted more than 200,000 pilgrims each year, with an annual growth rate of more than 10 percent. Pilgrims come mainly on foot and often from nearby cities, requiring several days of walking to reach Santiago. The French Way gathers two-thirds of the walkers, but other minor routes are experiencing a growth in popularity. The French Way and the Northern routes in Spain were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, followed by the routes in France in 1998, because of their historical significance for Christianity as a major pilgrimage route and their testimony to the exchange of ideas and cultures across the routes. There are now seven main routes of the Camino James; Camino Frances (the French Way), Camino Portugués (the Portuguese Way), Camino del Norte (the Northern Way), Camino Primitivo (the Original Way), Via de la Plata (the Silver Way), Camino Inglés (the English Way) and Camino Finisterre-Muxía.
Teresa and I just returned from Spain where we completed the 779 km of the Camino de Santiago Frances (the French way). The idea of walking the Camino started toward the end of 2022. We were looking forward to celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary in July of 2023. It seemed to me that such a significant milestone should be marked by something more than a dinner out (although we did enjoy an amazing dinner at Miss Likklemore's in Toronto). We decided on matching tattoos to commemorate our 40th and I raised the idea of walking the Camino with Teresa as part of our anniversary celebration. We talked about it on and off during the winter and by the spring we had pretty much decided that we were going to go for it. Teresa had some commitments in September so we decided on late September as our start date. This meant we would be completing the pilgrimage in early November.
Our 40th-anniversary tattoos
I realize now that there is no way to prepare both physically and mentally for the Camino until you start. Maybe if you chose to complete subsequent Caminos you would be better prepared. Despite extensive reading about the Camino experience and some limited training, (although not nearly enough) we were woefully unprepared for the challenge. The Camino was much more difficult than either of us expected both physically and mentally. Often described as a walk, 60-70% of the French Camino is strenuous hiking with severe ascents and descents, and rough, rugged, rocky and dangerous trails. Many of these days would be difficult day hikes, only now you are doing them for 35+ days in a row, with a 20+ pound bag on your back.
I have written three blog posts that I hope will help first-time pilgrims be better prepared than we were:
10 Tips to Make your Camino Experience more enjoyable - click here
What to (and what not to) Pack for the Camino - click here
The 5 Best Albergues on the Camino Frances (that we stayed at) - click here
Despite my description above I don't want you to think that this was a negative experience. It was the complete opposite. Teresa and I are both glad we embarked on the journey and finished it. It was an experience that we continue to describe as like nothing we have ever done before (and we have done a lot of stuff). We have incredibly fond memories of the people we met and the places we saw and we get to relive them as we share those experiences with family and friends.
I think it is going to be difficult for me to completely describe our adventure, but I am going to do my best. This is in no way an exhaustive list but certainly represents some of the highlights we had during our epic 40-day pilgrimage.
It was truly an anniversary experience - As I mentioned above completing the Camino was meant to be part of our 40th anniversary wedding celebration. I don't think we have ever spent so much time together on our own. We were in close quarters for 24 hours a day for 40 days. The good news? I am positive we are going to make it to our 41st wedding anniversary (smile). This time with each other was exactly as I expected. We went through difficult times together, we laughed together, we figured out stuff together, and we finished the Camino de Santiago together. It just reinforced why we have been a couple for 40+ years. Teresa is my best friend and I am so fortunate to have a life partner like her.
I have never been so singularly focused - I have had a very busy life. Teresa and I have raised 5 wonderful children, I had a very demanding career, I travelled a great deal for work, and we have a wide network of great family and friends. It seemed I was always running, often over-committed trying to juggle multiple things at the same time. On the Camino, most of that fades into the background. You wake up in the morning and you have one goal - to make it to your next destination. You want to enjoy the scenery, meet some people and complete some planning for your next couple of days. But largely you want to get to the next place so you can continue your journey. It is the fewest balls I have juggled in a long time.
You have a lot of time on your own - Although Teresa and I were together 24 hours a day, there are also times when you are alone. Two people cannot walk side by side for 6-7 hours a day. This meant that sometimes we walked together and other times we walked separately, waiting for each other at intervals. Part of the anniversary experience was to reflect on our life together, but there were lots of times to be with your thoughts and your reflections. I believe this is a very healthy thing and one of the benefits of the Camino.
The world is incredibly beautiful - Spain is a beautiful place. We saw spectacular sunrises and sunsets, vistas with the mist/clouds below us and the sun above us. The mountains, forests, streams, waterfalls, vineyards and yes even the rainclouds were amazing. Even the dead sunflowers had beauty in their way. I have concluded that the world is a beautiful place; it is humans that f**k it up. Let's try and do less of that.
The world is a beautiful place. We saw amazing sunrises and even the dead sunflowers were neat. Teresa and I agreed they looked like aliens.
Walking is the best way to see stuff - I realize that this is not practical and limits what you can see as well as increases the time required. But without a doubt, you cannot have the experience we had unless you are walking. We trekked across the width of Spain. We saw the countryside, the small towns, the big towns and the cities. We visited cafes, churches, and town squares that if you were in a car you would not have given a glance as you whizzed by. We met local Spanish people who helped us in many ways despite the language barrier. We met a man from Spain travelling on the trail who pointed out that one of the great things about the Camino is seeing parts of the country that tourists don't normally visit. Walking in those areas was incredible. Teresa and I have always enjoyed travelling on foot when visiting a new place or even somewhere we have been before. This just reinforced that walking is the way to go.
The Camino de Santiago Frances covers the width of Spain. You walk through many beautiful towns, places you would never see if you only went to Madrid or Barcelona or were driving a car.
Every town, even the smallest ones, had at least one beautiful church. One Sunday we bumped into a huge Church festival/celebration. Many of these sights you only see if you are walking.
Oh, the people you'll meet! - Without a doubt, this is one of the most incredible aspects of the Camino. A volunteer at one of the albergues we stayed at said that "walking the Camino restored my faith in people". I probably have more faith in people than this person (I am an optimist), but I do agree that while trekking the Camino you often see the best of people. Fellow pilgrims not only make a real effort to meet and talk to you whether it be on the trail, at dinner, over coffee in a cafe or while having a beer at the end of the day, they also go out of their way to help. We met a couple from Washington State who were also celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary and had started their Camino in France. They had already walked 30 days before reaching St Jean where we started! We saw them numerous times and enjoyed getting to know them. One day while walking by a restaurant, the wife ran out when she saw us. She gave Teresa some kinesiology tape and hoped it would help her sore knee. I don't think that happens a lot in Toronto. Another time we met two Spanish gentlemen in Zubri who did not speak English and we of course do not speak Spanish. We continued to see them on the trail and after a while began greeting each other like old friends, calling out to one another and "talking" for a few minutes after a warm embrace. They arrived in Santiago the day after us and we were so happy to be able to be in Cathedral Square when they arrived. I know I would have felt like we missed something if we had not seen each other before leaving Santiago. Marianne was another of our Camino friends. We saw her most often and got well past the superficial conversations and into discussions about our families, backgrounds, experiences, and world views. We were all generally "progressives" so we got along. On the first day of our trip, we met Matthew from Washington state and we were lucky to be there when he finished the Camino in Santiago. These are just a few of the many people we met during our 40 days on the Camino and made our experience special.
You can do hard things - There are no "easy" parts of the Camino. The first week is particularly difficult because not only are you just getting used to carrying your knapsack, but you are also dealing with rugged, steep ascents and descents on the trail. In addition, for the first two weeks, you feel like you are on a treadmill. The hiking is very difficult, your bag is much heavier than you expected and as you hike, you constantly see signs with the distance remaining to Santiago. These markers are a reminder of just how far away you are and make you feel like you are making no progress. But you stick with it and soon pass the one-third mark, then the halfway point, and wow - you've made it to the highest point on the Camino where everything after is theoretically downhill (it isn't). Finally, you find yourself on the last day, 15 km, 10 km to go. You reach the outskirts of Santiago and get your first glimpse of the Cathedral. Walking into Cathedral Square is surreal - you have made it! You can do hard things. One more story. We experienced 3-4 days of torrential rains. After walking for 4 to 5 hours we were soaked. The rain had soaked through our gortex jackets and pants, things were getting wet in our knapsacks despite a waterproof cover, and our feet were soaked. We arrived at a steep muddy, rocky hill and as we looked up, water was rushing down the trail, 4-5 inches deep. Teresa and I looked at each other and broke out laughing. Sometimes you just have to laugh. The good news? Our feet were so wet that we just walked right up the middle of the stream and got it over with. You can do hard things.
In the end here is what I can say about our Camino adventure. We loved it and were glad we did it. It was truly a unique experience that I would highly recommend. (read my other blog posts so you are better prepared than we were). I do think you will enjoy it.
If you have questions you can reach me at thethirdperiod.ca@gmail.com.
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