Last night Scott and I watched a movie called The Way. It was about a man walking the Camino de Santiago, which is a ~800 km walk from southwestern France to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain where Saint James is apparently buried. A lot of people do it as a religious pilgrimage, but you can do it for a non-religious reasons too. It’s supposed to be a journey of personal growth or a spiritual adventure.
The movie was a little more religious than we liked, but the actual journey itself is pretty neat.
I know a girl who has done it. She talked about all the people she met along the way. I wish I had asked her more questions!
It seems most people take 2 to 3 months to do it, but I just found a blog of some person that RAN it in 19 days!!! That’s like running 19 marathons in a row!!!!
I’m not sure I want to do the Camino de Santiago in particular, because approaching St. James on my knees is not really something I care about, but I’ve always wanted to do something big like that kind of trip. Take 6 months off from life and go on a long journey. Remember when I was dreaming of biking from Nunavut to Chile?? Haha. Anyway Scott is keen too, so maybe some day we will take off and go on a really long walk.
That would be really cool! I actually have a family friend, she and her sisters walked across Scotland this summer. Adventure of a lifetime, apparently.
Jornakat, you don’t have to walk on your knees at all. That was a tradition that is long past. There are a few hard-core types that might do something like that, but my wife and I just finished the Camino and didn’t see any of that. I highly recommend the Camino. I’ve traveled all over the world and successfully hiked the Appalachian Trail from end-to-end and I would say the Camino rivals anything I’ve done.
Spain is promoting it as a European Cultural Itinerary, hardly a religious description. As shown in the movie, there are hostels, known as “Alburgues” conveniently located in almost every village, and they tend to be every 3-10 kilometers. Water is plentiful and the food, wine and beer is fantastic.
I’m working on a book about our experience, as a follow-up to my book, THREE HUNDRED ZEROES: Lessons of the Heart on the Appalachian Trail. I’ll let you know when it is released. In the meantime, I’d honestly suggest you look into the Camino, it is the experience of a lifetime.
Dennis “K1” Blanchard
thanks for sharing your experience with me. the more i think about the trip the more i want to do it! who knows, maybe we’ll be there in a year or two!
When I was living in France at the hotel in Tence (Haute Loire), many of the clients at the hotel were pilgrims going along the Camino route. They were generally German or Swiss. They all had really neat stories, and I was so excited for them! My parents got inspired as well. I think it would be amazing. Plus, you could stay with my French host family!
some day, some day
You can live your whole life saying some day…just do it.
It takes about 33 days if you do the stages in most of the guidebooks…I don’t recommend doing that…take 40 days, walk slower and stop to smell the roses.
I took 5 weeks to walk it (had to bus and train it too…blisters and tendonitis were the bane of my existence) and am planning to go back and walk the Portuguese Route next fall. I recently returned from working as a hospitalera in an albergue on the Camino. It becomes quite addictive….
haha well i’m in school year round for the next year and a half at least, so it’ll have to wait until after that :)
“but I’ve always wanted to do something big like that kind of trip. Take 6 months off from life and go on a long journey. Remember when I was dreaming of biking from Nunavut to Chile?? Haha.”
Didn’t you already do that, like three times!! :P :P :P Like when you circled Australia, and all your travels in china and southeast asia, and holland, etc!!!! :P
I guess you weren’t walking though… :) :) :)
haha thanks sarah, i see your point!!
now i want to do it all without an engine :)