What is The Camino de Santiago de Compostela?
The Camino means many things to those who ‘do’ it, and everybody has their own reasons for doing it, as well as their own way of doing it. It can be done on foot, by bicycle or even on horseback, though by horseback is very rare nowadays.
Most people do it for religious reasons, but apart from the many crosses along the way, there was no discernible ‘religious’ feel to it. The daily routine of walking, finding a bed and a meal seemed to dominate. Of course, the daily Peregrino mass at noon in the Cathedral of Santiago is usually packed.
Because it’s such a long journey many people do it in sections, over a number of years, usually a week or two at a time. Many Spaniards seem to do just the last 100Km section from Sarria into Santiago, because that qualifies them for a certificate of completion from the Camino authorities.
People can opt for a range of accommodation options, from hotels to albergues (hostels). Even the hostels vary in standard, with private ones being (generally) better equipped and with smaller rooms than the municipal or parochial albergues. Private albergues can be booked in advance, whereas municipal and parochial albergues cannot.
Municipal albergue at Estella
Peregrinos can also lighten their load by having their luggage delivered from stop to stop. It costs around €5 per bag, per drop.
Some people decide to skip sections altogether and take a bus, train or taxi to their next stop. Taxi ads appear towards the end of sections, offering rescue to exhausted peregrinos.
Ricky and myself decided to do it in the most ‘authentic’ way possible, by using the most basic hostels, carrying our own gear, eating the Peregrino menu, and walking the full distance in the one go. We considered this to be the closest way to recreate the journey experienced by peregrinos over the centuries.
I was keenly aware of the historical aspect of the Camino. James Rice, a 15th century mayor of Waterford walked the Camino twice, and I was conscious of walking in his footsteps, though I was surely better shod.
James Rice’s tomb in Christchurch Cathedral Waterford.
The inscription reads:
‘I am what you will be; I was what you are now’ James Rice tomb.
We looked on it chiefly as a physical and a psychological challenge. Would we be able to keep going, day in, day out, until we reached our destination?
Cathedral at Santiago de Compostela
Happily, we were able for the challenge, physically and mentally. It wasn’t very difficult physically in that we completed may days’ stages tired, but never exhausted. And done of the hilly stages were quite tiring. We did plan realistically and we took a couple of short days to prevent us from getting too tired. Also, we seemed to get enough rest each night so that we went out fairly fresh each morning.
I can only presume that it was our training is what prepared us so well. We handled some 22 mile days and went off again in the morning to face another 20 mile day, without the slightest hesitation.
Because we were managing physically, we encountered no psychological problems. There was never a day where either of us felt we couldn’t face another day’s walking. Certainly, towards the end, it was getting more and more tempting to stay in bed a little longer, but that was only because the alarm was set for 6 a.m. and the bed was nice and cosy. It definitely wasn’t trying to avoid the day’s walking.
Dawn at Santo Domingo de la Calzada
We headed out most days around 6:30, for a number of reasons. Firstly, we got most our walking done before the day got too hot. We aimed to do at least an hour and a half before our first stop, for breakfast.
Depending on where the villages were, some days we’d do two hours before we’d get our first food of the day. That meant that we had 1/3 of a 20/21 mile day done by 8:30.
In the last 2 weeks, we did a lot of 20+ mile days, which with breaks, didn’t finish until 2:30 or even 3:00. We reduced our pace a little, to lace ourselves over the longer days. We also took more, or longer breaks along the way.
We met many interesting and some strange people along the way. I seem to attract oddballs. Ricky says I suffer fools to much for my own good. But, that’s me. We made friends with some good people, too.
With German friends at journey’s end.
Ricky has done the Portuguese Camino before, so he had an idea of what to expect. I had none, and I did wonder how I’d cope with living in public, eating, sleeping, washing with strangers, day in and day out. It was OK.
The dormitories were shared by all genders, but so were most of the washrooms, shower rooms and even toilets.
Dorm at the municipal hostel at Boadilla
Of course, the shower cubicles had doors on them, but they were shared by all genders. It didn’t bother me, and nobody’s modesty was undermined, as far as I saw. When you blooded the door, you had your privacy.
However, the design of the toilets/washrooms in the parochial albergue in Ponferrada was very bizarre. The shared shower cubicles opened directly onto the urinals. A woman could walk out of a shower cubicle and find herself looking at the back of a man, two feet in front of her, peeing into a urinal.
The Peregrino menu was a daily adventure. We got some nice meals, we got some awful ones. At €10 for a 3 course meal and half a bottle of wine, we could hardly complain. It meant we tried local dishes, not knowing what would be in them. While quality varied tremendously, we only met two dishes that were inedible. Luckily for me, Ricky got both of them.
That’s vegetable soup. Quite tasty!
Did it change us?
I think not. Well, I don’t think it changed me. I don’t think it changed Ricky, either, but only he can answer the question for certain. For me, there was no epiphany, or anything close to it.
Did we learn anything?
We got to know each other a lot better. Being so far apart in age, I was married and gone while Ricky was still a child; and Ricky has lived most of his adult life abroad, so we had little opportunity for building a relationship.
It was lovely to spend so much time together. We talked about old times, our respective experiences. He told me things I hadn’t known and I told him about things that happened in the family before he was born. We certainly bonded well. And neither of us can yet name the shop around the corner from our childhood home.
We also learned that our strength and stamina was well up to the job of walking 500 miles. We had no way of knowing that, in advance.
We also learned that strimming is the Spanish national pastime.
So would I do it again?
No, I don’t think so. It was a challenge, I’ve overcome it, no need to do it again. Also, it’s quite a long challenge, taking a complete calendar month. I’d happily go walking with Ricky again, on a shorter route, maybe more physically challenging. Also, not being religious, the Camino holds no special affection in me.
Would I recommend it?
Yes, it is something that is worth doing. To get the best out of it, I would suggest doing all of it together, the basic way. I feel doing it in sections, using good accommodation, having your bags carried etc, makes it just another walking holiday. Nothing wrong with that, in itself, but surely the whole purpose of the ‘pilgrimage’ is to give up luxury, expose yourself to hardship, and find out what you’re made of? And to atone for your sins, if you’re religious
I understand that people who wish to do it for religious reasons can’t easily get 5 weeks’ holidays, and that doing it in stages over a number of years is often their only option.
It’s taken me a week to write this summing up. When I go to bed, even still, I dream about the Camino. I wake up dreaming about it. Is this normal? I don’t know. Perhaps this post will bring closure to a long, but very enjoyable and interesting expedition.
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