If you are truly interested in making the entire Camino
journey on foot, without the aid of a bus, taxi, or other motorized vehicle and
completing your distance goal, I have a few suggestions based upon both my
success and failure to complete the Camino.
The list is in order of importance based upon my experience walking in
the summer months with my wife and two teenagers and could change based upon
the time of year.
This subject is important to me because on our first Camino,
we didn’t have enough time to complete the route from St. Jean Pied de Port to
Santiago. Based upon some advice I
received online, I was told to start wherever I felt and I could bus ahead if I
didn’t like that part of Spain. So we
proceeded to jump around Spain and in the end, take a taxi into Santiago
because of multiple injuries. We felt
like we had cheated and didn’t really accomplish what we had set out to do,
even though we had walked more kilometers than most pilgrims.
We couldn’t get this thought out of our mind, and it led us
to walking the Camino again, but with the goal of not taking any
shortcuts. We wanted the entire
experience, no matter the consequences.
The advice below is based upon our feeling of incompletion and how best
to prepare for completing the pilgrimage without any modern assistance. Although we try not to judge other pilgrims,
the standard of walking the entire Camino was our own self evaluation. There will always be someone who walked
farther and faster, but we wanted to walk the distance we set out for, from St.
Jean Pied de Port to Santiago de Compestella.
1. Pack
Light and Right – I cannot stress this enough as the most important key to
completing the Camino. Although I was in
good shape going into my first Camino, the wear and tear of excess weight on my
back caused a shoulder injury. I thought
that I was tough enough to carry the weight, why not bring the extra gear with
me. My body disagreed and eventually
broke down. Please go back to my blog
post about what to bring and what to leave at home. Your body will break down if you abuse it
with too much weight. Young and old,
strong and weak, pack less than you think that you can survive with and make
that a challenge. It is easier to buy
something once you are there than lose a day or more waiting for a post office
to be open.
2.
Allow yourself enough time – One of the first
few questions asked between pilgrims is when does your flight leave? So often, the answer is sooner than the time
allowed by the guidebooks to complete the pilgrimage. It is the Camino de Santiago meaning that the
point is to get to Santiago. It is a
walking or biking pilgrimage, so you should maintain those means during the
entire pilgrimage.
Where your pilgrimage starts is a personal
choice based in part by how much time you have available. The “American” or “English” complete
pilgrimage typically starts in St. Jean Pied de Port, France, but for the
Spanish, many start in Roncesvalles. The
French jumping point is Le Puy which is an additional 500 km. Many people start in Leon or other major
cities throughout Spain.
A relatively common approach is to take a
bus or train from Burgos to Leon to skip the “boring” meseta. In my mind, this changes from the journey
from a pilgrimage to a long walking trip.
The point of this point and the pilgrimage is to complete it entirely by
walking or biking. If you don’t have
the time, start closer to Santiago and don’t skip sections. This will lead to skipping ahead and taking
short cuts. Pick a starting point, allow
for a couple extra days as “Murphy” will walk along with you and cause mishaps
and delays.
3. Walking
partner or Solo - Although I don’t have any experience with walking alone, my
thoughts are that this is the best way to complete the Camino
successfully. For me, we were a family
of four and never split up while on the trail, so we could only walk as fast as
the slowest walker. The slowest walker
actually changed throughout the course of the day which hindered our speed
more. We also ended up with 3 sick days
between two different people.
The downside to the solo walk is
not having support or pressure from another person to help push you to finish. That being said, my recommendation to
complete the walk is to go at it alone.
People pair up, then separate if their paces differ, then get back
together later down the trail. Traveling
solo does not mean that you will be alone.
4.
Listen to
your body – Some days you feel great and can’t wait to get out on the
trail. Other days, you just want to roll
over and sleep another couple hours and want the other pilgrims to stop making
so much noise getting ready at an ungodly hour of the morning. Toward the end of the day, you may feel like
moving well beyond your anticipated town.
If this is the case, go for it and keep walking. Other days, you can’t imagine how everyone
else is making the 30km stage. Stop
short and rest up for the next day. Pushing
yourself too hard, especially early in the pilgrimage is the best way to get
and injury or burned out. The trip will
seem unachievable and you will be tempted to give up.
5.
Have a
purpose for walking – This pilgrimage is both a physical and spiritual or
mental journey. As Yogi Berra said, “it’s
90% mental and the other half is physical.”
If you have no reason or purpose for making the pilgrimage by foot, you
probably won’t succeed. It doesn’t have
to be religious, but there should be a meaning for it. For us, it was religious, and as my sister
told me, I’m sure God isn’t going to punish you with an injury for trying to
make this journey which gave me courage
to continue on.
6.
Talk to other pilgrims – I always received some
form of inspiration by talking with other pilgrims. Their stories and reason behind walking
almost always seemed bigger and more important than mine. Fellow pilgrims are you support along the
trail and what makes the journey interesting.
I met a pilgrim who has walked the Camino every year for the last 20
some years and continues to enjoy it.
Each time is a new experience for him because of the different people
that he meets. Break out of your group
and talk to someone new. Learn about
them, their culture and their reason for walking.
7.
2 Pounds of Nutella – The only reason why I was
able to get my 16 year old daughter to complete the pilgrimage was Nutella. She would buy and carry the 1 kilo jar of
Nutella with her at all times. Joy for
her is chocolate, which melts in the hot sun of Spain. Nutella does not melt and was her source of
power on the long hot days. Treat
yourself and get the food, drink or whatever you need to nourish your body. Enjoy the coffee and food of Spain. Oddly enough, the most read blog post was
Finding Burritos in Astorga (http://www.pilgrimoutfitters.com/2015/07/finding-burritos-in-astorga.html)
which highlighted my satisfaction in finding my favorite food, burritos.
For those who have successfully walked the Camino, please
leave comments about anything that enabled you to complete the entire 500 miles
walking.
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