On May 6, I flew from Brussels to Madrid to meet up with some friends to do the Camino de Santiago.
On May 8, we drove from Madrid to Ponferrada, and on May 9 we started the pilgrimage to Santiago.
It’s a lot of walking. We covered approximately 214 kilometers. Some serious elevation too, and over 1 million footsteps between the 3 of us. Through snow, rain, and sunshine…
I’m really at a loss about how to approach this period of time. The pilgrimage is something special- Kev does a good job posting some updates and thoughts on his blog over at KJcamino.blogspot.com.
There’s a lot of stuff that we experienced on the walk that doesn’t quite lend itself to efficient documentation- especially the incredible beauty and diversity of nature, and the stories and conversations shared with other pilgrims along the way.
Nevertheless, I’ll post a bunch of pictures and make a list of a few things that made impressions on me. I’ll also make another post about all the other shit that got stirred up and that I’m wrestling with as a part of the pilgrimage.
Impressions:
- Something about pilgrimage is different than a long hike. The guys I walked with are affiliated with an organization that’s changing it’s name to “Communitas.” From doing some research and reading on the word itself, I got sucked into some reading on the concepts of liminality, communitas, and ritual. On the trail, I think communitas does form- social barriers fall, people become courageous and vulnerable with their stories, and we all share for a short period of time, a merging of our stories into one common chapter. A few stories that made an impression…
- Irish lady in her 70’s walking the Camino alone, following the death of her husband of 50 years;
- An American physician who lost her husband unexpectedly;
- An Aussie girl, who grew up the child of an pentacostal preacher, and as a young adult abandoned and renegotiated her faith, to then came back to faith as a Catholic;
- (Another impression is… the demographics of the trail. It’s mostly older people, and mostly women I think. I can’t recall seeing any guys my age on the trail who were there alone (ie not part of a couple) and from overseas (ie not Spanish.)
- A lot of good food
- A lot of laughter with good friends. Inspiring conversations. (Literally… that breathe life into…) I already miss Kev and Doug.
- Spanish ham is delicious. Also, I miss bacon.
- Some of the trail is really hard- it’s exhausting and can hurt. Sore feet, aching muscles.
- It’s not all good/admirable stuff either.
- Some people stink and snore and it’s super annoying. Seriously, I don’t understand how some people can smell so bad.
- Bikers on the Camino can be pretty awful… and pissed me off pretty bad on a few occasions- barreling through mud and water almost running over pilgrims on foot. Even removed from the moment, I still think they’re assholes.
- The tourist hordes as you approach Santiago, and in particular at Serria and afterwards. The trail gets flooded with tourists on buses, folks with empty day-packs, and brightly colored gym shoes without a speck of mud. It’s not quite.. right. And it changes… everything. The conversations dry up, which is the saddest part. I don’t begrudge them per se… but it just changes things… Suffice to say, if I ever do this again, I’m doing the remote parts and probably not even going to Santiago.
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