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10 Pieces of Advice For Walking The Camino. A Final Blog Entry…

Version 2

I’ve been home from the Camino quite a while now—a year-and-a-half, to be exact. I thought I would write a final entry within the first 30 days of returning, but that gave way to 60 days and then 90, and then…I wanted time to let my Camino experience fully sink in before writing a debrief of my walk across Spain to help those who are contemplating such a journey. It has, now, although I didn’t think it would be this long before I wrote about it again.

I was once asked what I’d advise someone going on the Camino for their first time and what they could expect from the trip. Truth is, every person’s journey is different and what I experienced will probably be vastly different than what others will experience. The season, the weather, the route, the day one starts—even the time of day— and the people encountered will all be different. The best advice is to just GO…and to be open to what the Camino offers. Everyone’s journey is different. And everyone’s journey is similar in the end.

Given that, and looking back these many months later, here is my advice for those planning the Camino for the first time:

  1. Don’t Let Planning Get in the Way of Serendipitous Moments. Trust in the Way. It will provide. This goes counter to the planner in me, but once you are on the Camino, things tend to fall into place. One way or another. Let the road carry you. You can’t plan on the people you’ll meet or the experiences you’ll have, so go with the moment and the flow of the road. This isn’t a wilderness hike. There will always be food and a bed ahead.

When I was in the Army, there was a saying—attribute to General Eisenhower, I believe: “Before the battle is joined, plans are everything; after the battle is joined, plans are worthless.” And that holds true for the Camino– well, substitute walk for battle, that is. You can plan for months on end before you leave, and that is part of the anticipation, but once you are on the road, you have to be open to what is before you—and adjust to the circumstances. Truth is, you simply can’t plan for what will happen; all you can do is experience what will happen, and respond to it. Therein lies the mystery—and the wonder. Like I say, “If you find the meaning, you lose the wonder.” Be open to those serendipitous moments.

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  1. Light the Candles. Although the majority of pilgrims I met weren’t Catholic or doing the Camino for religious reasons, I found going to Mass each evening in the village church to be meditative and healing. There is something soothing about sitting in a centuries old church and listening to Mass in a language different than yours, even if you can’t understand it. For example, every day I would light a candle for someone back home. That alone was part of my Camino ritual, my spiritual moment, it was a way I could offer up a Blessing for those I love. Those candle lighting moments were my Holy Moments… I loved the architecture—and marveling at how they ever built these churches in the first place. That goes double for the Cathedrals in Burgos, Leon and Santiago. It doesn’t make any difference if you are Catholic or not, there is something healing about being in these village churches and cathedrals. Remember, you are walking the way of St. James, so it kinda goes with the territory to at least go in a few churches along the way. And especially at the end, in Santiago. Especially then.
  1. Lighten Up: Your Pack. Be careful of carrying too much gear. This isn’t the wilderness where you’ll be bushwalking, but you will be walking on everything from trails to farm roads with surfaces ranging from loose rock, shale, ancient Roman Roads, mud, cobblestone and ascents and descents on steep hills. The two most important things you need to prepare for in advance are your backpack and your shoes. Get as lightweight pack as you can afford. This is one place where you can really reduce weight. Pay attention to the actual empty weight of the pack. You will probably be carrying 20 pounds or less, so you do not need a large pack with an external frame—typically, a 45L size pack will do just fine. Many packs in that size seem to weigh around three to four pounds, but if you’re able to invest more, you can get packs in the two pound or even less range. For example, an Osprey Kestrel 38 is three pounds and runs $160. A Hyperlite 2400 Windrider is 1.8 pounds and costs $300. Is saving 1.2 pounds on your back every day worth a one-time investment of $140 more? Walk 39,000 steps a day with it for some 34 days and then tell me. Whatever brand you choose, be sure to have it fitted properly—and learn how to put it on and wear it. Go to a backpack store like REI. Tell them what you are doing, your experience level and they can help fit you. Be sure to ask them how to put it on, adjust and wear it. I’ve seen too many pilgrims carrying their packs with the weight on their shoulders and not their hips and suffering all the way. This alone will save you much agony.
  1. Lighten Up: Your Shoes: If you are in your 20s you can probably do it in tennis shoes. If you are in your 60s then your footwear is more important. Regardless, you do not need hiking boots. There is a saying among backpackers that every pound on your foot it is like seven in your pack. So lighten your pack and your footwear and it will pay big dividends. I wore Merrill Moab 2 Mid Vent, nonGortex shoes—and if I did it over again, I’d use  trail runners, to save a little weight. A mesh non-Gortex trail runner will let your feet breath and if it gets wet, it will dry faster. Just because a shoe is waterproof doesn’t mean that your feet will not get wet. There is no thing as a truly waterproof shoe: water will seep down your ankle into your shoes—unless you have gaiters, and those are not needed unless you go in the raining season. If you have foot problems, see a podiatrist. I had Plantars Faciitis nine months before I left and had custom-made insoles, which saved me. I’d suggest that everyone get a pair of custom-made insoles rather than use that come with your shoe. It will make all the difference in the world. Another tip when buying shoes: read the manufacturer’s spec about the sole. You want a sole that is good on wet surfaces. There is nothing worse than to be walking on wet surfaces and having shoes that don’t give you the confidence of solid traction. Not all soles are alike. And on The Camino, you’ll be walking on trails with shale and when wet, can be slippery. The same goes for those Roman Roads and steep downhills.

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  1. Take Hiking Poles/Sticks. Again, if you are in your 20s, you can probably get by without these, unless you don’t bounce back up when you slip or fall. If you are in your 60s, they are a necessity. But many I saw on the Camino just kinda drug them along and did not know how to properly use them, so go to a store like REI and ask them to show you how to use these important tools. They can save your knees going downhill. Much of the Camino is on rocky roads and shale and you’ll be going up and down hills, many of which are quite steep—and when those get wet it is dangerously slippery. A fall can put you out of business. Hiking poles can be a lifesaver to prevent that. Experienced backpackers won’t go without poles. Neither should pilgrims. But, and this is a big but, learn how to use them! Most of the folks I saw were just kinda clicking them along. Go to a store like REI and have them show you how to use poles for going up hill and down hill. And get the lightest poles you can afford—there is a big difference in holding one pound poles and holding 1.5 pound poles. Multiple that extra half-pound over the number of times you swing your arms in a day and you get the picture. Your arms will appreciate it.
  1. Your Pilgrimage May be Selfish. In a recent Dan Mullins podcast (The Camino Podcast–a great site!), he commented about the Camino having a piece of selfishness to it. He’s right. If you are leaving a spouse/partner/young children behind, remember that you are the one leaving. They are staying behind. They will have to pick up the slack and take care of what you normally take care of. They may fully understand and be supportive of your trip, but all the same, they are not experiencing the people and places you will be enjoying on the Camino. They may well be sacrificing for you. Be mindful of this. Acknowledge it. See it from their perspective. Reciprocate when you return. And be a better person for it when you return.
  1. Know your Purpose, but be Open to Serendipity. Some folks go to find themselves, to recover from a divorce or loss, some for adventure, others to get away from work for a while, still others to sort out things in their lives and others for as many reasons as there are pilgrims. I went to fulfill a promise I made 19 years ago—and to reclaim a part of my spirit that was waning. I was simply getting too comfortable and was passing my days in a routine that was once comfortable and at the same time limiting. The Camino helped me accomplish both. At the same time, know your purpose but don’t be a slave to it once on the road. Opportunity will knock many times, open those doors and go with the flow of the moment. Doing so will lead you to places that may actually be your real purpose all along.

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  1. It’s Not the Road, it’s the People. Like anything, it’s the people you meet along the way that makes the pilgrimage what it is. The Camino is a melting pot of nations and people. One doesn’t walk 500 miles across a country without meeting others. I met people from 28 nations and 17 states. Some days I would walk with other pilgrims, other days by myself. I found it possible to walk with others nearby and yet be by myself.

People on the Camino were a reminder that we need people in our lives: for companionship, for sharing experiences, for connection, and for support. Everyone on the Camino was there for themselves, but also to support and help their fellow travelers. Some were in my life for but a day, others I am still in contact with today.

There was Mary from France and every time we’d see each other she would holler, “Joseph” and I would answer, “Mary!” So we were known as Joseph and Mary.

There was 17-year-old Elena, who I adopted as my Camino granddaughter.

There was Debra from Colorado whose blister warranted its own name: “El Diablo.” And her husband, Rod, who section-hiked the Appalachian Trail the following year. Dear friends to this day.

My first night crossing the Pryenees I stayed in a refuge high in the mountains. This was pilgrim living, communal style:10 men and women in bunk beds–I didn’t have to extend my arm to touch the ceiling. One toliet. One coin-operated shower. This ain’t the Hyatt. And when night fell, the snoring competition began. Don, the Big American is a snorting walrus, the three Japanese make quick grunts like Kung fu fighting, the Korean sounds like he’s walking on hot coals. The German woman snores like the German Army on a forced march. The Korean girl in the bunk under mine calls me “hi-bed.” So I call her “lo-bed.” She’s very shy. But it made her smile. As a group we hiked together for several days and then saw each other intermittently throughout the journey. Great friends with great stories. It provided me with wonderful conversations, characters and dialogue.

And Richard and Monica from Australia who I met in Zubiri—Richard calls those he met in the early days his Stage 1 friends. I walked with them on and off and then we met up again in Santiago on the final stages over wine and beers and dinner. There was Amilee, the sweet, street-singing French girl, Nacha from Espania, Kirsty the Scottish lassie who walked playing her guitar, and Nadia the adventurous Australian.

There were scores more, each different, each with their own interesting personalities and stories. Each will be part of my Camino experience. The same will be true for you. The road is the Way to new friends and new relationships.

  1. The Camino Simplifies Everything. Your life will consist of a routine: walk, eat, sleep, repeat. Everything is reduced to the simplest element: What’s the weather? How far do I feel like walking today? Where can I eat? Will there be a room in the village tonight? Life on the Camino is all about the basics, the basics that we often take for granted in our lives away from the Camino. You only carry what you need—no extras, no mementos, nothing to weigh down your walk. You’ll find this forced decluttering freeing and liberating in many ways: there is less to worry about, less to carry, less that you actually need. As a result, you find yourself free from the “stuff” that permeates our daily lives. Liberating.
  2. Body, Mind, Spirit. For those walking 500 miles or more, it begins with the body—the legs, specifically. Depending on your age and fitness, it typically takes upwards of 14 days to “get your Camino legs.” If it is physically taxing at first, don’t despair. It will get better once you get used to walking 12-20 miles a day every day. Remember, for most people this is a new experience and it takes some time to get acclimated to the physical routine. Once you do, then the mind starts to relax. I tell my grandchildren, who are serious cross country runners, that the “feet achieve what the mind believes.” So if your body is complaining at the outset, your mind needs to take over and tell it that all will be okay. Of course, sometimes an Ibuprofen and Compeed can help as well!

The Camino is a meditate, spiritual walk as much as it is a physical walk. The beauty is that it asks pilgrims to trust in themselves and to have faith that all things will work out and to walk with faith and gratitude for what is provided. A pilgrim is a humble walker, who treats the land and the people encountered with respect and curiosity.

Sometimes you’ll find yourself in the middle of nowhere on the Camino and wonder how you got there. So remember: sometimes in the middle of nowhere is where you find yourself.

Go! Don’t wake up one day to find you’ve sacrificed your dreams to protect your days…

Then write your own “10 Pieces of Advice for Walking the Camino!”

Buen Camino!

–Joe Williams
aka Don Qui-Joe-te
Grandfather of the Camino
Man of LaMancha Memories

joe 2Back in my office, missing the Camino!

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Leavin’ on a Jet Plane…

“There is no mile as long the final one that leads back home.”–Katherine Marsh, Jepp, Who Defied the Stars


Madrid. Thirty minutes to boarding. Fifteen hours to home.

I’m told my dog Buddy has been missing me.





What do you think?

Can’t wait to see him come running up to me!


Hope someone else does the same…cause I know I sure will!


–Don-Qui-Joe-te

Man of La Mancha Going Home

Grandfather of the Camino

On my last note from Espania…

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Homeward Bound Thoughts…

“Everybody has to leave, everybody has to leave their home and come back so they can love it again for all new reasons.”

–Donald Miller, Through Painted Deserts: Light, God, and Beauty on the Open Road

I was going to fly from Santiago to Madrid today but the airline changed the schedule from early afternoon to the evening. Since it would have been the last flight, I didn’t want to chance any problem–weather, mechanical–that might keep it from going and which would have put my flight from Madrid to Dallas in jeopardy, so I decided to catch the train instead.


Glad I did. Took 5 hours and went through great countryside. It was an early morning departure. The sky was brooding, the air chilled, a good day to travel by train. I was like Henry when he was a kid traveling in the car: my eyes were fixated out the window, glued to the passing landscape. The soft rocking of the train on its rails lulled me into a hypnotic trance. I could see myself walking the Camino on the paths the train crisscrossd through my reflection in the glass…and from the Camino I could see myself sitting in the comfort of the train looking out the window at me as it zoomed by. I was both and at the same time in two places: the luxury of a seated train and the laboring of putting one foot in front of the other with a full backpack, walking the Camino. Two places at the same time. Something I’ve longed to do all my life!

I’ve now had the luxury of seeing Spain from two perspectives: the close-up slow plodding on my feet and out the window of a zooming train.



In many ways, the sweeping vistas reminded me of the landscape of northern New Mexico.


Of course, Madrid changed all that!


My hotel is near the airport. And right next to the hotel is a McDonald’s!


But not like any McDonald’s I’ve been in: outdoor seating with misters, and electronic ordering–you don’t go up to the counter to order. It’s all by a visual touch screen! After you place your order you get a number and they bring your order to you. McAmazing.

Ah, yes, you can tell by now: I caved in and had a hamburger. But it was the mango smoothie that called to me…



Spain is high tech.

——-

Change of subject…

Here’s a few nice emails I received from folks I don’t know–they must have come to my blog from a note I put on the Camino Forum:

“Don Qui Joe-te, as an aspirational pilgrim waiting to start my journey of discovery in September may I sincerely thank you for your communications. I have waited with anticipation your latest incisive message from the Camino – i have never once been disappointed. My daughter is worried about me doing the Camino alone (even though she finished University and has gone to China to teach – and I’m worried about her she’s my precious child aged just 24) and I have reassured her I’ll not be alone as a mere 53 year old man on a pilgrimage. She has said to me your posts tell her that I’ll never be the same again. Thank you for your inspiration.”

–//

And this one:

 “I enjoyed reading your blog each day. It was the most accurate account of what it is like to do SJPP to Santiago in September. We are preparing for the worst and expecting the best. Well done!”

—--And this:

“Very much enjoyed following your blog; I cannot imagine someone else getting more out of their Camino than you did. Thanks!”

——-

People are so nice…

——-
While in Santiago I reconnected with Rod and Deborah–two of my great traveling companions–for a farewell lunch. It was nice reliving Camino memories. And they brought me a real shell from Finisterre!

I also had dinner one evening with Richard and Monica from Australia who I met early on in Zubiri–or as Richard says, we were Stage 1 friends. Along with Suzanne  from England, Nadia from Australia, Palo from Italy and Marie from Barcelona. Kinda international, huh?

And I ran into several others throughout the day. But I missed many others–people who had leaped-frogged ahead or who stopped for extra rest days and who were behind me: the Korean priest; the three Japanese grandfathers (my pals from way back in Orisson); Claudia from Germany; Kirsty the vagabond street singer from Scotland; Don from Seattle; Chloie from France; and Elena, my adopted “granddaughter” from Chicago, who I met walking out of Pamplona. And so many others. But that is the way of the Camino. I think of them often.

All told, I met people from 27 countries and 17 US states:

  • Korea
  • Japan
  • Denmark
  • Switzerland
  • Germany
  • Spain
  • Holland
  • Hungary
  • Australia
  • Ireland
  • England
  • Scotland
  • Argentina
  • Brazil
  • Chile
  • Columbia
  • Venezuela
  • Canada
  • Italy
  • France
  • Sweden
  • Poland
  • Belgium
  • Hong Kong
  • Netherlands
  • South Africa

And from the USA:

  • Texas
  • Louisiana
  • Colorado
  • New Hampshire
  • Washington
  • California
  • Ohio
  • Minnesota
  • Georgia
  • Florida
  • New York
  • Vermont
  • Montana
  • Illinois
  • Massachusetts
  • Arkansas
  • Alaska

I’m sure I’m leaving a few out…

The Camino is truly a melting pot of nations.

—–

Tomorrow I catch a flight home.

It’s time. I’ve been gone longer than I ever have–except in the Army.

I don’t want to be away this long again.

From home. My land.

From my family: my kids and grandkids.

From my dog.

From Barbara.

Without their love, support, prayers and understanding this Camino would not have been possible. My family and so many friends were with me every step of the Way…

There is more I want to reflect on and write about, so stayed tuned. The Camino may be over, but there is more to say…

–Don-Qui-Joe-te

Man of La Mancha Memories

Grandfather of the Camino

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A Pilgrim’s Blessing…

The pilgrims continue to come. Only God knows what each one of us brings, and with what kind of heart. We come mystically…We know the mess we bring and the often distracted heart that brings it. But this is all we have–all we are. One stretches out his arms to receive.

M. Basil Pennington, Journey in a Holy Land: A Spiritual Journal

……….

I depart Santiago tomorrow via train to Madrid, then the next morning a flight home.

I took a long walk around Santiago this evening as a way of saying goodbye.  I spent time again in the Cathedral in a couple of the chapels in quiet reflection. I walked up behind the gilded high altar and placed my brow on the back of Santiago’s (St. James) head. It’s a ritual for peregrinos.

I am moved by the oddest things on this journey.

The other night after Mass the priest asked the peregrinos to gather to the side for a pilgrim blessing. They passed out little booklets and gave each of us a 2×2 inch square black piece of construction paper. Hmm. What is this for I asked the woman next to me.

“I think it’s to mark your page in the book,” she sId.

Oh.

There were about 30 or so pilgrims there and only about five of us spoke English. It didn’t look like any of them, or very few at least, had walked very far on the Camino. They looked way too fresh. Being Judgmental. There I go again…

The priest (or was he a deacon?) was a jolly sort. He welcomed us, said some things in Spanish and then led us in singing from the little booklet. Most of the others were from Spain and all of a sudden folks stood up, left the pews, and still singing, went in procession around the back of the Cathedral and into the cloister. Ok, I’m with ’em.

In the cloister there’s a small canister. We all gather around it in a circle and the priest gestures for us to come in closer, shoulder to shoulder. They light a fire in the canister and the priest talks a bit and then says the black pieces of paper represent something we need to let go and for for us to place it in the fire and the smoke will carry it away.




And here I thought we were just going to get a regular blessing. We burned our letting go’s and then he sprinkled us with Holy Water…twice for good measure.

He started singing again and we processed back in the church and into a part that is being renovated by artisans. He took great care and time to tell us about the history of the Cathedral, about St. James and the renovation project. It was great that an Irish woman who volunteers in the peregrino office helped interpret for the handful of us who couldn’t speak Spainish.

That was nice, I thought we’d wrap up and that would be it. Hardly. We started singing again following the little brochure, and we went up on the altar! Not just the first part, but all the way up under the statute of Santiago and the Angels themselves! Right under all that gold!


We sat where the priests sit and he then asked us if we’d like to share with the group tell why we did the Camino. About six of us spoke–including me–and they translated from English to Spanish. Afterwards several people came up to me and thanked me for sharing my story.

So here I am, grandfather of the Camino, a kid from Oklahona, standing on the altar of this massive Cathedral built in 1060, under the statue of St, James, and just above where his remains are interred, holding a microphone and talking about why I did the Camino. Very humbling.

We then went down into the “catacombs” and had a chance to kneel before Santiago’s tomb, the Apostle of Christ, the one Jesus called “Son of Thunder.” I’m four feet away from the remains of the Apostle of Christ, the first Apostle to be martyrdom, the Patron Saint of Spain.

It was a surreal feeling.

Afterwards the priest blessed us and sent us on our ways.

It was 10:00 pm before we left the Cathedral!

Thus was absolutely amazing experience. In other churches along the Camino the priest has given pilgrims blessings, but nothing like this…


Below is the  outside of the Cathedral. It is undergoing needed restoration and it will take years before the scaffolding comes down.



So tomorrow I leave Santiago.

Tomorrow I will reflect on that.

But now it is late and sleep calls.

–Don-Qui-Joe-te

Man of La Mancha Blessings

Grandfather of the Camino

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Arrival…

“There is no destination to reach, because we are the destination.” — Joseph Rain


Throughout this journey I could always see the day’s destination once I got within a few miles of the village/city. It was the spires of the church that hovered above the landscape, that called me to it with hope that the end of the day was near.

When I approached the final landmark–Santiago de Compostela–it was nothing like that, just urban sprawl. I briefly saw the Cathedral, but it disappeared, never to be seen again until I turned a corner and the plaza opened before me. It’s strange when what you expect doesn’t turn out to be what happens. On top of that, I wasn’t ready for the hordes of tourists and the many (mainly groups of people) who only walked or biked the last 60 miles, the minimum to get a Compostela (certificate of completion).

So my arrival wasn’t the emotional, fall on your knees or whoup it up sort of thing I anticipated it would be. And that seems to be pretty much the same with other peregrinos. The only ones I see whoupping it up are those who didn’t walk as far as I did, or who arrived on bicycles.

I arrived at noon Saturday, just as Mass was starting so I hurriedly checked my backpack at the tourist office and went to church. It was standing room only and a very beautiful, event–like all the services here are–but the nun who was the cantor had a voice like an angel and the pipe organ really piped it out. At the end of the service they burned incense in a huge silver container called a Botafumiero.

The Botafumeiro is suspended from a pulley mechanism in the dome on the roof of the church. I read that the current pulley mechanism was installed in 1604.

It was originally done to fumigate the clothes of early-day pilgrims…and of course incense is an oration to God.

It takes some 8 people to swing this thing from one end of the transept to the other, all while the organ is playing and the cantor singing. It is an amazing feeling to experience. So much so that I’ve since gone to three different masses to see it–and I’m told they do not do it every Mass (only when a group pays to have it done!).




This is the front of the Cathedral. As you can see it is undergoing restoration.
More tomorrow!

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Hola Santiago!


“If ever you do go back, what is it you want of Evesham?”

“Do I know? […] The silence, it might be … or the stillness. To have no more running to do … to have arrived, and have no more need to run. The appetite changes. Now I think it would be a beautiful thing to be still.'”

Ellis Peters, A Rare Benedictine (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, prequel stories 0.1-0.3)

—–


Well, it’s been a long road, but I walked into Santiago today–and just in the nick of time to go to the noon Mass in the Cathedral. Stunning. 

Late now. Too tired to write. Will write much more about today tomorrow! 

But here’s some background about St James I saved earlier…

There were two Apostles named James. James the Greater is the older of the two. He was also called “The Son of Thunder”. James, John and Peter were honored to be the only Apostles present at the Transfiguration. They were also present in the Garden of Gethsemane while Jesus prayed before His death.

Tradition tells us he evangelized in Spain after the crucifixion for nine years. St. James the Greater was the first Apostle to be martyred. In the year 44, King Herod Agrippa killed him with a sword during the early persecutions of the Church.

St. James the Greater is the patron saint of laborers and Spain.
And his remains are here.

But more tomorrow!

–Don-Qui-Joe-te

Man of La Mancha Made It to Santiago!

Grandfather of the Camino

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This is The Way…


This is The Way…the last day on the road to Santiago.

Follow me and I will take you there…

Will it be the End?

Or the Beginning?

–Don-Qui-Joe-te

Man of La Mancha Moments

Grandfather of the Camino

(The above art was on a wall by the church in Sarria)

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Do You Know the Way to Santiago?


“What you still need to know is this: before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward that dream. That’s the point at which, as we say in the language of the desert, one ‘dies of thirst just when the palm trees have appeared on the horizon.’

“Every search begins with beginner’s luck. And every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested.”

–Paul Choelho

The Alchemist

Tomorrow I reach my destination: Santiago de Compostella. I will have walked almost 500 miles in the very footsteps of thousands of pilgrims before me and the path the Apostle St. James trod several hundred of years beforehand. And yes. The journey has tested me and my fellow peregrinos–otherwise we would be tourist and not pilgrims. It has been hard and challenging and defining and empowering.

The scalloped shell has been the waymarker throughout the entire journey.

The shell is on the backpacks of every pilgrim. It is the symbol of the Camino. 

The shell acts as a metaphor. The grooves in the shell, which meet at a single point, represent the various routes pilgrims traveled, eventually arriving at a single destination: the tomb of James in Santiago de Compostela. The shell is also a metaphor for the pilgrim: As the waves of the ocean wash scallop shells up onto the shores of Galicia, God’s hand also guides the pilgrims to Santiago.

As the symbol of the Camino de Santiago, the shell is the waymarker on posts and signs along the Camino that guide us in the right direction along the way. 


Wearing a shell denotes that one is a traveler on the Camino. All along the Way, people call out, “Buen Camino!”


Under 20km to go!


Today we walked through grove upon grove of pine and eucalyptus trees. Cloud cover and no sun sure made the walk easier!


The hydrangea are amazing! Every color you can imagine.


Fields of maze (corn) are everywhere. The land is rich and small farms are plentiful.


And school groups doing the last 5 days of the Camino bring a different feel to these last few days. Those of us who started out in St. Jean have to realize that the Camino is not all ours alone. To qualify for a Compostello ( certificate of completion of pilgrimage), the minimum distance is 100km (60 miles), so many individuals and groups just joined the Camino a few days ago.

Proof of authenticity is kept by a passport that you get stamped in towns you stay in and at churches along the way. 

Here’s part of mine:


The front half:

So the walk into Santiago will bring with it all the days that have gone before: up and over the incomparable Pyrenees, down the hated hills into Zubiri, the big sky plains of the Meseta, the thought-it’d-never end days of walking next to highways, the steep up and down and up again in the hills and mountains–Spain has no flat land.

All this and more has gone into the struggle of being a peregrino. People along the way that I’ve shared stories and laughter with have each become part of the Camino mosaic. The landscape, the people, the villages and churches, the locals, the loneliness, the blisters, the food, the weather–everything has been an ingredient in making the experience, well, an experiencia…

Tomorrow the river that is the Camino will deposit me and my fellow peregrinos at the doorstep of the 900 year-old Cathedral of St. James in Santiago. 

It took more than 200 years for the Cathedral to be built. It will have taken me 34 days to complete my pilgrimage.

Each day, in itself, brings within it an Eternity.


–Don-Qui-Joe-te

Man of La Mancha Pilgrimage

Grandfather of the Camino

Image

One Foot in Front of the Other

He who limps is still walking. ~Stanislaw J. Lec


Walking is simple. It’s just putting one foot in front of the other. Today I did that 34,947 times. That equates to just over 13 miles. Not big by Camino standards, but the amount of miles I do each day depends on the amount of hills there are–and their steepness.

Before the Camino, walking 10 miles seemed extreme; now it is just part of the day’s journey. Some days the miles pass quickly, some are slow and labored. The hills take it out of you. The uphills are, for the most part, just straight up, no switchbacks. But it’s the downhills that get you. Long, long, and longer. Straight down. Your feet are crammed into the toe box of your boot. The pressure on your outside calf muscle is constant and immense. Add rocks, roots and slick shale to the underfoot and it can be quite treacherous. Add rain to the mix and it can be downright dangerous.

Today was a day when I walked mostly by myself, except for a few miles when I talked with a woman from Sweden, one from Arkansas, and another from Australia.  They all agree that the Camino is not the easy pathway it is made out to be.

But that is what separates us peregrinos from tourists. And it’s a mark we wear with some pride.

Here are some random photos from the day. I think they’ll be self-explanatory, for the most part.


The same dog from yesterday. He’d pick up this stick, go running up to his master, drop it and look up at him, hoping he’d toss it for him to fetch. Half the time he just went ignored, so he’d pick it up again and race up to his side once more, drop it and look up, pleading with him to throw it. He’s the best dog.


High school sports team doing the last 5 days of the Camino.


Sometimes the Camino looks like this…


Sometimes a smooth gravel path…


Sometimes streams to cross…



And always the churches…











Here’s something for my Grandkids who take Spainish (Henry and Max; Liza, do you take Spainish?) to translate:


Two more sleeps until I reach Santiago! But who’s counting?

–Don-Qui-Joe-te

Man of La Mancha Mornings

Grandfather of the Camino