Journey With Me On The Camino de Santiago!

It’s been nearly three years since Gabriel’s and my last adventure across England and as the days have rolled by we find ourselves off again tomorrow for our next journey; walking across Spain on the famous pilgrimage, the Camino de Santiago.  

As we have prepared for the Camino many people have asked questions about the details of the walk as well as the motivation for doing it.  So here are the answers to a few of those questions:

What is the Camino de Santiago?  The Camino de Santiago translates as The Way of St. James.  For 1200 years Catholic Christians have made pilgrimage to the cathedral in Santiago Spain where reputedly the remains of James, the Apostle of Jesus, were interned.  Modern day pilgrims walk the The Way for a number of different motivations both spiritual and secular.

Where do you start? Medieval pilgrims started by walking out their front door. Coming from Hong Kong that may a bit impractical so we have chosen to do the Camino Frances, the “French Way”, which starts at the village of St. Jean Pied de Port just inside the French border and one of the ancient setting off points on the Camino de Santiago.

How far is it?  500 miles (800 km) from St. Jean to Santiago.

How many days will you walk?  30 -32 days to the Cathedral and then provided we are not injured or sick, another 3 or 4 to the Atlantic Ocean.  We have a max of 35 walking days before our return ticket forces me to go back to work! 🙂

How far will you walk each day? It will vary based on the geography and how we are feeling but we need to average about 16 miles (25 km) per day.

A Camino “Albergue”

Where will you sleep?  As pilgrims on the Camino we will be issued a Pilgrim’s Passport “credential”  which will allow us to stay at pilgrim’s hostels “albergues” along the way.  These hostels will cost will vary from a donation to about 10 Euro a night.  We will probably splurge every week or so on a economically priced hotel room just to get out of the dorm for an evening.

Where will you eat?  Our pilgrim’s passport will allow us a economically priced set meal every evening.  Also some of the hostels we will stay at have communal meals for the pilgrims or a kitchen where items purchased at the grocer can be cooked.

Walking 500 miles sounds crazy!  Why are you doing this Steve?

Two reasons really:  The first is to spend quality time with my son.  At 17 he is on the verge of adulthood and I think this time together will be wonderful for him and me.

The second is because there are two moments in my life when I really felt a time of strong reflection on my life, my faith, and my relationship with God. Once in 2007 when I was recuperating from my cancer surgery, and once in 2012 when I was walking for two weeks across England.  I’d like to avoid the cancer option again and instead go with doing another really long walk. 🙂

Finally: In 2014 50,000 people registered in St. Jean Pied de Port to begin the Camino.  The Cathedral in Santiago reported only 29,000 made it.  A lot of people don’t finish.  Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as I am really trusting that either injury or sickness doesn’t sideline us of our goal of completing our journey.

Also: I hope that Beyond the Pale readers will appreciate the break from our regular scheduled programming to enjoy the updates and reflections I’m sure will becoming as we begin The Way!

Peace,

Steve