El Camino

 

Late last fall, after one of my tone classes at Woodside, I was talking to the instructor for a bit, just chatting about our lives. I told him about my camper van journey, and he told me about the trip that had most impacted his life - a walk on El Camino, the pilgrimage route in Spain. The trek has several start points, but all roads converge in Santiago de Compostela, where the church is said to house the remains of St. James.

As he spoke of his journey, I felt a little nudge. "Pay attention," Someone said. "Perhaps you want to consider following in his footsteps."

I try to listen to that voice when I hear it - it doesn't speak often - and started looking into what it would take for me to make the trip. I asked around, found several someones who'd walked the ancient paths, got recommendations on all the travel ins and outs, and started making reservations.

I'm going to be gliking this trail (like glamping is to camping, my walk won't be a hard-core hike). I don't think my feet, still touched by neuropathy from my cancer treatments, would take kindly to carrying an extra 25-30 lbs across Spain. I'd probably make it, but I'd be miserable. I've also decided I don't need the hostel experience - sleeping in a room with a bunch of strangers who are "snoring and farting in seven languages" (per an experienced pilgrim) has little appeal. So I've worked with a tour company to arrange places to stay (I will have my own room, with a private bath, each night), breakfasts, dinners, and importantly, luggage transfers. 

I will get up each morning, eat breakfast, and set off for the day's trek carrying just my day pack. I will carry my water, my lunch, and my weather layer. The bulk of my luggage will get picked up and driven to my destination-for-the-day. How cool is that?

I will walk from 11 - 23 kilometers (7 - 14 miles) each day. As I write this, that sounds like a lot, but I will take it one step at a time. I'd planned to train at home, to work up to the distance, but my hike last month in Bryce Canyon taught me my biggest challenge walking this trail will be the neuropathy in my feet. I can't train the nerve damage away, I can only aggravate it, and so decided to just continue my daily pattern of activity, and bring lots of Advil. (My watch tells me I walk +/- 5 miles a day anyways, so I'll ?probably? be ok.)

My journey will cover the last 100km of the French Way to Santiago, but rather than stop there, I will continue on another 100km to Finisterre (or Fisterra), on the coast. Finisterre, which translates to the "end of the land", is the western-most tip of continental Spain. When people started walking this route in the 900's, they knew the world was round, but didn't know of the existence of the Americas, so when they stood on this point, as far as they knew, they had reached the end of the land. I read about this, and thought, "how cool would it be to follow in those footsteps and walk to the end of the world!"

In a few weeks, I'll get to find out!

(I don't know how much I'll be able to write along the way, but I'm going to take my iPad and will do my best to post a few words and pictures most days.)