Ship of Fools: Buen Camino - Tales from the Camino

Thread: Buen Camino - Tales from the Camino Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Pangolin Guerre (# 18686) on :

On a recent thread, a brief to-and-fro between Brenda Clough and me put me in mind of my experience on the Camino frances (the most famous one, which goes across the north of Spain).

Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of time (I was living in London at the time, and had to be back), so I did the camino only from Faria to Santiago de Pompostela in January 2012. It was a wonderful experience. It was a relatively warm January, and I managed to keep ahead of a major dump of snow. There were days of driving rain, but also beautiful, sunny days. The people were fantastic: Ursula, the retired economics professor from Germany; Helmut, the architect from Germany; Brian and Inge (IT from Denmark) were my principal companions. The Spaniards along the way were humbling in their kindness, generosity, and patience.

Spiritually, I found the greatest sustenance not in the church visits, but in my participation in such an old tradition. Aside from being clad in Gortex, how different was I from any of the countless peregrinos who trod before me? I felt physically on a spiritual continuum: worship, contemplation, fellowship, wonder (running into a fox!) stretching back centuries, and stretching forward. in this regard I was struck by a memorial to a German peregrino who died of a heart attack on the path - one leaves a shoe.

I'm hoping that this autumn I might be able to do the camino portuguese.

Come! Let's share the virtual camino!

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

oooh, I so want to go!

Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :

I've done some segments of Pilgerwege (pilgrimage routes) in Germany and a little less in Portugal. I am struck with how these experiences correspond so well to a wilderness trip I have taken. It is all about the orientation to what you are doing and why. There's a wilderness in both outward and inward journeys I think.

My canoeing buddy and best friend, and I went on a trip between his bouts of chemotherapy for cancer. We set a goal to reach the highest waterfall in Saskatchewan, which is east of Stanley Mission, where the oldest Anglican church is, in the province. We stopped there as we left (it is just across the Churchill River from the town) and on the way back. We did the trip with his suffering and symptoms, at times I did all the work, and at times he contributed. Compline each night, laughing and suffering in the days.

At the falls after some days of travel (we went slowly), we sat in the summer evening for hours beside the falls (evening extends close to midnight in the heights of summer), and eventually broke the silence with the understanding of a "thin place" and how the experience of these falls was the same for so many thousands of years. I had been there in 1976; 35 years before, can't confirm longer. The effect of the place is the same both times. A meeting of the waters (Missinipe is the Cree word), a meeting of human and divine. Which isn't as far apart in Cree culture and dare I say isn't on Camino experiences.

Such experiences are eternal aren't they? He is dead now. The memory isn't. The effect isn't. I think of this all the time.

I think the journey of where you are, whether Spain or France or Portugal on a centuries old foot way, or in a centuries old water way, and your intentions in going, and how you conduct the journey, are the important things.

I apologise if this is too far from the specifics of camino.

[ 08. February 2017, 20:08: Message edited by: no prophet's flag is set so... ]

Posted by Pangolin Guerre (# 18686) on :

No need to apologise!

NOTE: in my OP I intended to open this up to everyone as a place to relate your stories, and to ask for and/or offer advice, as well.

Posted by John Holding (# 158) on :

To Pompostella? And here was I htinking that humility was involved...

On a more serious note, can I bring to your attention that the recently-retired-from-post head of the Canadian caminista organization is our very own Augustine the Aleut. I was privileged to be at a ceremony last year when, on his retirement from the post, he was decorated by the Spanish Ambassador to Canada for his services to Canadians who walk the camino. He was also the author some years ago of a series of mystery worship reviews of churches along the camino.

John

Posted by RuthW (# 13) on :

quote:
Originally posted by John Holding:
He was also the author some years ago of a series of mystery worship reviews of churches along the camino.

All available here.

Augustine's 2002 reports inspired me to attempt part of the Camino in 2006, starting in Burgos. Alas, I injured my knee early in the second week and was forced to stop (and the developing service lost my film, so I don't even have any pictures). But someday I'd like to go back and do the rest.

It was a simultaneously awful and wonderful experience. I have rarely been so lonely, and the anti-Americanism I faced every day was extremely irritating. (Bush was president, the war in Iraq was on, and there weren't all that many Americans on the trail in 2006; interest in the US has since picked up considerably.) But I did enjoy meeting people from so many places, and the experience of walking in a countryside very much like the one I grew up in, but punctuated by 1000-year-old churches, was transporting.

Another thing I have to say I enjoyed that I don't see people talk about very often: I felt like my body was for once doing what it was made to do -- walk for miles every day. It was the only time in my adult life when I was able to eat without consciously restricting my intake and feel like it was the right amount.

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

I would love to go in the company of someone who knows what they're doing.

Posted by Banner Lady (# 10505) on :

Walkers beware....the sensible ones start with a 3 day walk and return later to do longer and then longer stages. It is possible to get caught up in the bucket list idea of this as a "Must Do' and end up losing toenails, doing terrible soft tissue damage and destroying health, self image and spirit along the way.

Doesn't mean you shouldn't do it - just be sensible with your expectations.

Posted by Pangolin Guerre (# 18686) on :

BL's advice is quite sensible. I started doing 10km walks (already a walker) in good hiking boots, worked up to 20km, then was good to go. Training beforehand is very wise. The other thing that one learns to do is to balance your pack. Twenty km with a poorly balanced pack and you're walking like Quasimodo. It's also worth investing in a pilgrim's staff. It's a nifty souvenir, but it's also extremely useful when ascending a muddy switch-back.

Posted by Augustine the Aleut (# 1472) on :

I have just noticed this thread... Might I suggest that those interested take the opportunity to sit down and meet with returned pilgrims who can give them a lot of really useful practical advice. The London-based Confraternity of Saint James has got buckets of useful advice. Shipmates in other parts of the world can check out the Canadian Company of Pilgrims, whose links page can direct you to the sites of the Oz, US, and South African groups. Most of them have got chapter and local activities, often with training sessions. These are incredibly useful as the thousand questions you will have will get answers from people who have been through it (and have lived!!).

For most of us, this is a big step out of our routines, and such information is a great confidence-builder and injector of common sense. Preparation is key.

Walking is great.

I recall John Holding from the Spanish Ambassador's reception, chatting with a parish treasurer and both of them staying quite close to the cava table and looking about for baroque silver to purloin. I was suffering from a terrible cold and only after a hot date with Miss Cherry Dimetapp was I able to make it through-- obviously I had to give the cava a pass in the circumstances.

Posted by Ferdzy (# 8702) on :

Mr. Ferdzy and I walked from St. Jean Pied de Ports to Finisterre in 2006, and are hoping/planning to do the via de la plata in the winter of 2018.

I am currently hunched over Google maps just about every day, but as soon as the weather gets just a shade better will start with daily walking.

Cell phones and internet were around in 2006, but not in the same way. Amazing how much has changed in 10 years. I expect this will make a noticeable difference.

Posted by Gee D (# 13815) on :

Several friends have walked it. Last Sept/Oct a woman almost exactly my age walked mostly alone starting at Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and climbing the Roncevaux Pass. For part of the journey she was joined by a son. Overall, she found it hard going despite pretty solid preparation, with quite a bit of the weather considerably hotter than she had expected for northern Spain in mid-autumn. Some of the days were very warm. She's a non-believer but says that since the walk she has felt much calmer and more settled than she had for many years beforehand.

A couple walked 3 or 4 years ago. Again, about our age, she has since retired as our GP; he's a solicitor I only know on a personal basis. They went on an organised walk starting in Bilbao. 3 or 4 star accommodation each night was organised, along with a bus to take the luggage. If it were too hot, too wet, or you just did not want to walk that day, you could take the bus with no questions asked. You were expected to arrange your own food and eating. Again, the walk was in mid autumn but they did not find it too hot. You were expected to walk in silence as a pilgrim and speaking only at morning tea and lunch. They are pretty well lapsed RCs by again speak of the great calm they felt, continuing despite the arrival of grandchildren.

We're tempted to try for next year, perhaps in the northern spring although getting trained by then may be very difficult. The idea of starting in France is appealing, with the ascent of the Pyrenees along such an historic path. If we do go, I suspect that the organised one, with the bus to carry the luggage and as a support will win out.

Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :

I'm quite interested to find this thread and see that so many Shipmates have done some Camino walking. It's a dream of mine and although it's not one I will be able to fulfill for several years yet, I am always interested in reading about other people's experiences.

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

When I go I would definitely want to go the pampered way, with a bus and a group. In fact I would love to find friends to go with.

Posted by Pangolin Guerre (# 18686) on :

BC - I would say that one advantage of doing the Camino in the unpampered way is that if you find yourself in the company of someone whose company you might find uncongenial, you can "lose" them along the way, whereas doing the Camino on an organised bus tour, reserved hotels, etc., you can become a captive. I was extremely fortunate, in that everyone of my fellow peregrinos was quite lovely, even when language barriers (sometimes rather comically)* presented themselves. Perhaps part of my ease was in knowing that I would not, could not, be captive.

*I was having a conversation with a young man who was in first or second year university, who spoke very poor English (I speak very poor Spanish). When he found out that I was Canadian, he enthusiastically started telling me about a nature documentary on television about "la marmota". Heh? Quoi? I was quite confused about these Canadian marmots. As he started describing "la marmota" I started laughing uncontrollably - It was beavers! I thought that "la marmota" was marmot, beaver "el castor". Anyway, when I explained to him why I was laughing, he got rather a good laugh out of it as well. And so a glass of wine when we got to the village.

[ 24. February 2017, 02:51: Message edited by: Pangolin Guerre ]

Posted by Augustine the Aleut (# 1472) on :

I've done it a number of times (and really must get some more MW reports together) so the advice I give you was not easily earned. First, focus on the practicalities of packing so lightly that your friends will comment adversely and of putting in lots of mileage-- just start walking everywhere-- as preparation. In most countries, there are really good groups of pilgrims-- in Britain, Ireland, the US, Canada (and Québec), South Africa, and Oz. They are a golden source of tips, information, and local events (sometimes practice walks) where prospective pilgrims can get great advice from veterans.

Most pilgrims are quite taken by the radical equality of the pilgrims' hostels/albergues along the way. I was of the self-indulgent variety who loved and was willing to pay for private accommodation (with private bathrooms!) and this is also a hallowed tradition-- did you really think that dukes and bishops bunked with the others? (although I will allow that the bishops I knew who do the Camino these days do bunk with the rabble). But much of the magic/benefit of the Camino comes from the walking, and the repeated day after day of doing so, combined with eating and talking and not-talking with friends along the way.

An attraction of the Camino is that it is based on something we do every day-- walking, putting one foot in front of the other, and repeating. While not easy, it is accessible. So while I understand where Brenda C is coming from, I would suggest that she not so quickly dismiss the walking of it.

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

I'm not precisely dismissing it, but I am expecting (looking at the time line of possibility) that I won't be capable of it by the time I am able to go.

Posted by Augustine the Aleut (# 1472) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
I'm not precisely dismissing it, but I am expecting (looking at the time line of possibility) that I won't be capable of it by the time I am able to go.

You are the best judge of that, of course. But I have met pilgrims who did stretches which worked best for them, sometimes taking a day to do 10km. It took me a while before i realized it was not a race.

I have suggested that they set up a ziplining facility, but I fear that they did not take me seriously.

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

I wonder if there is a cycling option? I can bicycle like gee golly whiz.

Posted by Carex (# 9643) on :

In encountered a practice walk with perhaps 40 people in a local park. Some time later I was aware of an increasing din, like approaching a waterfall, with no specific rhythm or pattern.

The group had walked around the park and was returning, about 200m away. The roar was combination of all the individual conversations in the group. Certainly not something I'd want to have to put up with for any length of time.

Posted by keibat (# 5287) on :

Brenda Clough asked:

quote:
I wonder if there is a cycling option? I can bicycle like gee golly whiz.

Yes, there is. In Santiago de Pompostela [I love this twist], on completion of at least 100 km walking you can get a certificate certifying that you are a genuine peregrino; for cyclists and horse-riders, the required distance is greater.

From this you can also deduce that not everyone starts on the French side of the Pyrenees.

The version with booked accommodation and luggage by van is a good choice for those with less walking under their feet and less stamina, e g those of more advanced years.

Posted by Gee D (# 13815) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Carex:
In encountered a practice walk with perhaps 40 people in a local park. Some time later I was aware of an increasing din, like approaching a waterfall, with no specific rhythm or pattern.

The group had walked around the park and was returning, about 200m away. The roar was combination of all the individual conversations in the group. Certainly not something I'd want to have to put up with for any length of time.

Pilgrims should walk in silence.
To retrun to my earlier post, the "grou" was not an organised bus tur. People walked as they wished and in silence. Accommodation and the bus were organised, but you did not walk as a group, did not eat as a group. You could of course eat with others, but the only organisd food was breakfast. Lunch adn dinner were your own arrangement.

[ 24. February 2017, 21:23: Message edited by: Gee D ]

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

I am unlikely to be able to do this until I am 70 (you may have heard that they're hoping to gut the safety net in the US0 and at that point the spirit may be willing but the flesh is probably not going to be able to play ball.

Posted by Gee D (# 13815) on :

The friend who did the solo walk, starting at St Jean-Pied-de-Port, last year was 69 - but had done quite a bit of preparation here first. That, and good walking shoes/boots, are probably the clues to a successful wlk for anyone of any age.

Posted by Dormouse (# 5954) on :

Has anyone read "Spanish Steps" by Tim Moore - in it he recounts his experiences on the Camino with a donkey called Shinto. It is an amusing, light read, with no great insights, but still interesting.
We live near a village on the pilgrimage route that goes through Le Puy en Velay. There's a lovely little wall painting of St James, kitted out with his scallop shell. In the crypt of the basilica in Fourvieres, Lyon, there is a rather lovely (if a bit OTT) mosaic showing the life of St James plus the route of the Camino. This link takes you to someone's picture of it.

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