This thread--about walking the last 100 km from Sarria to Santiago--arouses mixed emotions in me. I'm a high school teacher. When I finally committed to walking The Camino, I recruited a dozen students to join me. We will be arriving in Spain, from Panama, during Easter Week of 2015. The reason I chose Sarria as our starting point was so that we can all earn a Compostela.
But then, as I started to research The Camino in earnest to prepare the group for the experience, I found myself becoming obsessed with starting The Camino at SJPDP. So now, I'm committed to walk The Camino twice. I will be walking the
Camino Frances in the spring of 2016. As a result, I now consider my Sarria pilgrimage as "inauthentic." I won't feel like a "true" pilgrim until I walk all the way from SJPDP.
My first pilgrimage, with the students, will be a rehearsal for me, of sorts. But I suspect it will be a rehearsal for several of them. It would not surprise me to learn that sometime down the line a few also return to experience "The Long Walk."
In any event, the first time around I'll be with the noisy group starting in Sarria on March 27, 2015. The second time around, as a seasoned pilgrim, I hope not to be annoyed by the crowds joining me for the last 100 km.