Perhaps because they encountered
so many other human beings. I have walked the Frances, Primitivo, Ingles, Finisterre, Portugues, Via de la Plata, Mozarabe and Sanabres Caminos. Some more than once. I've also walked pilgrim routes in the UK, France, Switzerland, Italy, Sweden, Norway and Japan. All this spread over more than 30 years since my first Camino in Spain. And despite all that experience my immediate intention on reaching Sarria on my most recent
Camino Frances walk in 2016 was to pack it in right there and find a train or bus to an airport. Something I have never done during a pilgrimage. The vast numbers and the crass garish commercialisation of the Camino struck me almost like a physical blow. Instead I passed through Sarria without stopping and by evening I was mentally ready to carry on my journey. I finished my walk in Santiago and in retrospect I was glad to have done so. I now have a clearer first hand understanding of what the modern
Camino Frances is. That's why I walk elsewhere these days.
I understand your reaction to the apparent commercialization to parts of the CF. I had a similar reaction when I started a Camino in Lourdes. Because my first Camino changed my depth of feeling for my "cradle Catholic" religion so fully, I decided to start walking my next one from that most Holy site.
Boy, what a surprise! If I
never see another Virgin Mary plastic bottle with a screw off head for Holy water, it will be too soon. Garish with Gregorian Chant playing "softly" from every single tourist trinket trap in town, yikes!
And yet . . .
I was surrounded by believers. People in wheelchairs. People lying on gurneys who couldn't sit in a chair. People who had saved up their one last glimmer of hope to make this journey, and their faithful companions. None probably expected to suddenly be able to walk, to see, to hear, after bathing in the water of Lourdes. But all could have spent their vacation money in other, more comfortable, relaxing, spas and chose to be among the masses there. They came for . . . they probably weren't sure themselves.
I had to change my thinking from why
I was there to why
they were there and accept them on their own terms. To humbly realize how blessed I was that I would begin my walking journey, one that many of those pilgrims had never, and would never, be able to do. I decided to absorb their faithfulness in spite of the commercialism. Commercialism caused simply by local people making a living - can't blame anyone for that!
It would have been easy to just turn my back on Lourdes and state that all those people had lost sight of what was truly blessed about the place.
But, like walking in Sarria, I had to change my thinking and decide to absorb the expectant energy of those pilgrims who were on a different path than I.
Bradypus, no one can doubt your devotion to walking the Camino(s) for all the right reasons. The Camino works its mojo on each of us in new ways, each time.