Camino good and bad.

[kiwi walker]

hi all, just finished the camino from SJPP to CDS carrying 18kg all the way.

While I loved many aspects it is important to tell the forum and others how it is...

The bad bits...

With so many people on the Camino this year it was interesting to see things unfold.

The cheats...

It disgusted me to here people telling me that they have done a Camino when in fact they had missed so many hundreds of miles. Sure a Camino is what you make it but many make it sound like they walked the whole way when in reality they walked very few easy miles. Then they tell you how hard its is... how hard it is... give me a break.

These same people also had there bags forwarded each day and only carried water hand a camera. That's fine if you old or have a health issue but certainly people from certain northern European countries were fit and able but just too lazy for my liking.

Then there are those that bus or taxi the hard or boring bits and get to the end and get the certificate / compestella. That is not the way or a Camino to me and I would not front up to in Santiago DC and ask for a a certificate.

Finally, and i realize a Camino means different things to different people but just doing the last 100 K's and getting a compestella is no more worthy than doing the first 100 over the Pyrenees or any for the challenging flat stretches beyond Leon...

Sorry but the honour of doing a Camino, ( the challenge, the hard work, the pain, the mental fortitude, and the relief) will never be with the people who cheat then claim the big prize at the end. Especially considering thE many who do big miles and never do the last 100 and don,t claim a compestella at all. Big congratulations to them!

The Camino will provide...


sorry to say this but the Camino will only provide if you can afford to either rush to the next town or pay for Hotels. (If you have the money)

ThIs year was crowded and with the Aubergues opening at midday there was a rush of people getting up at 4 am to get the cheapest beds. This ended up with no room for the rest and many people having to use hotels, namely the older or slower people. the Camino is not a race!

The lack of aubergue beds in some towns.

The good stuff...

The people who walk for the right reasons.(the majority) good on you.

The locals who support the Camino.

The landscape

The challenge

The Camino and Spain.

 

[vagabondette]

The people who walk for the right reasons.(the majority) good on you.

How very judgmental you sound...

Please, do share your "right" reasons. I want to make sure I'm not wasting my time walking the camino for (what you think are) the wrong ones... :roll:

Why do you care if people taxi their stuff ahead, take a cab, etc.? You know nothing about that person and what problems they might *actually* have so stop judging. What they're doing has zero impact on you so get over it.

As for the daily bed race, anyone who has done even a little reading about the camino would not have been even a little surprised by this happening at this time of year. If you were carrying 18kg (for some crazy reason), I would think camping gear would have been included so you could have avoided the bed race all together.

Finally, the "honor" of doing a camino will be with anyone who sets foot on the trail and feels that *they* have gotten something out of it.

 

[Chacharm]

Wow. You walked the whole Camino and the only thing you didn't like about it was that other people were "lazy"? That they "cheated"? That makes me very sad for you.
I met people who walked just from Sarria. Really wonderful people who decided that their two weeks vacation was going to be spent on Camino rather than lying on a beach at a resort somewhere. I wonder if they would have made that decision had they known there were folks like you out there who would judge them so harshly for their audacity.
I met a young man who had back problems - it tends to spasm painfully - who sent his pack ahead. He had wanted to do the Camino for years - but knew his back would kill him. Then he heard about jaco-trans. He was thrilled and happy and proud when I saw him in Santiago. I'll write him and share your contempt for his non-accomplishment.
Same with the young man I met with such terrible arthritis in his knees that he was about to have them both replaced. If he'd only known about your rules for having a "real" camino! He would no doubt have stayed home and out of your way.
I walked from SJPP to Santiago in April and May of this year. I arrived in Pamplona in terrible pain - my ankles and knees swollen beyond recognition. I was miserable and thinking seriously about quitting. The pack was simply too much for me. I wasn't enjoying the views or the experience or the villages or the locals or the other peregrinos. A wonderful man I will always consider a great friend asked me WHY I was killing myself. He told me this isn't a competition. It isn't a penitent's march. He told me to send my pack ahead and buy some good walking sticks. After that - the Camino opened up for me.
I walked 500 miles. It was tough. It was great - but it was tough. I am allowed to say that because it was MY Camino - not yours.
MY Camino had absolutely nothing to do with yours. NOTHING. I know that because I avoided judgmental, baselessly arrogant people like you at every turn. I did not consult with a supercilious jerk before I left - so I took on the unknown on my own terms in a way that I was comfortable with - and I completed the Camino Frances and I am very proud of it - your opinion of me not withstanding.
For the record, the original pilgrims used every modern convenience that had at their disposal. They used mules or slaves to carry their belongings - I used a cab. They carried letters from their bishop or their priest that extended them credit along the Camino - I had a card from my bank. They used ferrymen to cross rivers, I walked over bridges.
Henceforth, I suggest you stick to organized competitions with clearly defined rules. It sounds like you're more comfortable with that than you were with something as organic and self-guided as the Camino.

 

[sillydoll]

Oh dear Kiwi - Walker, you've got it all wrong.
Don't you know that the Pilgrim's Office dont give a fig how heavy your backpack is, or how it gets to Santiago. You could have an entire wardrobe transported to Santiago in a stretch Limo and still earn the Compostela - as long as you walk the last 100km. Pilgrims of old would have been horrified by your excess of carrying 18kg on a pilgrimage. What on earth were you thinking? Maybe that's what made you feel so resentful towards all the other pilgrims? (Have you ever seen a statue, painting, stained glass window etc depicting a pilgrim with a huge backpack?)

You have said that you started in St Jean. Why not in Paris? Most of the Classic writers claim that the Camino Frances starts in Paris, not St Jean Pied de Port. What a shame - you missed so many hundreds of miles and then still thought that you had a long, hard pilgrimage.
(Don't you know that the pilgrimage starts from your front door - with what is in your heart? Not what is on your pedometer.)

The large majority of people who earn the Compostela are Catholic Spaniards who feel called to walk the last 100km to the tomb of their Patron Saint at least once in their lifetime. When they get there, they attend mass, receive the sacraments, go to confession, make a donation or do a good work: they walk for the right reasons -with the right intention in their hearts. I hope you did the same as all of those 100km pilgrims? You can't expect extra Brownie points just for choosing to walk further than they do.

Don't you know that only a very small percentage of pilgrims to St James walk any distance to his tomb each year? I would'nt want to know your opinions on the other 5 million pilgrims that visit Sant'Iago every year by car, bus, airplane, train, in groups, with tours etc.

But, seeing that this is your first post on the Forum, we can forgive you! Go and walk the Camino again in a better spirit, with an open mind and heart, more tolerant less judgemental.

 

[grilly]

Dear Kiwi Walker,

Your experience of the wrong reasons is something that most of us have experienced. We all have encountered people who found ways to lighten up their load... They seem to be doing a 'camino light.'
It's hard if you can't get a bunk in an albergue or a refugio. Most of us, I think, have bonded big time on those folks.
On the other hand, I have known some of these people and basically they didn't have it in them to do the whole Camino. I have had my backpack carried over several stages once. I even took a cab once. Now know it feels awful. At least I felt awful.
I think one of the points of the Camino is to teach me a few things. One of them is to give space to people to be who they are. Most of all, it's to focus on what enchants me on the Camino, even if like last year I had to stop early because of a bad knee... Your positive points are mine as well. These are what might make you want to return to the Camino. I know they are the reason I return nearly every year. I fear the day I won't be able to.
Congratulations for your Camino. Savor it. Look back at your pictures. Remember those who have been angels for you along the way...
From now on, the Camino is walking you until you'll walk it again.

Buen Camino, wherever you are!

 

[Pieces]

Last year I walked about 500K and received a compostella for the bit between Porto & SdC. My backpack was just over 5kg

This year I walked from SJPdP to 10 km before Burgos then mainly walked but also bussed/taxied to Leon, because after 2 weeks walking with a malfunctioning hip and towards the end also with a stomach bug I just wasn't able to find the energy for more. This year my backpack was only 4,2kg

I realise now that you find me unworthy and I know that maybe you think i didn't deserve my compostella, but frankly I don't care what other people think of MY way of walking the camino just like I don't really care about what other people do on theirs

I find that my life is a lot easier that way...

 

[grayland]

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