Does boredom ever set in for you?

[Dubbydub]

Hi,

I've been reading all your posts for a while. Thank you for the inspiration and the information. It is great.

However, I have question... The road is long. Many do it alone. Many Kms per day.

Do any of you get fed up with the relentless slog day after day, km after km, up and down and so on?

I just wondered if you have a magic formula to counterract boredom or perhaps it is an Oh God will I ever got to the next stop. What, 14 more Kms. Ah well.

I do understand that great company in the Albuerges etc. helps a lot.

But if on your own on daily walks at your own pace?

 

[tyrrek]

Hi!

Tricky question. The way I see it is that when you're walking for 5 weeks or so you're bound to have the odd bad day where you don't really feel like walking 25kms. It's not so much boredom, more that 'Right I've had enough of this!' feeling. Sometimes your friends will animate you, but if not just sit it out and take a short/rest day.

There are a few stretches of the route that are objectively quite boring, but not too many. Carrion to Calzadilla dlC and some of the stretches in and out of major cities spring to mind.

You'll find something to amuse you. Some bizarre thought or song will come into your mind and make you smile. Then you'll spend the next 3 days trying to shift it!

Buen Camino!

 

[Kiwi-family]

I have not yet had the fortune to walk for more than three weeks at a stretch....I suspect it would take a few months before I was at the stage of "not another day of walking"....and if I ever have the privilege of being there, I intend to consider that I *could* be sitting in suburbia wishing I were walking! For me, the opportunity to walk day after day after day would be a huge blessing.

 

[KiwiNomad06]

In some ways, Boredom is a Good Thing. If you have time to be alone, and only have walking ahead of you, all sorts of things float up into your mind- including some things from years gone by that trouble you. You get a chance to lay those things out and come to terms with them somehow, perhaps talk with God about them if that is your inclination. At least that is what happened for me. I feel a bit sorry for those who don't come across that Boredom.
Margaret

 

[MCVet]

Not really. I brought an MP3 player for when I got bored of looking at the scenery, and I feel at other parts it enhanced my enjoyment of the scenery when I happened to be listening to it. Cresting a hill at the same time as a crescendo rolls through is an incredible experience, and many parts of the Camino were wonderful set to music.

The only days I truly got bored were walking on the senda, and I got off of that ASAP. Also one time I was over taken by one of those bus caravan things. It was a group of 50 or so people and they all walked faster than me, so I got to talk to about 30 of them for a brief flit. It basically boiled down to them all asking me where I was from, how old I was, and where I started, and then they were off again to catch up with their friends since they had a bus to catch. Monotony maybe would be a better way to describe it.

 

[AJ]

In some ways, Boredom is a Good Thing. If you have time to be alone, and only have walking ahead of you, all sorts of things float up into your mind- including some things from years gone by that trouble you. You get a chance to lay those things out and come to terms with them somehow, perhaps talk with God about them if that is your inclination. At least that is what happened for me. I feel a bit sorry for those who don't come across that Boredom.
Margaret

I wouldn't call that boredom, but I see you use a B, not a b. Your B is one of the best things on the Camino, what Tony Kevin calls "taking your life for a walk". Actually it's more than that.

 

[Pieces]

embrace your boredom maybe it wants to show you something...

 

[markss]

In some ways, Boredom is a Good Thing. If you have time to be alone, and only have walking ahead of you, all sorts of things float up into your mind- including some things from years gone by that trouble you. You get a chance to lay those things out and come to terms with them somehow, perhaps talk with God about them if that is your inclination. At least that is what happened for me. I feel a bit sorry for those who don't come across that Boredom.
Margaret

So true. Love your response Margaret! Yours too Pieces!

 

[judytino]

“Your true traveler finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty-his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure.” – Aldous Huxley

 

[brawblether]

I prayed the Rosary...several times a day! But not to alleviate boredom so much as to focus my mind. I did get bored after the day's walking was over...a LOT but I'm not one for downtime normally (always have something to do at home) and I didn't take anything to read and there's only so much you can talk to strangers when it's boiling hot and you're tired...but a book and typing a blog/journal would alleviate that.

 

[wayfarer]

I find boredom comes with sameness and there was little enough of that between the changing weather,people we met and the countryside. I had planned this trip for so long that I enjoyed it all, some parts maybe more so than others. Each part changed so much, scenery, other pilgrims, that boredom was not on the agenda. If I get to do another Camino we'll see then.

 

[mikevasey]

funnily enough the only time i suffer from boredom on the camino is when i stop somewhere for a day or two.Before my 1st camino the distance seemed so daunting and my mind had invented all kinds of scenarios of how it would be, then i started walking and the reality was so different. When you submerge yourself in a camino nothing stays the same, and that includes preconceived attitudes of what long distance walking will be like.

Buen Camino

 

[mspath]

NEVER boredom! Usually each walking moment has been a juggle amongst the basic realities of topography and weather plus health and pack weight as well as personal strength and ability to endure. Happily from time to time there were calmer moments for philosophical musing or personal thanksgiving. Rarest of all was the perfect harmony of finding 'my zone' .

Carpe Diem!

Margaret Meredith

 

[rickster]

Don't know whether it was boredom or whether it was just a moment of aloneness on the early parts of the meseta, when I was overwhelmed with how much I had left to walk. Turned out to be a blessing as I used the time to think about a member of my family each day, including my deceased mother and father. During this peaceful time I felt that I was sent many messages and the walk became much less
overwhelming.

 

[jpflavin1]

Dubbydub:

I found my Camino's to be very introspective journeys. A time to really think without being disturb by normal daily disruptions. This solitary time is tempered by the communal aspect of the Albergue in the evening. Here the opportunity to meet fellow Pilgrims, share a meal and communicate about a variety of topics is available. A healthy balance to each day.

That said, the Camino does have the sense of being in the Movie "Ground Hog day"

Ultreya,
Joe

 

[robertt]

What's boredom?

 

[tyrrek]

What's boredom?

Probably a lack of stimulation to your senses or intellect, I would imagine. Doing the same thing for a long time with no particular challenge mentally or physically. Sorry, I'm just making this up off the top of my head! Buen Camino!

 

[Priscillian]

DubbyDub: I think your question is a good one. Let me put it like this if I may:
You travel to work on the same bus every day. You´ve seen it all before and unless something different happens after a while you just get bored and read the paper, a book, your Kindle.
You have to take a different bus, to a part of the city you have never visited before. You are amazed that this place exists, I mean, you thought you knew the city, right?
The Camino is like that and every day will give a new challenge: the different terrain, the different pilgrims, the different weather, the different refugio at the end of the day...you add more as you go.
Boredom is the very last word I would associate with the Camino!
Buen Camino and hope we meet some day.
Tracy Saunders

 

[billbennettoz]

Buddhist monks in Burma and elsewhere use walking as a form of meditation. The mindfulness of each step.

I will soon be doing my first Camino, and I look forward to that metronomic boredom, because only then does true insight come... Bill

 

[ffp13]

Yes! When I'm not on the Camino.

 

[mralisn]

Perhaps this tells more of my life back home. When I'm walking the Way, I am NEVER bored. I love everything about being so free to do as I please, and I do. 90+ days, and unable to recall one time of boredom. Somehow, whatever is there to fulfill my spirit, does.

I wish the same for you on your journey.

Keep a smile,
Simeon

 

[whariwharangi]

Walking is an interesting activity.

There are a multitude of things to do whilst walking.

You can look at the scenery

You can contemplate the history of the land you are passing through.

There are things to think about such as logistics of the trip.

There are often people to talk with along the road. Though I like walking alone.

The best parts are when you get zoned out in your mind. Thinking about life the universe and everything; that's the spiritual part of the journey. The kilometers pass blissfully by.

Bored? There comes a time when you are spiritually exhausted. Travel is a form of stress. So there is a limit to the culture you can take in ... that feeling of 'meh' when seeing yet another thousand year old cathedral filled with baroque art. I don't know if you would call that 'bored' though.

I'm bored at home. Hours spent playing computer games and participating in meaningless meetings. Thats bored.

 

[nreyn12]

Yes, I get bored on the Camino all the time. Usually it's when I am walking alone too much, or when I don't know people walking the same stage I am (I move slowly, so I lose pace with friends quite regularly). Fortunately, boredom is a temporary condition, and it rarely lasts long. For me I just need to talk to another person, get out of my own head and thoughts, and hear another pilgrim's story.

 

[AJ]

The best parts are when you get zoned out in your mind. Thinking about life the universe and everything; that's the spiritual part of the journey. The kilometers pass blissfully by.

The zone...the zone...Unfortunately it takes me a while to get there.

 

[newfydog]

 

[Tincatinker]

No, no Newfydog. Not on the meseta ... A thousand birds singing, riffing off the wind. Every bush and rock presenting new challenges to the imagination.

The senda, now that really does have its moments - though I think I walked straight into that mile post not because I was bored but mesmerised by the metronomic regularity of it all.

Boo! Camino

 

[Telluridewalker]

I will soon be doing my first Camino, and I look forward to that metronomic boredom, because only then does true insight come... Bill

This sums up my response- it's why I steadfastly recommend the Camino be done alone.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Boredom only once: Aroue, France on a scorcher 100F day with an early afternoon arrival at the gite. There was NOTHING in town; the one petrol station had closed the previous year. The church did not even open until evening when the concierge arrived to sell a few canned goods and bread at the gite. Inside was too hot to sit or nap, but the place was a converted truck garage, so there was a huge covered parking area with some chairs. It, too, was pretty hot, but it was out of the sun. Five hours sitting in a plastic chair in the times before WiFi, an iPhone, Kindle, or other entertainment. The only book we had was the guidebook, which we had read thoroughly. No one spoke English except my brother and I, and after 30+ days of walking together, and a lifetime as brothers, there were no words left that had not been used before. I do not think I have been bored any other time.

 

[Dubbydub]

Thank you all for your interesting replies.

I like the "zoned out" notion, kind of like meditation in a way.

Am hoping to do some or all of the RF when I take early retirement next year God willing.

Getting my head around some of the issues that really bother me first! And I'm sure I'll be back with more questions for you experienced Camino folk soon!

Thank you.

 

[julie]

Boredom for me invariably means that I'm looking for external stimulation because I don't want to be with my thoughts. Surprisingly, those times correspond exactly with the moments when I need to be with my thoughts

Boredom at home? Sometimes. Boredom on the Camino? Never. I'm there to be with myself so there's no reason to be bored.

 

[capecorps]

On the rare occasion when overcome by ennui, I composed a post to the “Live from the Camino” section of this Forum.

live-from-the-camino/topic13880.html

No only did this serve to focus and distil my thoughts but, not being afflicted with documentia, these posts are now the only record of my Camino.

I’ll be walking the Camino Frances again in early May and will no doubt post when bored. Strangely, these few occasions of boredom on the Camino now seem like the height of excitement, snow locked as I am in a Canadian winter.

 

[methodist.pilgrim.98]

I am frequently bored on the Camino.

My solution is to sink into it.

It is there that I have discovered myself and found that I have entered into a Sacred Space.

I would never take anything like an MP3 player because it would stop me entering that place. My purpose of being on a pilgrimage is to move into that space where the divide between heaven and earth are thinned out.