Fragrance of the Camino

[SYates]

Perhaps it is because I walked my very first Camino in fall/autumn but since then I always feel remembered of the Camino when I smell the smoke of a wood fire coming out of a chimney.
For me the Camino smells like a homely, wood fire. What does it smell for you like?
Buen Camino, SY *that suffers a bout of Camino nostalgia*

 

[november_moon]

I was trying to think what it smelled like to me and I couldn't think of anything - then I remembered that I had a head cold for about the last half of my Camino, so that probably has something to do with it!

 

[nidarosa]

Eucalyptus ... and black lentil soup.

 

[Davey Boyd]

Coffee and cow dung!

 

[Helen1]

I think a slight musty, damp, camping smell accompanied me most places on my last camino. Super hot/humid weatherpus a few days of thunderstorms meant nothing seemed to dry.

(Before anyone goes nuts about the camping thing, I was on GR78 and there are a lot of official campsites along the route which make camping a cheap and often very beautiful option - some of the campsites are on the top of the Cols)

 

[onwayhome]

Perhaps it is because I walked my very first Camino in fall/autumn but since then I always feel remembered of the Camino when I smell the smoke of a wood fire coming out of a chimney.
For me the Camino smells like a homely, wood fire. What does it smell for you like?
Buen Camino, SY *that suffers a bout of Camino nostalgia*

Great question. For me it was roses, I sniffed my way along the Portuguese Camino in May and June this year.

 

[SYates]

To learn to just smell the roses was a mayor lesson of my 2014 Camino - Thank you for reminding me! Buen Camino, SY

 

[KinkyOne]

All of the above. With smell from the different kitchens in villages, my sweat, wet dusty roads after summer showers, pine forests (maybe that's my favourite), iodine in the air when coming closer to Fisterra/Muxia...

Great thread BTW!

 

[Jeff Crawley]

Walking out of SJPP one cool September morning - honeysuckle hanging over a garden wall on the left hand side of the road - still have the sprig in my credential.

 

[Albertagirl]

That musty crushed grape smell accompanied me on much of my camino last fall.

 

[crackmrmac]

Camino fragrance? Just breathe and enjoy. No injections needed, it is absorbed and flows through bloodstream. Afterwards we try to describe.

 

[Davey Boyd]

To learn to just smell the roses was a mayor lesson of my 2014 Camino - Thank you for reminding me! Buen Camino, SY

I was on the Primitivo walking with a girl from Finland. In a tiny village we saw they had beautiful roses and stopped to smell them. Then a van driving really fast saw us and screeched to a stop scaring us, the guy got out and started shouting at us. We wondered 'what have we done? We were just smelling the roses'. However, he saw our scared reaction and said No! He walked to the back of the van, opened it up, and gave us a whole tray of doughnuts. Before we could thank him he jumped back in the van and screeched off. Don't know if there is a moral in this somewhere, but after we had stopped laughing we decided it was just another day on the Camino!

Davey

 

[VNwalking]

Pine forest, the smell of mud and melting snow,
Lavender, wild thyme, and at the end, eucalyptus.
Residue of centuries of incense in the churches.
Fresh bread, and Pimentos de Padron.
And (alas) my socks.

 

[kayagee66]

Yep. Thyme, lavender, broom, coffee, brandy. But mainly the sinus clearing acrid stench of Galicia.

 

[kayagee66]

wet dusty roads after summer showers

mmm

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

For me the Camino smells like a homely, wood fire. What does it smell for you like?

For Peg it is roses and yellow broom but for me can't place a smell to camino. I guess I'm nose blind.

 

[Priscilla NC]

I love this thread!

I walked in spring: lilacs much of the way. Wet meadows in the early morning. The aroma of wet woods after a rain. Dusty roads. Mud. The river smell I cannot describe. Rain. Roses sometimes! Blooming rosemary growing in big clumps. Eucalyptus. Ocean. The wonderful aroma of a bakery in Muxia early one morning. Wildflowers -- and one morning later on, honeysuckle.

And yes, the cattle issues in Galicia. Or bus fumes in cities along the way. Or weird smells in albergues.

All pleasant memories! Thanks for taking me to those places that will always lurk deep within me.

 

[sneakynin]

For Peg it is roses and yellow broom but for me can't place a smell to camino. I guess I'm nose blind.

Is yellow broom the name of the fragrant yellow bush all along the Camino Frances?

 

[peregrina2000]

For me, it's the smell of chestnut trees when they are in flower. Since smells are so hard to put into words, I'd say it's kind of a tropical heavy sweet smell. I was first introduced to it on the Invierno, where there are millions of these trees, an on the circle to Penalba de Santiago. Since then I can smell a chestnut a mile away (ok, maybe not a mile away), and I love it. I make a point of hunting for the chestnuts when I smell them because they have to be among creation's most lovely and resilient trees. Buen camino, Laurie

 

[Gillean]

Orujo de hierbas

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Is yellow broom the name of the fragrant yellow bush all along the Camino Frances?

If not I'm going to be embarrassed.

 

[crackmrmac]

Is yellow broom the name of the fragrant yellow bush all along the Camino Frances?

I think so. We Irish can't decide whether to call it broom or gorse.

 

[Gillean]

pine forest on a hot afternoon

 

[hsabs]

Yellow broom, eucalytus and coffee!

 

[BeatriceKarjalainen]

Eucalyptus of course and dry pine forest but for me the main camino fragrance is fennel in the morning. I can get high on that.

 

[Smallest_Sparrow]

Rain, moss covered stone, salt air, candle wax.

I believe I may start trying to bottle and sell some of these scents on etsy, different ones for different routes. No, wait, candles. And BATH SALTS! If it takes off, I'll share the profits

 

[Bradypus]

I think so. We Irish can't decide whether to call it broom or gorse.

In Scotland the distinction is very clear: if you are pricked by several hundred thorns when you fall into the bush then it's gorse. Broom is the smooth and gentle stuff. I now live in a Welsh village whose name translates as "gorse ridge" A couple of weeks ago on the Llyn peninsula in north Wales I sampled some beer brewed with gorse flowers in the mix. Very pleasant.