Fragrance of the Camino

SYates

Camino Fossil AD 1999, now living in Santiago de C

Time of past OR future Camino

First: Camino Francés 1999
...
Last: Santiago - Muxia 2019

Now: http://egeria.house/

• Aug 12, 2016

• #1

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

Veteran Member

• Aug 12, 2016

• #2

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

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Enjoying the camino since 2009

• Aug 12, 2016

• #3

Eucalyptus ... and black lentil soup.

 

Davey Boyd

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Again, soon as possible!

• Aug 12, 2016

• #4

Coffee and cow dung!

 

Helen1

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London to Santiago (2014)
Narbonne to Oloron (2015)
Camino Portugues (2016)
Sentier Cathar (2017)

• Aug 12, 2016

• #5

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

Active Member

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Frances Ponferrada-Santiago,(c1986)
Frances SJPP-Santiago (2011)
Portuguese Porto- Finisterre (2016)
St Michaels Way (2016)

• Aug 12, 2016

• #6

SYates said:

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*

Click to expand...

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

 

SYates

Camino Fossil AD 1999, now living in Santiago de C

Time of past OR future Camino

First: Camino Francés 1999
...
Last: Santiago - Muxia 2019

Now: http://egeria.house/

• Aug 12, 2016

• #7

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

 

KinkyOne

Veteran Member

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I'am not perfect, but I'm always myself!!!

• Aug 12, 2016

• #8

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

Veteran Member

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A "Tourigrino" trip once Covid has passed, so 2023

• Aug 12, 2016

• #9

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

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Frances; Aragones; VdlP; Madrid-Invierno; Levante

• Aug 12, 2016

• #10

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

 

C

crackmrmac

Veteran Member

• Aug 12, 2016

• #11

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

 

Davey Boyd

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Again, soon as possible!

• Aug 12, 2016

• #12

SYates said:

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

Click to expand...

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

Out walking

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Yearly and Various 2014-2019
Via Monastica 2022

• Aug 13, 2016

• #13

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

Active Member

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Camino Frances (2016)
Le Puy - Roncesvalles (2016)
Figeac - Cahors (2017)
Stevenson Trail (2018

• Aug 13, 2016

• #14

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

 

kayagee66

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Camino Frances (2016)
Le Puy - Roncesvalles (2016)
Figeac - Cahors (2017)
Stevenson Trail (2018

• Aug 13, 2016

• #15

KinkyOne said:

wet dusty roads after summer showers

Click to expand...

mmm

 

Rick of Rick and Peg

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Us:Camino Frances, 2015 Me:Catalan/Aragonese, 2019

• Aug 13, 2016

• #16

SYates said:

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

Click to expand...

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

Active Member

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2016: Frances - Finisterre - Muxia 2019: Frances

• Aug 13, 2016

• #17

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

New Member

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Camino Frances (2015, 2016)

• Aug 13, 2016

• #18

Rick of Rick and Peg said:

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

Click to expand...

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

 

peregrina2000

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Staff member

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• Aug 13, 2016

• #19

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

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Seven

• Aug 13, 2016

• #20

Orujo de hierbas

 

Rick of Rick and Peg

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Us:Camino Frances, 2015 Me:Catalan/Aragonese, 2019

• Aug 13, 2016

• #21

sneakynin said:

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

Click to expand...

If not I'm going to be embarrassed.

 

C

crackmrmac

Veteran Member

• Aug 13, 2016

• #22

sneakynin said:

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

Click to expand...

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

 

Gillean

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Seven

• Aug 13, 2016

• #23

pine forest on a hot afternoon

 

H

hsabs

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camino frances (2013) Primitivo 2014; Frances 2015

• Aug 13, 2016

• #24

Yellow broom, eucalytus and coffee!

 

BeatriceKarjalainen

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Finished: See post signature.
Doing: C. Levante

• Aug 18, 2016

• #25

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

Life is rarely what you expect or believe it to be

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2012: most of some, all of a few, a bit of others

• Sep 19, 2016

• #26

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

Migratory hermit

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Too many and too often!

• Sep 19, 2016

• #27

crackmrmac said:

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

Click to expand...

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.

 

Last edited: Sep 19, 2016