have you read....

[hieronimus]

Have you read "The Year We Seized The Day" ?
Published: January 2010. Elizabeth Best and Colin Bowles
It is about two australian writes doing camino, totaly unprepared, very funy, very personal.
This a bit from Allen and Unwin web page publishers of the book:
"Elizabeth Best had always wanted to go on a pilgrimage. Colin Bowles had never given it a moment's thought. But by a twist of fate the two barely acquainted writers seize the day and drop everything to retrace one of the oldest pilgrim routes in the western world, through the heart of Spain to Santiago de Compostela. It's meant to be a stroll in the sun, but they're under-prepared and carrying way too much baggage, in every sense. So what starts out as a physical challenge - it's a thousand kilometres, give or take -- very quickly becomes a far greater struggle with demons they've kept hidden in the too-hard backpack for years. Joined by grumpy monks, mad nuns and French cyclists with too much testosterone the two battle exhaustion and their pasts, fuelled by red wine and a perverse determination not to be beaten by a Spanish heat wave, the mountains or themselves."
jeremy

 

[catherinemccoy]

Thanks for the tip. I just downloaded it to my Kindle. Being the spontaneous person that I am I love that I can read books on my Kindle instantly. Looking forward to the read and will let you know what I think.

 

[catherinemccoy]

I wanted to update you on this book. I wasn’t going to write anything because I didn’t really like it but hey, it’s only my opinion and someone else may enjoy it. The two authors male and female portray a trip from hell. I know part of this portrayal was supposed to be funny, and at 1st I laughed, but after reading about one horrendous experience after another I started to not even want to walk the Camino myself anymore. It’s a good thing that this isn’t the only thing I have read about the Camino because if it were I would definitely not want to subject myself to the torture described in this book. Just my 2cents.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

It is easy to think that walking the Camino is easy when you read the enthusiastic accounts in this forum. For most of us it is a month of body pain (sometimes a great deal of pain) and flagging spirit. It challenges the body and the mind, at least for the over-50 crowd. I really have not come up with a way for prospective pilgrims to be able to see if they can do it except for trying to do it. If you have the time, perhaps walking 12-15 miles a day for two weeks with a backpack will get you to the point where you can decide if you could continue for another two and one-half weeks. One way to think of the Camino is 33 days of half-marathons with a pack, knowing that thinking is not doing.

Most forum members would agree that it is rewarding regardless of the discomfort. Perhaps the slogan "discomfort, but not misery" is worth adopting.

 

[lynnejohn]

Of course. I'll go with discomfort. :wink: On the other hand . . .Many days it is utter hell. Many days I hear myself utter phrases that are well, uncharacteristic of me. Some days I just cry from pain, exhaustion or just sheer frustration.

But we humans are a strange lot. Many, or most of us remember the best parts of any experience (labor, university, marriage, camino) and just let the crummy or painful parts drift into the mists of time. That's what keeps us positive and open to new experiences (or the same experience)!

And still, at the end of it all, I still say the Camino is The Best Thing I've Ever Done.

lynne

 

[Rebekah Scott]

lynnejohn, you are a poet.