greg Jenkins
New Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- September- October 2013
For 2024 Pilgrims: €50,- donation = 1 year with no ads on the forum + 90% off any 2024 Guide. More here. (Discount code sent to you by Private Message after your donation) |
---|
My wife and walked the Camino Frances in September to October 2013 and it was a fantastic experience. It was easy walking except that the roads are hard and even if you don't get blisters your feet get generally sore as a result. This is the main reason you should take a light pack. It was as much a pub crawl as a walk and if you like good wine and walking then this is for you. There were 300 people per day starting from St Jean and most people we met over the 5 1/2 weeks started in France. From speaking to hundreds of people during our time on the trail it was obvious that only a small percentage walk the whole way. Around 80% of the pilgrims we met caught a bus or a taxi occasionally or often and many more get there packs forwarded often or all the time. Does it matter, probably not as each to their own and everyone gets the same Compostella at Santiago. But it is important to the people who do walk every metre with their packs. It is so funny when you hit the 100 km to go marker and you see all the new people in clean shoes, chatting excitedly, as we did 5 weeks before. And definitely worth continuing on to Finisterre, a fitting conclusion. So it was a fantastic experience for us, we many new friends we will have for life and a drinking habit we will now need to break.
My wife and walked the Camino Frances in September to October 2013 and it was a fantastic experience. It was easy walking except that the roads are hard and even if you don't get blisters your feet get generally sore as a result. This is the main reason you should take a light pack. It was as much a pub crawl as a walk and if you like good wine and walking then this is for you. There were 300 people per day starting from St Jean and most people we met over the 5 1/2 weeks started in France. From speaking to hundreds of people during our time on the trail it was obvious that only a small percentage walk the whole way. Around 80% of the pilgrims we met caught a bus or a taxi occasionally or often and many more get there packs forwarded often or all the time. Does it matter, probably not as each to their own and everyone gets the same Compostella at Santiago. But it is important to the people who do walk every metre with their packs. It is so funny when you hit the 100 km to go marker and you see all the new people in clean shoes, chatting excitedly, as we did 5 weeks before. And definitely worth continuing on to Finisterre, a fitting conclusion. So it was a fantastic experience for us, we many new friends we will have for life and a drinking habit we will now need to break.
The rules that you give to yourself are admirable; your opinion to/of others are less so.In my opinion, taking a bus or taxi is plain cheating to yourself, which is one the most stupid things any person can do. If you are not feeling great, you can either walk shorter distances, or else take a few days off till you recover and thus learn to listen to your body.
As to backpacks... again, unless you are injured, you should carry your own belongings, because that way you learn what you really need and what is accessory. Also, by carrying your own pack you are free to stop wherever you want, as opposed to having every stage planned; that would not be a pilgrimage, that is just doing a daily walk from A to B, not really a pilgrimage at your own pace.
I think those two points are essential for the spirit of pilgrimage (unless, of course, your medical condition determines your pilgrimage)
My wife and walked the Camino Frances in September to October 2013 and it was a fantastic experience. It was easy walking except that the roads are hard and even if you don't get blisters your feet get generally sore as a result. This is the main reason you should take a light pack. It was as much a pub crawl as a walk and if you like good wine and walking then this is for you. There were 300 people per day starting from St Jean and most people we met over the 5 1/2 weeks started in France. From speaking to hundreds of people during our time on the trail it was obvious that only a small percentage walk the whole way. Around 80% of the pilgrims we met caught a bus or a taxi occasionally or often and many more get there packs forwarded often or all the time. Does it matter, probably not as each to their own and everyone gets the same Compostella at Santiago. But it is important to the people who do walk every metre with their packs. It is so funny when you hit the 100 km to go marker and you see all the new people in clean shoes, chatting excitedly, as we did 5 weeks before. And definitely worth continuing on to Finisterre, a fitting conclusion. So it was a fantastic experience for us, we many new friends we will have for life and a drinking habit we will now need to break.
Ditto.This type of thread never ends well!!! Freedom of speech includes keeping silent.
I like how you think....At least in this thread.It was important for me to walk the whole way, but I know that if illness or injury had delayed me, I would have skipped as much as I might have needed to in order to complete the last 100km on foot.
My view is that a pilgrimage is as short or as long as it needs to be, which is quite a different thing to meeting the minimum requirements for receiving a compestala at the cathedral. Equally, while I have walked I have met individuals who for a variety of circumstances have used buses or trains for parts of their journey. Not only didn't I think any less of them knowing that, in one case I admired their tenacity to keep going even when things weren't going well for them.
Regards,
These seem competitive words.
For many of us, the Camino simply isn't a competition. I like that.
Personaly, the whole camino/pilgrimage for me is to walk from my own doorstep in Amsterdam to Santiago. But I can see that walking from home to SdC has some practical challenges for many people on this forum
You betcha. I'd have to become exceptionally good at swimming and would need to evade many sharks and crocodiles along the way before I even hit land. Cheers to all. We each 'do' our own Camino our own way, and it impacts on our lives at home afterwards in different ways too. Personally, it is still impacting on how I shape my life. Deo gratias.
Margaret
It was as much a pub crawl as a walk and if you like good wine and walking then this is for you. .
St Jimmy never carried a pack , was definitely helped onto the horse when encountered and was definitely given the best bed in the house ...lol Simeon.
St.Jimmy definitely did not carry a pack. He was sent to Spain by boat, after his head was chopped off.
Hola
Umm.. wasn't sure I wanted to enter this thread, but here I go.
We are all on our own Camino and truly there are no right or wrong.
There are only the decisions we make, which in time makes out our life.
When I started my first Camino in Saint Jean, I knew little of what lay ahead.
I had packed my backpack as good as I could, had decided that I had no end date
and had asked the bank for some extra money.
On the way to Saint Jean I had many unanswered questions and doubt about what I was doing.
I was not sure if I would last one week, but that was okay. If so, I would just go back home.
As it turned out I made remarkable friendships, found renewed strength in myself, both physical as well as mentally and ten weeks and two Camino's later, I finally felt I was done walking and it was time to return home.
Ten weeks of carrying a pack had made me in very good physical condition, I had learned how many kilometers per hour I could walk in different types of landscape and I had learned new instincts as well as to trust them.
On my walk I meet many pilgrims that were challenged with the physical demands.
Pilgrims that were 70 years old and had 50-60 liter packs on their backs.
Pilgrims with dogs and their struggles to find appropriate shelter for them.
It seemed we all had some burden and challenge to deal with, and overcoming these became a central
issue on the Camino. Either to solve it ourselves, or aid others. In that way the challenges could be seen as gifts.
In that way, the Camino mirrored real life as well as it taught us something about possessions and
superficial things.
Maybe it can all be distilled down to a new view on what we need in life to be able to survive or just feel happiness.
Maybe the Camino was just telling us in its own way something about the saying 'Your last shirt won't have a pocket'.
Whether any Pilgrim experience this with or without a backpack, using transportation or any other thing, I find unimportant.
I just hope all will experience it.
Buen Camino,
Lettinggo
Honest to whom? I don't think that any pilgrim owes an explanation to others for what he/she did or didn't, –within law and decency, of course.I think what's important is being honest about whether you used public transportation for yourself and/or your pack.
A wise statement.We walked the SJPdP to Santiago route and carried our packs. Didn't care what others did but it was important to ourselves to do so. Simply for self satisfaction and our personal feeling of some sort of accomplishment.
Why?I think what's important is being honest about whether you used public transportation for yourself and/or your pack.
My view is that a pilgrimage is as short or as long as it needs to be, which is quite a different thing to meeting the minimum requirements for receiving a compestala at the cathedral. Equally, while I have walked I have met individuals who for a variety of circumstances have used buses or trains for parts of their journey. Not only didn't I think any less of them knowing that, in one case I admired their tenacity to keep going even when things weren't going well for them.
Regards,
My wife and walked the Camino Frances in September to October 2013 and it was a fantastic experience. It was easy walking except that the roads are hard and even if you don't get blisters your feet get generally sore as a result. This is the main reason you should take a light pack. It was as much a pub crawl as a walk and if you like good wine and walking then this is for you. There were 300 people per day starting from St Jean and most people we met over the 5 1/2 weeks started in France. From speaking to hundreds of people during our time on the trail it was obvious that only a small percentage walk the whole way. Around 80% of the pilgrims we met caught a bus or a taxi occasionally or often and many more get there packs forwarded often or all the time. Does it matter, probably not as each to their own and everyone gets the same Compostella at Santiago. But it is important to the people who do walk every metre with their packs. It is so funny when you hit the 100 km to go marker and you see all the new people in clean shoes, chatting excitedly, as we did 5 weeks before. And definitely worth continuing on to Finisterre, a fitting conclusion. So it was a fantastic experience for us, we many new friends we will have for life and a drinking habit we will now need to break.
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?