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Interesting Read

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Waka said:
Strangely I don't remember it like this, was I asleep for 42 days?

10-Reasons-Why-El-Camino-Santiago-Sucks
Click to expand...
That article was the very first thing I read related to the Camino the first time I did a google search in 2014 because it was at the top of the page! I didn't care for all the author's derogatory comments, but all of his ten reasons were a blessing to me because they were the very ten reasons why I thought I "could" be able to walk the Camino! ...and I did, three times, with my fourth coming up in June.
 
One of my friends that was planning on doing the Camino sent this to me last year and was thinking of changing his mind and not going. All I could do is laugh, and feel sorry for the author, that poor person has probably never been happy about anything in their life.
 
I think the guy that wrote the article is a big wilderness backpacker, so for him I can see where it was probably a big let down. Me?...I love the Caminos and have no desire for a lonely, very difficult wilderness adventure with a tent!
 
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Read it quite awhile ago I can see why a through hiker who wants to go fast, beat the competition type of person would be unhappy on the Camino.

Large, full pack, tent, stove, stinky after day two vs. light load, showers, indoor plumbing, good meals, vino. All his negatives are my pluses.
 
Exactly...you speak my language!
 
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Waka said:
Strangely I don't remember it like this, was I asleep for 42 days?

10-Reasons-Why-El-Camino-Santiago-Sucks
Click to expand...
IIRC you don't need to carry water; the scenery is monotonous and you can get by with carrying just 1kg on your back.
It seems so different to my experience of humping an 8kg pack over the Pyrenees and "dying" of thirst . . .
But then he's a roughtie-toughie thru-hiker
 
It's a great illustration of how different people are looking for different things... Having said that, from my perspective, many of the so called "negatives" about the Camino he discussed initially led me to feel that he'd missed the point. Having now also read the Tom Allen article, I quite like Mr Allen's take on things too.

Moral of the story for me - if your ideal experience is a solitary walk of 3000 completely wilderness-based miles without infrastructure, walk the Pacific Crest Trail, not the Camino. And if you do decide to walk the Camino, its worth doing enough research beforehand to discover that its really not going to meet your PCT-based expectations, rather than complaining about it afterwards. I can't imagine that the wilderness-hiking crowd would be impressed with Camino-junkies writing articles that were critical of the PCT for the lack of decent restaurant meals or quality red wine on the PCT - thats pretty much how I see most of the criticisms of the Camino in this article.

Still - good to hear what others with different perspectives think!
 
A couple of years ago I walked the Via Francigena from Canterbury to Rome. Almost all the other walkers I met had already walked one of the Spanish caminos - most commonly the Frances. It became quite depressing how often I heard complaints that the VF was not as good as the Frances because it had less infrastructure, no baggage transport, more expensive accommodation and so on. Why judge any route against some hypothetical ideal and so concentrate on its "faults"? I would rather enjoy the contrast.
 
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