Is this the question there is no answer for?

[JohnMcM]

Apart from family, friends and loved-ones , who is the one person who has inspired you to plan, prepare for, walk and complete your Camino?
Buen Camino

 

[mspath]

In graduate school 50 years ago I attended courses by the great medieval art/architecture historian Meyer Schapiro. Several erudite lectures focused on the architecture along the Camino Frances, not only great monuments but also simple vernacular buildings. He stressed the importance of carved shells as the major iconic motif for identifying all related to Saint James as well as the immense social impact of the camino path across northern Spain; the path became the 'main street' with ‘burgos de francos’ or independent neighborhoods settled by former pilgrims nearby and, thus, the towns developed. ... Bingo I was hooked and decided that someday I would walk that path myself. Forty years later I did; fifty years and 10 caminos later I still am inspired!

Margaret Meredith

 

[Bradypus]

My interest in long-distance walking was first inspired by the writing of John Hillaby. Especially "Journey through Europe". A very perceptive writer.

 

[SYates]

History buff here also. The first time I heard of the Caminos de Santiago was in history class in college and I thought - what a pity it doesn't still exist today - all started from there or - the rest is history as the saying goes ;-) Buen Camino, SY

 

[Mark Lee]

No person. It was a PBS travel program that made me aware of it, but nobody tangible inspired me to walk it.
Certainly none of those celebrities or wannabe gurus who write xanax and acid dropping fueled books about it....

 

[Gareth Griffith]

I blame Tim Moore and his book "Spanish Steps, Travels with my Donkey." I read it again recently and he blamed somebody who planted a seed in his mind that just grew. Tim Moore did the same to me. It's taken about ten years but I start walking on 13th April.
Tim's book was/is funny and I was able to follow his progress via pictures on the Internet. Then there were various hints and reminders that kept the Camino in my mind.

 

[domigee]

Same as @mspath and @SYates, lectures about medieval history, literature (about 40 years ago)...
To actually walk and complete the Camino, I had to wait until my youngest child was at Uni and I was free.....

 

[JennyH94]

Hi John -

Great thread - thank you.

Whilst I had read a number of Camino memoirs since 2000, the two people who inspired me to no longer think about walking the Camino, but actually do it, were Australian authors Elizabeth Best and Colin Bowles, who wrote a Camino memoir with the title of "The Year We Seized The Day". I read the book in 2011 and was walking those ancient and magical paths the following year. They made me "seize the day", and I am so grateful to them, for their book was instrumental in giving me my Camino life - a life which I treasure more than words can say.

Cheers - Jenny

 

[Cayou]

German comedian turned author Hape Kiperling whose book "I'm Off Then" made it hard to resist.

 

[Dutch]

Me, myself and i. I am always the one who decides its time to make a change, big or small.

 

[Al the optimist]

Big G?

 

[camino-david]

In Kathmandu, whilst browsing in a bookshop I spotted a book titled ' The Ten Best Walks in the World, with the Camino as no 1. The name of the bookshop - 'Pilgrims'

 

[MichaelB10398]

Hello John,
Great topic. I don't recall where I heard of the Camino over ten years ago, but at some point along the way I heard about it and the seed was planted deep within me. I remember the feelings of hungering for the Camino. Many, many years ago I lived in the south the France - Tarbes/Pau area, and visited Lourdes a few times. I suppose that provided a lot of good fertilizer because the call of the Camino never left me.

 

[Donna Sch]

I can't even remember what it was that put the Camino in my head about 4 years ago. But once it was there it was stuck. Especially when I realised that the VDLP was the old Roman road. So Mr Mooney, my 3rd form Latin teacher has to take some credit. And I love reading historical biographies about explorers. A number of relatively young people developed cancer at my workplace which made me more conscious of seizing the day and not waiting too long.
But I can't say that Chaucer's Wife of Bath didn't have an influence!

 

[BrienC]

Certainly none of those celebrities

So true. My first exposure to the Camino was Shirley MacLaine. But when I saw Gwyneth Paltrow and celeb chef Mario Bataly "walking" the Camino on some TV show, I was turned off to the concept, because it seemed everyone was doing it. As I said in my Camino book, "Well, everyone is doing the Camino. With good reason."

 

[MeanPhilippine]

Apart from family, friends and loved-ones , who is the one person who has inspired you to plan, prepare for, walk and complete your Camino?
Buen Camino

Yoost from Amsterdam

 

[jirit]

I have been wandering off - since well - since I could walk.

Missed many a dinner or two (quite a few actually) when the family dog and I took off at the tender age of five (or less I think ) for the day exploring the Aussie outback
(and probably added a few years to mother's age).

Over the years the distances have increased and places have been further away

I guess if we discover a camino on Mars and I am still able, I will be heading there too.
(I will have to pack light)

 

[Mark Lee]

So true. My first exposure to the Camino was Shirley MacLaine. But when I saw Gwyneth Paltrow and celeb chef Mario Bataly "walking" the Camino on some TV show, I was turned off to the concept, because it seemed everyone was doing it. As I said in my Camino book, "Well, everyone is doing the Camino. With good reason."

Sorry to hear that was your first exposure. I read about one chapter of her book and that was enough. Made me wonder if she actually even really walked the Camino. Not that a celebrity or author would lie, mind you....
I saw that show with Gwyneth Paltrow and that celeb chef. Pretty lame stuff them galavanting about in the vicinity of the Camino and taking what were obvious short little walks on it for television purposes.

 

[rometimed]

No one particular person inspired my walks last year and usually I'm inspired by people from all walks of life. Last year I'd have to give a special nod to Bow-Hunter Cameron Hanes who is an absolute beast, training near constantly and is currently training to do a 100 mile marathon in Oregon I believe.

 

[domigee]

Sorry to hear that was your first exposure. I read about one chapter of her book and that was enough. Made me wonder if she actually even really walked the Camino.

I wondered the same thing...Has anyone of you seen her interview with Oprah? Mind-boggling

 

[Mark Lee]

I wondered the same thing...Has anyone of you seen her interview with Oprah? Mind-boggling

Yeah, somebody posted that video on here a couple of years ago. Very strange. I had no idea what she was talking about on it. Total fiction, obviously.
Please, nobody post it on here again, ha ha.

 

[marciarsm]

During my first trip to Europe in 1985 I encountered a plaque on the cathedral in Le Puy that named kings, queens and saints the had visited this pilgrimage church. At the time I thought it was a pilgrimage church because of it's black Madonna. The following day I encountered a similar plaque in Rocamadour, which also had another black Madonna.
Having never heard of this pilgrimage before, I tried to research it when I returned home. At that time there was no internet and most information was not in English.
However, my interest remained, and eventually I meet several people who had walked short distances on it.
I have since walked two pilgrimages on the Camino Frances.

 

[MeanPhilippine]

Yoost from Amsterdam

I wonder how many Pilgrims or soon to be one got this

 

[David L. Lewis]

I guess Hemingway, I went to the running of the bulls, and saw some Pilgrims there, brought back childhood memories of an article on backpacking Europe, and the Camino was part of the story

 

[David L. Lewis]

I wonder how many Pilgrims or soon to be one got this

I would say, everyone on this forum

 

[HeidiL]

We lived in Madrid from 1996 to 1999. In 1997 the Norwegian Embassy had a reception for two men who had walked the CF, inviting very few Norwegians who lived in Madrid at that time to come and hear them give a talk. It was gripping.

In 1998 we drove along several hundred km of the CF (with our two-year-old in the back seat), looking at the pilgrims, noticing the signs, the pilgrim menus, the information posters in the small villages, knowing that we'd come back some day. When the kid was 8, we did.

 

[Kiwi-family]

I saw an album of autumn camino pictures on a travel forum and knew I wanted to go. We already had a travel blog called "Pilgrims' Progress" and our style of travel had already included much walking....this was a natural progression (and I hope one step towards walking elsewhere too)

 

[KinkyOne]

As a former alpinist with injured knees I tried to find something.
And as wounded soul I've wished to walk and walk and walk and walk and forget.
Then I saw this movie:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0429052/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
and my aim was sealed.

That was it. My name is John Doe and I'm a Camino junkie..................

 

[joanneking]

Canadian fiddler Oliver Shroer. I heard his music on the radio one day, ordered his cd "Camino," read his story in the liner notes, and knew I would one day walk the camino. I have, twice, and plan to return in 2017.

 

[AlwynWellington]

An article in a local independent Roman Catholic magazine in 2001 by an Anglican priest (whom I had first met about 35 years before) on his camino the year before.

 

[Terri B]

In 1998, post divorce, I started travelling on my own and on my first trip to the UK walked St Cuthbert's Way, followed the next year by another trip to the UK and this time walking the West Hightland Way. I was well and truely bitten by the Travel Bug. As an avid reader, when not travelling, I read about others who did and in 2008 read Paula Constant's "Slow Journey South" during which she walked 5000km, including the Camino Frances. This was followed a few years later by "The Year we Seized the Day". Safe to say the seed was planted by these two books and the eventual plan to do something memorable for this years zero birthday began. Since then I have read many people's accounts of the Way, in book form and many of the blogs connected to this forum. Later this year I will mine to the list when I set out from SJPDP in August/September.

 

[sunwanderer]

Although we are both walkers and knew about the Camino from many, many years ago, it never occurred to us to walk it. After we read Pillars of the Earth, we put the Camino on our to-do list.

 

[BrienC]

I saw that show with Gwyneth Paltrow and that celeb chef. Pretty lame stuff them galavanting about in the vicinity of the Camino and taking what were obvious short little walks on it for television purposes.

Yeah, it was pretty lame and turned me off the Camino for quite a while. Certainly glad I found my way back.
It always interests me when people diss on MacLaine: I always wonder what its true nature comes from. I am a fan of her spiritual leanings, as you see in my lame book. However, for whatever reason we take to the Camino, there is spirit, there is inspiration, there is growth, there is healing. There is so much good, there is no room for judgment. IMHO

 

[Mark Lee]

Yeah, it was pretty lame and turned me off the Camino for quite a while. Certainly glad I found my way back.
It always interests me when people diss on MacLaine: I always wonder what its true nature comes from. I am a fan of her spiritual leanings, as you see in my lame book. However, for whatever reason we take to the Camino, there is spirit, there is inspiration, there is growth, there is healing. There is so much good, there is no room for judgment. IMHO

Never read your book, so I can't make a critic call there, but based on what I read in the Shirley MaClaine book, it just seemed like a load of BS. That's great I suppose if one is a fan of fiction novels. Just not for me.
I don't really see good or bad reviews and such on books (and movies, TV, songs etc) as judgement. Those things are made for entertainment purposes and the reviews (good and bad) come with the territory.

 

[BrienC]

Never read your book, so I can't make a critic call there, but based on what I read in the Shirley MaClaine book, it just seemed like a load of BS. That's great I suppose if one is a fan of fiction novels. Just not for me.
I don't really see good or bad reviews and such on books (and movies, TV, songs etc) as judgement. Those things are made for entertainment purposes and the reviews (good and bad) come with the territory.

I have to disagree: A review is ALL judgment. I don't mean judgment in terms of divine punishment, but as in opinion. And opinion is comparison. Comparison to a set of values. Something is a "load of BS," as compared to a literary masterpiece, or one's beliefs, or whatever measure.

So read the book. I fear not a critique;-)

 

[Mark Lee]

I have to disagree: A review is ALL judgment. I don't mean judgment in terms of divine punishment, but as in opinion. And opinion is comparison. Comparison to a set of values. Something is a "load of BS," as compared to a literary masterpiece, or one's beliefs, or whatever measure.

So read the book. I fear not a critique;-)

Fair enough. I just may do that.

 

[Devon Mike]

Although we are both walkers and knew about the Camino from many, many years ago, it never occurred to us to walk it. After we read Pillars of the Earth, we put the Camino on our to-do list.

Ken Follett is a truly inspirational writer. Pillars of the Earth and the follow-up book World Without End are so wonderful and have a permanent place on my bookshelves.

 

[Jeff Crawley]

In the 1990’s I lived in a small village in Kent, UK which is on the Pilgrim’s Way to Canterbury but which also extends across the Channel to mainland Europe and the pilgrimage to Rome.

At that time we owned a small farmhouse in western France and my daughters loved to visit a coastal bastide called Talmont-sur-Gironde. It was founded by Edward I of England 1284 and was a resting place for pilgrims crossing the wide Gironde river on their way to SdC on the Via Turonensis . . . and so the seed was planted. Could you walk from Canterbury to SdC?

In my case, and at that time no!

Ironically the original town of Talmont was almost totally destroyed in 1652 by the Spanish!

 

[supersullivan]

For me, when I was an active competition cyclist in the early 1980's , a member of my cycling club, Ciaran O'hUrmoltaigh, cycled a substantial portion of the Camino Frances as part of a Catholic Youth Group. I had never previously heard of the Camino so the name got filed away in my mental trivia drawer but when nearly 30 years later I took up hiking and found a penchant for long distance walking to be balm for my soul I recalled his journey and started researching.

 

[bhavagrahidasa]

I guess initially it was "heavenly guidance" but then definitely cemented by Emilios movie.
After the sudden death of my father, with whom i had a difficult relationship, I searched the internet for extended holidays so I could take some time out from London to be alone and process his death (back home in New Zealand.) That is when the Camino popped up.
I dismissed it at first but the next day on the tube to work i saw a newspaper article about the Camino Frances which mildly amused me as coincidence. But when a locum teacher at the school I worked with told me about the movie "The Way" i was sure i was being to called to The Way but still felt there were many obstacles. As i wrote in my journal.

"But as impressed as I was, I still had no desire to walk the way myself. I was 45, morbidly obese at 130 kgs and living with diabetes and high blood pressure. A paranoid schizophrenic with depressive disorder and anxiety issues who had difficulty getting to the local shops let alone cross Spain. A gay Hare Krsna on a catholic pilgrimage? I’m a lot of things but I’m not a fool. The Camino De Santiago was not something i wanted to, or could, do.
 That is until i watch the movie."


Watching the movie convinced me i could do what seemed impossible and so 4 weeks after i first heard of the Camino de Santiago i left St Jean such a naive newbie in new shoes, new pack...but i did arrive safely at Finisterre some 5 weeks later. The Camino changed my life in so many ways...and i do believe that something, or someone, heavenly did indeed prompt my journey

 

[LesBrass]

I blame Tim Moore and his book "Spanish Steps, Travels with my Donkey." ...

Me too... in some ways.

I was on holiday in Northern Spain (around Burgos) and as we drove westward we saw lots of walkers. My husband explained who they were... and this brought to mind an aquaintance who had walked the camino years before. We were heading to the coast and by the time we reached Fisterra I was hooked.

I had recently recovered from cancer and my husband thought i was crazy to even think about doing it... he said "I have a book at home about some bloke who did it with a donkey and it was such hard work... read it and it will put you off" Well I read it about 8 times... and it never put me off. I had already decided on that holiday that I would walk... the book just confirmed my decision!

The rest... as they they say... is history

p.s. I know folks talk about being called and I'm pretty down to earth... but I feel 100% that there was never a choice for me... I had to walk!

 

[Rob the Slob]

Sharpe's Rifles, by Bernard Cornwell.

 

[Michael Caleigh]

I wonder how many Pilgrims or soon to be one got this

I just love Joost......When I saw him the first time my friends told me "Michael, that is you"

 

[56pilgrim]

Saw the movie and within days met a work colleague who has prostate cancer. He was looking to walk O'Cebreiro so we set off together, it's just one of those things that falls in to place. Walked again in 2014 to do the casmino finisterre and we set off to do the Camino Frances in April 2016. Met people along the way who had walked more than one Camino and so it just builds and inspires you more.
And in response to the earlier post regarding Sharpe's Rifles........I have an ancestor that fought on the Iberian peninsular with the 95th Rifles ! I guess it's something that I always have had to do but just never knew.

 

[wayfarer]

An article in National Geographic some twenty odd years ago.

 

[camino07]

I have to disagree: A review is ALL judgment. I don't mean judgment in terms of divine punishment, but as in opinion. And opinion is comparison. Comparison to a set of values. Something is a "load of BS," as compared to a literary masterpiece, or one's beliefs, or whatever measure.

So read the book. I fear not a critique;-)

I enjoyed Shirley 's book but had to jump a couple of chapters when it got too weird. Her description of Foncebadon stuck with me and I was expecting wild dogs when I first walked there in 2007. So, pleasantly surprised to find only a big sleepy dog.
I now love Foncebadon with the goats and dogs plodding around and have stayed 4 times but still think of Shirley's account.

 

[William Garza]

A Divine Breath called across my dreams.
And pretty much everyone on the Forum!

 

[Jeff Crawley]

Sharpe's Rifles, by Bernard Cornwell.

Rob,

If you enjoyed the Sharpe series you might like to try two books by George Alfred Henty:

"With Moore at Corunna" - the story of an ensign in an Irish county regiment who serves with General Moore on the retreat back to A Coruna through familiar countryside - Leon, Astorga

And "Under Wellington's Command" further adventures in the Penninsula War.

Both written in the 1800's and, although not as blood thirsty as Cornwell's books I can't but wonder if he'd read them as a child?

You can download both books free of charge from Project Gutenberg or Amazon.

For the non-Anglos out there Moore was a brilliant Scottish general, probably best known for luring Napoleon's vastly superior forces into Galicia, beating Soult and saving a large part of the British army - a kind of early Dunkirk if you will.

Probably a better commander than the more well known Wellington. His grave is in the San Carlos Garden in A Coruna.

 

[Rob the Slob]

@Jeff Crawley, thanks for the tip! I found Henty's collected works on Kobo for a few euros and downloaded them.
I have to admit, one of the reasons I want to walk the Camino de Madrid is to see the area where Wellington's armies marched and manoeuvred. One of my favourite reads is The Spanish Bride by Georgette Heyer, which covers the latter half of the Peninsular War largely from the perspective of the extraordinary Juanita Smith (for whom, if I'm not mistaken, Ladysmith in South Africa is named). Not only is it a very accurate account, but much of the dialogue is taken verbatim from the diaries and memoirs of the people involved.

 

[Cheryl M]

Apart from family, friends and loved-ones , who is the one person who has inspired you to plan, prepare for, walk and complete your Camino?
Buen Camino

 

[Cheryl M]

A woman who had completed the Way with her son when she was 85!

 

[Sheilajg]

I first heard about it from some friends who wanted to go and I kind of thought they were a bit nuts. Then I read Jane Christmas', "What the Psychic told the Pilgrim". It's a kind of hilarious, kind of horrible account of her Camino Frances. Instead of turning me completely off the experience, I was inspired and eventually (2015) walked from St Jean Pied de Port to Santiago. I'm so glad.

 

[Chacharm]

Apart from family, friends and loved-ones , who is the one person who has inspired you to plan, prepare for, walk and complete your Camino?
Buen Camino

I have a friend who walked the Camino 30 years ago. I have no idea how he heard about it - but I had a hankering to go since he told me about it. Around the same time Jack Hitt (whom you may know from This American Life" also walked the Camino and he wrote this book:
http://books.simonandschuster.com/Off-the-Road/Jack-Hitt/9780743261111
This is the book the movie The Way was loosely based upon. He wasn't a father dealing with the death of his son - that was all fabrication. But all the little adventures and funny bits came from this book. He is a funny guy and he was really into the history of the Camino. You will learn a lot and laugh.

 

[clearskiescamino]

This was gradual to be honest.
I found out about the Camino in 2011 and walked the final section for charity as part of a group.
I arrived in Santiago following 5 days of walking, with aches and pains but I was delighted to have it over.
Having arrived back in Dublin, it was then that the Camino became part of me (if that's a best way to put it)
I watched The Way (it wasn't released in Ireland until I returned) and read books, and made plans to return.
Since then I go back each year.
It's funny how 5 years go by so quickly!

 

[Debra Andrew]

I wonder how many Pilgrims or soon to be one got this

I DID... To easy have watch The Way many many times...

 

[jennyb]

Like Tim Moore, a tiny seed was planted.....I read an article in a magazine about a woman who walked the Camino, while I was on a long road trip. Now I am a caminoholic, off on my 3rd Camino soon and then to be a hospitalera in September 2016.
I have read most of the books mentioned here (and some others not mentioned) except Tim Moore's "Spanish steps...". Seriously need to get a copy now!
And STILL looking for Rebekah Scott's book "The Moorish Whore". Tried reading Paul Coelho's "The Pilgrim", but did not finish it. So it has become reading matter for my Camino Portuguese now in May.