Just returned from the Camino....Advice to others 60+ years

[JeepsNRoses]

@Suzi Wooldridge
I hope that Peggy will respond, but as a lady in my 60's who walked the Camino Frances alone last fall I thought that my reflections might be useful to you. The physical part of walking 20 km or so every day is not so difficult, if you like to walk. Just keep to your own pace and pay immediate attention to any discomfort which may indicate that you are overdoing it. I never felt particularly concerned about safety. There are generally lots of people walking the Camino Frances at the same time, so they look out for one another. Pay attention when walking on difficult terrain and especially when crossing or walking along roads. Traffic can be a hazard. You may find that walking poles help you to keep your balance and take some of the pressure off your joints. Try them out before you go. Albergues (pilgrim hostels) can be a challenge at first, what with co-ed dormitories and loud snorers. Bring ear plugs, try to ignore others when dressing or performing other private activities and hope that they will ignore you. Shower rooms have private stalls with doors, but you will have to learn to dry yourself and dress in a very small place. Pack your sense of humour. It will be your most useful asset. I left Leon on Oct. 31 and arrived in Santiago de Compostela on Nov. 17, so that took me eighteen days to walk approximately 310 km., 192.6 miles, taking the mileage from my guidebook. So that was about 17 km. or 10.3 miles per day, some days more, some less. Have fun planning your walk and getting in shape. Buen camino.

@Albertagirl thanks for your post! It is much appreciated. I think once I get a couple days under my belt (or perhaps a first night's sleep in a pensione) I can return to finding humor in the little things. A guidebook is most likely the next step. That way I can plan til my eyes cross before more or less throwing caution to the wind. Did you plan your stops in advance or just let the path and the interactions lead you?
Hopefully the last these weeks of May will be a nice time to go weather wise. Our Southern TX heat is nearly unbearable with lows in the 80s.
Buen Camino (my first time to say it)

 

[Albertagirl]

@Albertagirl thanks for your post! It is much appreciated. I think once I get a couple days under my belt (or perhaps a first night's sleep in a pensione) I can return to finding humor in the little things. A guidebook is most likely the next step. That way I can plan til my eyes cross before more or less throwing caution to the wind. Did you plan your stops in advance or just let the path and the interactions lead you?
Hopefully the last these weeks of May will be a nice time to go weather wise. Our Southern TX heat is nearly unbearable with lows in the 80s.
Buen Camino (my first time to say it)

@Suzi Wooldridge
I did some planning as well as walking day to day. For instance, I realized after I replied to your post that I had walked further than I said. I used Brierley's guidebook calculations of km./miles from Leon to Santiago, but I did not walk the main route, so I actually put in more miles on two of the alternate routes he suggested: from Leon to Mazarife, then back to the main route at Hospital del Orbigo and from Triacastela to Samos and back to the main route at Aguiada. In addition, I got off the route before Portomarin and ended up taking a fairly lengthy and unintended detour. Whether you decide to leave the main route will depend on how much time you have to plan and walk your camino and if you are attracted to anything off the main route. But things may not turn out as expected. The albergue that you went miles out of your way to stay at will be closed, or the route that you chose may not live up to your expectations. This is just to say that expectations can get in the way of what happens. So, plan or not, but be open to whatever happens and you will receive what your camino has to give you. I was much blessed on my camino last fall, but I am going again next month with few expectations, except that I cannot control much of what happens and will accept whatever comes. Once again, buen camino to you.

 

[Bill Anlyan]

Well that was an experience of a lifetime and something nobody who seriously wants to do the Camino should turn from.
Was it difficult? Not overly so.
Sure there were days when I was tired, hot, wet, had sore feet and on onew occassion had a honking great blister that put me off the road for a day, but if you are even moderately in shape, and remember you are not in a race, and do only what you are capable of doing per day, you will have the time of your life!
I did not start as a pilgrim, but I ended up as a person who firmly believes that Christianity is alive and well in people who walk the Camino and that God is great, and I do not mean that in a great religious type of way, with visions, or Halleluja choruses echoing through the land, He just is great and exists. ( I still swear like a trooper when things go wrong btw)
I left St Jean Pied de Port on 6 April and arrived in Santiago on 12 May. I left on my own and met dozens of the best people I have ever met in my life. I laughed more heartily than I have done in many years, I learned that charity between friends is invaluable, I have dozens of Facebook friends thanks to the Camino, all of whom I would welcome to my home, I saw the beauty of Spain, the wonders of large cities, the delights of tiny villages, heard cuckoos calling, cows mooing and sheep bleating, and smelt for days, dung and slurry that was being spread on fields. I never heard a cross word, or felt that I was ripped off in any way,in fact I had people track me down if I had over paid. Not once did I see see a police car with its siren sounding, nor fear anything untoward was possible.
I had a Rastafarian Russian surf board instructor fellow Caminoist (that is a story in its self!) tend, with care and tenderness to a bad blister I developed, and he used up his own precious first aid kit helping me and gave me a great pair of socks, a man, a month before I would never have dreamt of even speaking with. Now I know I could trust him completely.
The food was first class, the albergues were better than I imagined they would be, the whole exercise was cheaper than I thought, and I did not want to come back home at the end of it.
Yes you will experience challenges such as loosing your underwear inexplicably, finding you have adopted someone elses socks and sweating like a pig, but it is only underwear and I feel the benefit of losing 28 lbs to the point I now take two steps before my pants start to move, but I also lived amongst men and women from their 20s to their 80s who were a joy to be with and shared happiness and stories. I had no trouble sleeping and no trouble getting up in the morning. I soon got used to having a shower with a woman in the stall next to me. Inserting earplugs at night was just as natural as brushing my teeth, and I missed nothing of the creature comforts of home, what ever that may have meant.
If you want the time of your life, if you want to learn something incredible, if you want to see something fresh and with a different outlook on life, travel the Camino, and dont worry about the little things. You dont need peanut butter or to phone home every night. Go on, do something different. All the information about what you should do or bring is extremely well documented on this forum ten times over. Just do it. Buen Camino....Neil

Thanks for sharing your experience!

 

[annali]

Well that was an experience of a lifetime and something nobody who seriously wants to do the Camino should turn from.
Was it difficult? Not overly so.
Sure there were days when I was tired, hot, wet, had sore feet and on onew occassion had a honking great blister that put me off the road for a day, but if you are even moderately in shape, and remember you are not in a race, and do only what you are capable of doing per day, you will have the time of your life!
I did not start as a pilgrim, but I ended up as a person who firmly believes that Christianity is alive and well in people who walk the Camino and that God is great, and I do not mean that in a great religious type of way, with visions, or Halleluja choruses echoing through the land, He just is great and exists. ( I still swear like a trooper when things go wrong btw)
I left St Jean Pied de Port on 6 April and arrived in Santiago on 12 May. I left on my own and met dozens of the best people I have ever met in my life. I laughed more heartily than I have done in many years, I learned that charity between friends is invaluable, I have dozens of Facebook friends thanks to the Camino, all of whom I would welcome to my home, I saw the beauty of Spain, the wonders of large cities, the delights of tiny villages, heard cuckoos calling, cows mooing and sheep bleating, and smelt for days, dung and slurry that was being spread on fields. I never heard a cross word, or felt that I was ripped off in any way,in fact I had people track me down if I had over paid. Not once did I see see a police car with its siren sounding, nor fear anything untoward was possible.
I had a Rastafarian Russian surf board instructor fellow Caminoist (that is a story in its self!) tend, with care and tenderness to a bad blister I developed, and he used up his own precious first aid kit helping me and gave me a great pair of socks, a man, a month before I would never have dreamt of even speaking with. Now I know I could trust him completely.
The food was first class, the albergues were better than I imagined they would be, the whole exercise was cheaper than I thought, and I did not want to come back home at the end of it.
Yes you will experience challenges such as loosing your underwear inexplicably, finding you have adopted someone elses socks and sweating like a pig, but it is only underwear and I feel the benefit of losing 28 lbs to the point I now take two steps before my pants start to move, but I also lived amongst men and women from their 20s to their 80s who were a joy to be with and shared happiness and stories. I had no trouble sleeping and no trouble getting up in the morning. I soon got used to having a shower with a woman in the stall next to me. Inserting earplugs at night was just as natural as brushing my teeth, and I missed nothing of the creature comforts of home, what ever that may have meant.
If you want the time of your life, if you want to learn something incredible, if you want to see something fresh and with a different outlook on life, travel the Camino, and dont worry about the little things. You dont need peanut butter or to phone home every night. Go on, do something different. All the information about what you should do or bring is extremely well documented on this forum ten times over. Just do it. Buen Camino....Neil

Wonderful, inspiring post. Thank you!

 

[John H.]

… You dont need peanut butter ...

Cloosh: I was totally with you until you said that. "Crema de cacahuete" - took me 2 weeks to find it! Great post from 2013. It brought back fond memories. Thanks. JH