• 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)
  • ⚠️ Emergency contact in Spain - Dial 112 and AlertCops app. More on this here.

Search 69,459 Camino Questions

Keeping a Journal for a Richer Camino Experience

Terry Callery

Chi Walker
I had occasion to speak this week to a pilgrim who lives near me in Maine about my experience on the Portuguese Camino. I had walked from Lisbon (only 1% of all pilgrims getting compostelas start there) in February finishing on Saint Patrick's Day in March. These are some of the least traveled months for pilgrims, so I had a very uncrowded Camino experience "listing to the great silence".
As we talked, I was very specific about the names of places I encountered and the fellow pilgrim said to me "How did you remember all those places and Portuguese names, sometime my recollection of my Camino is like a big blur all blended together."
Since I was planing to write a second book - part literate travel guide and part reflective memoir -I had kept a journal, jotting down a page worth of observations and insights each morning after breakfast while on the Portuguese Route. The journal became the backbone of the paperback book/kindle. What is interesting is that I never journal while at home, I suspect that others are like me. That our lives away from the Camino are much more routine and habitual and perhaps not as "journal worthy" as when we are on our spiritual adventures of discovery. There were a few places that I stayed at I had no record of, no stamp or an unreadable stamp on my Pilgrim Credentials - so I had to Google half a dozen places in that town to see a photo online that looked familiar. Often one of the 300 photos I took would jog my blurred memory to crystallize. I was reading some of my journal descriptions of the best restaurants that I experience and this one really awakened a rich Camino experience in the town of Oliveira De Azemeis.

"Inside Hotel Dighton is Restaurante D. Gomado, which maintains a traditional wood-fired grill. I went down to the restaurant just as they opened for dinner at 7:30 and was seated at a white tablecloth table in the elegantly appointed restaurant.
A show began almost immediately. The man was dressed all in black, with a black chef’s headband on his head, and he looked more like a martial arts instructor than a highly trained chef. He danced effortlessly around the massive fireplace, which was covered with a metal plenum to vent out the wood smoke. The chef placed a small pile of hardwood sticks into the brick grill and watched as the fire consumed the fuel with its hungry flames. I had ordered grilled prawns and baby squid, and the chef poured a marinade onto them before he placed the skewered shellfish over the wood coals to caramelize. In the same way that a bullfight in Portugal is a fusion between a sporting contest and a theatrical event, grilling my prawns and baby squid was an athletic event and also a stylized ritual. It took about twenty minutes for the coals to be ready, and the chef shifted cat-like around the firepit, poking coals and adjusting the position of the skewer. In the meantime, I ate my bread with Portuguese olives and a creme de marisco, or seafood bisque soup. Finally the prawns and baby squid were brought to my table, served with roasted potatoes and Portuguese kale. The fresh ingredients were transformed into intense versions of themselves—sweeter, smokier, and more textured. The meal was another Epicurean masterpiece, and I slowly savored each bite."


Are there other pilgrims who have kept journals on the Camino who do not normally journal at home - and if so, has the writing process enriched their Camino experience???
Terence Callery
 
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
I do journal at home but still find that journalling on the camino makes it for me a more meaningful experience. It was especially helpful on the Via Francigena in France this year as I was solo most of the time and met few other pilgrims in 3 weeks and helped mark out the days and keep me sane. It also helped me make sense of why I took certain photos by giving context. I also love going back to reread my old camino journals to relive the journeys of people and places and lessons learnt
 
I don't journal at home, but I do like to keep something of a record of my Caminos. I'm not sure that the record enriches my Camino experience (sometimes it is a bit of a chore), but it certainly does prolong the experience and enrich my evenings back at home :).

In the end, the key records that make up my "journal" are my daily blog and a printed photo book.

I write a blog entry each evening while on the Camino. It is not a detailed description of the day, but mostly a few words on something significant or funny. I like to keep it light, and I don't have mental or physical energy for extensive descriptions! Being a public blog, I need to write in a certain way, but that keeps it positive. I don't actually like to re-read my own philosophical musings, complaints or lyrical descriptions :eek:, so I avoid putting them down in writing. Reviewing the blog and my photo book brings back the memories imperfectly but well enough to please me.

At home, I tell myself I'm not allowed to start planning another trip until I've finished my photo book for the last one! I sort through my 1000 photos - it is very time-consuming - and select about 100-150. I organize them day-by-day with start and end points noted, add an image of the sello for each day, and insert only enough captions to identify key people and places. I have the book printed as a 20-25 page soft cover photo book, rather like a magazine. I often need to review my blog and credential to sort out exactly what happened where and when.

I wish I could be more disciplined in making some logistical notes in the little notebook I carry, and in reducing the number of photos on a daily basis. I will try harder next time.
 
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
I keep a journal when traveling. Not at home. I also save all my receipts and photocopy them at home, because the originals fade. Also candy wrappers, dead leaves, tickets, restaurant napkins, etc. My journal becomes quite thick. I look through it over and over. The digital photos, on the other hand, are a chore I have not coped with.
 
I’ve journaled all my long distance hikes so that could post them online later. Some I did post on my blog and others I just Facebooked. It doesn’t enrich my experience, I don’t think. But it’s a nice way to remember details weeks and years down the road. People like to read about other people’s travels. I know I do, so it’s my way of giving back.
 
Ideal sleeping bag liner whether we want to add a thermal plus to our bag, or if we want to use it alone to sleep in shelters or hostels. Thanks to its mummy shape, it adapts perfectly to our body.

€46,-
I had occasion to speak this week to a pilgrim who lives near me in Maine about my experience on the Portuguese Camino. I had walked from Lisbon (only 1% of all pilgrims getting compostelas start there) in February finishing on Saint Patrick's Day in March. These are some of the least traveled months for pilgrims, so I had a very uncrowded Camino experience "listing to the great silence".
As we talked, I was very specific about the names of places I encountered and the fellow pilgrim said to me "How did you remember all those places and Portuguese names, sometime my recollection of my Camino is like a big blur all blended together."
Since I was planing to write a second book - part literate travel guide and part reflective memoir -I had kept a journal, jotting down a page worth of observations and insights each morning after breakfast while on the Portuguese Route. The journal became the backbone of the paperback book/kindle. What is interesting is that I never journal while at home, I suspect that others are like me. That our lives away from the Camino are much more routine and habitual and perhaps not as "journal worthy" as when we are on our spiritual adventures of discovery. There were a few places that I stayed at I had no record of, no stamp or an unreadable stamp on my Pilgrim Credentials - so I had to Google half a dozen places in that town to see a photo online that looked familiar. Often one of the 300 photos I took would jog my blurred memory to crystallize. I was reading some of my journal descriptions of the best restaurants that I experience and this one really awakened a rich Camino experience in the town of Oliveira De Azemeis.

"Inside Hotel Dighton is Restaurante D. Gomado, which maintains a traditional wood-fired grill. I went down to the restaurant just as they opened for dinner at 7:30 and was seated at a white tablecloth table in the elegantly appointed restaurant.
A show began almost immediately. The man was dressed all in black, with a black chef’s headband on his head, and he looked more like a martial arts instructor than a highly trained chef. He danced effortlessly around the massive fireplace, which was covered with a metal plenum to vent out the wood smoke. The chef placed a small pile of hardwood sticks into the brick grill and watched as the fire consumed the fuel with its hungry flames. I had ordered grilled prawns and baby squid, and the chef poured a marinade onto them before he placed the skewered shellfish over the wood coals to caramelize. In the same way that a bullfight in Portugal is a fusion between a sporting contest and a theatrical event, grilling my prawns and baby squid was an athletic event and also a stylized ritual. It took about twenty minutes for the coals to be ready, and the chef shifted cat-like around the firepit, poking coals and adjusting the position of the skewer. In the meantime, I ate my bread with Portuguese olives and a creme de marisco, or seafood bisque soup. Finally the prawns and baby squid were brought to my table, served with roasted potatoes and Portuguese kale. The fresh ingredients were transformed into intense versions of themselves—sweeter, smokier, and more textured. The meal was another Epicurean masterpiece, and I slowly savored each bite."


Are there other pilgrims who have kept journals on the Camino who do not normally journal at home - and if so, has the writing process enriched their Camino experience???
Terence Callery

Terry:
I ordered both books and they arrived yesterday. I am half way through Slow Camino. Will finish it up today...hopefully. Have a few preps to make for this evening's dinner that we are sharing with our 97 year old neighbors. They are amazing folks. Still living in their home! Will have to keep a look out for Hotel Dighton and the anticipated gastronomical experience you encountered. Sounds heavenly! Let's keep in touch. My best and Happy New Year!
Sally Leland
 
I've tried writing a journal without too much success, now I blog every day wherever I'm traveling which I don'tfind a problem so journal writing is now no more than a memory.
 
I had occasion to speak this week to a pilgrim who lives near me in Maine about my experience on the Portuguese Camino. I had walked from Lisbon (only 1% of all pilgrims getting compostelas start there) in February finishing on Saint Patrick's Day in March. These are some of the least traveled months for pilgrims, so I had a very uncrowded Camino experience "listing to the great silence".
As we talked, I was very specific about the names of places I encountered and the fellow pilgrim said to me "How did you remember all those places and Portuguese names, sometime my recollection of my Camino is like a big blur all blended together."
Since I was planing to write a second book - part literate travel guide and part reflective memoir -I had kept a journal, jotting down a page worth of observations and insights each morning after breakfast while on the Portuguese Route. The journal became the backbone of the paperback book/kindle. What is interesting is that I never journal while at home, I suspect that others are like me. That our lives away from the Camino are much more routine and habitual and perhaps not as "journal worthy" as when we are on our spiritual adventures of discovery. There were a few places that I stayed at I had no record of, no stamp or an unreadable stamp on my Pilgrim Credentials - so I had to Google half a dozen places in that town to see a photo online that looked familiar. Often one of the 300 photos I took would jog my blurred memory to crystallize. I was reading some of my journal descriptions of the best restaurants that I experience and this one really awakened a rich Camino experience in the town of Oliveira De Azemeis.

"Inside Hotel Dighton is Restaurante D. Gomado, which maintains a traditional wood-fired grill. I went down to the restaurant just as they opened for dinner at 7:30 and was seated at a white tablecloth table in the elegantly appointed restaurant.
A show began almost immediately. The man was dressed all in black, with a black chef’s headband on his head, and he looked more like a martial arts instructor than a highly trained chef. He danced effortlessly around the massive fireplace, which was covered with a metal plenum to vent out the wood smoke. The chef placed a small pile of hardwood sticks into the brick grill and watched as the fire consumed the fuel with its hungry flames. I had ordered grilled prawns and baby squid, and the chef poured a marinade onto them before he placed the skewered shellfish over the wood coals to caramelize. In the same way that a bullfight in Portugal is a fusion between a sporting contest and a theatrical event, grilling my prawns and baby squid was an athletic event and also a stylized ritual. It took about twenty minutes for the coals to be ready, and the chef shifted cat-like around the firepit, poking coals and adjusting the position of the skewer. In the meantime, I ate my bread with Portuguese olives and a creme de marisco, or seafood bisque soup. Finally the prawns and baby squid were brought to my table, served with roasted potatoes and Portuguese kale. The fresh ingredients were transformed into intense versions of themselves—sweeter, smokier, and more textured. The meal was another Epicurean masterpiece, and I slowly savored each bite."


Are there other pilgrims who have kept journals on the Camino who do not normally journal at home - and if so, has the writing process enriched their Camino experience???
Terence Callery
I did not journal and wish I had!
 
Ideal sleeping bag liner whether we want to add a thermal plus to our bag, or if we want to use it alone to sleep in shelters or hostels. Thanks to its mummy shape, it adapts perfectly to our body.

€46,-
I would love to journal but don't have the patience, so I blog.
Much the same thing I suppose.

But I cheat a bit.
I use a voice recorder as I'm walking, so the thoughts are more spontaneous and I don't forget anything.

Then an auto transcriber gets the text onto the blog.
I shoot a lot of video on the blog which makes things much easier too.

But like those that journal, I remember almost every step.
Pat will ask me where we ate a certain meal, or where that nice Casa Rural was, or where did we see X Y or Z?
And I'll tell her right away......... :oops:
 
I carry a sketchbook
I did post on my blog and others I just Facebooked
now I blog every day
so I blog.
I assumed that when the original question was posed, that a "journal" does not have to mean a "paper book on which one writes by hand with a pen or pencil." Surely all of these are journals that serve the same purpose.

Wikipedia says "A journal, from the Old French "journal" (meaning "daily"), can refer to several things. In its original meaning, it refers to a daily record of activities"
 
I keep an Art Journal both for every day use and for travelling. I tend to record more when travelling and include written notes, thoughts, sketches and watercolors, and add other ephemera, like Ellen does, of tickets, restaurant cards, post cards etc. I have found that keeping an art/written journal does enhance my travels. Since I have started sketching and doing watercolors, my powers of observation have sharpened and I notice more of what's around me even if I don't sketch or paint it. Keeping a sketch book helps me slow down and can help quiet my brain chatter. I plan on taking 2 journals as I can get quite prolific. When I return home I make up a larger scrapbook with photos I have taken and copies of my sketches to make a more cohesive travel story that I can share with friends and family. (my journals can have musings that I don't necessarily want to share).

I know many people feel that they cannot draw. I was one of them and in the past have even had art teachers tell me that I should find other ways to express myself ! Over time, I have found a style that suits me and even on the days I don't necessarily like what I have drawn, I find that if I review my sketches a few days later, I can be pleasantly surprised at how much I do like the sketches.

I am so enthusiastic about keeping sketch/art journals that I have volunteered to give a talk about sketching ones travels, gear and equipment available, at my local Pilgrims meeting early this year in hopes of encouraging other pilgrims to make some space in their packs for some art supplies!
There are several youtube segments about walking a camino that include sketches and watercolors. Craig Smillie's you tube has lots of examples of his sketches from his caminos. His style is a lot like mine. The book by Jennifer Lawson is also very good, "Walking in Watercolor: An Artist's Pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago."

IMG_1729.JPGIMG_1730.JPGIMG_1741.JPG

So go forth and sketch, journal, paint!!!!
 
Last edited:
Down bag (90/10 duvet) of 700 fills with 180 g (6.34 ounces) of filling. Mummy-shaped structure, ideal when you are looking for lightness with great heating performance.

€149,-

Most read last week in this forum

I would like to walk the river route in Tui next month. I can see on google maps exactly where it starts, but it seems a bit overgrown. Has anybody used this route this year or last year...
Hello, my friend of 50+ years and I are on our first Camino walk. We are looking for: 1) safe, comfortable hostels in Lisbon; 2) stages from Lisbon to Porto (via Tomar) in about 16 days...
Hi I have searched everywhere to see if there is a luggage service from Lisbon to Porto. I know there is from Porto to Santiago, but Lisbon ???. Thanks for any info.

❓How to ask a question

How to post a new question on the Camino Forum.

Forum Rules

Forum Rules

Camino Updates on YouTube

Camino Conversations

Most downloaded Resources

This site is run by Ivar at

in Santiago de Compostela.
This site participates in the Amazon Affiliate program, designed to provide a means for Ivar to earn fees by linking to Amazon
Official Camino Passport (Credential) | 2024 Camino Guides
Back
Top