| 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) |
|---|
Again thank you so very much for going above and beyond to give me great advice, tips and inspiration! Your giving nature shines through! Can't thank you enough. I can see how'd you'd make a great Camino volunteer!!!!You are very welcome. Please continue to enjoy your Camino. On this route, IMHO the second half is more rewarding that the first half. It is less physically challenging, but after the trials in the first half, and your improved condition and Camino-smarts, you can get more out of the remainder of the route.
Cruz de Ferro is one "high-point" (literally). At 1505 meters ASL, it is the highest point on the entire Camino Frances. However, the walk there from Rabanal del Camino is a gradual climb. Twice, in mid-May I experienced (3" - 4") snow there. This year it was completely socked in by clouds and it was raining. You will be there in a couple of days. I hope you have a clear day. Enjoy!
Also, the closer you get to Santiago, the more you "feel" the draw, the mystical attraction that attracts pilgrims like a magnet. The "down side" to this increased anxiety is the mini-depression that arrives with the realization that this is the end, where the Camino terminates. Your pilgrimage is over. I have seen and spoken to many pilgrims who are literally overcome on reaching Santiago, both by profound joy and profound sadness.
Also, I have met pilgrims who intentionally "stall" and take additional rest days, or add adjacent Camino routes to form a loop, to lengthen their time on Camino, believing that arrival at Santiago means "it is all over." Some pilgrims simply do not want the experience to end.
FYI, and to store for future use, the Pilgrim House, at Rua Nova 19 in Santiago offers a broad variety of services for arriving pilgrims. They have just about everything on offer except showers and beds. They also offer discussion groups and informal counseling to pilgrims deeply affected by the experience and who may have "adjustment" issues on arrival at Santiago. Their web site is: http://www.pilgrimhousesantiago.com/
You could, like me, and many others, take the alternate tack. Many of us subscribe to the feeling that, as the Camino is a metaphor for life, arrival at Santiago from one route just means you completed the pilgrimage on one route. There are many other routes waiting for you to explore, on your next Camino. So, we regard arrival at Santiago not so much as the end of one pilgrimage, but the beginning of thought and planning for the NEXT Camino...
The other truism is that many of us, myself included, caught "Caminoitis" during our first pilgrimage. It made devotees, if not addicts of us. After my first Camino in 2013, I resolved to continue to try to do one Camino route per year, and to offer my services as a voluntario at the Pilgrim Office, health and resources permitting.
In my retirement, the Camino de Santiago has become my avocation or hobby. Though I live in South Florida, I do not play golf, or any other game. Thinking about the Camino keeps me sane (I think), planning for it and contributing in this Forum helps me feel useful (I hope). Actually working as a volunteer or being on Camino provides emotional benefits that no pill could provide. I love being in Spain, and in particular at Santiago and just absorbing the emotions, while being helpful. Personally, I find I get far more out of volunteering and pilgrimage than I put into it.
You could even become a "ditch pig." Each autumn, usually in November, Rebekah Scott organizes a small work crew of Camino veterans who donate their time to help her clean up a stretch of the Camino. As this group specializes in removing trash from the paths and drainage culverts that typically run along the Meseta Camino stretches, near where she lives, the term "Ditch Pigs" emerged... I missed it the past couple of years, but will try to make it this year.
There are many ways to give back. You could even join APOC (American Pilgrims on Camino) in the US and meet with a local chapter. In the UK it would be the Confraternity of St. James (CSJ). In Canada, it is the Canadian Company of Pilgrims. There is a similar group in Australia, with chapters on both coasts I believe. Each of these groups hosts activities in their respective countries intended to nurture and grow knowledge of the Camino and interest in doing one, and in offering ways to give back.
These groups also sponsor hospitalero / hospitalera training for persons who, having done a Camino want to work as a volunteer in an albergue. Some of the national groups even operate or sponsor and support one or more albergues along the Camino Frances. You likely stayed in one or more of these.
This year, health intervened to terminate my Madrid route Camino at Sarria. But, I fly back to Santiago on 19 July to serve as a voluntario for one month. And my "Caminoitis" continues... I am looking towards next year to try another route. My family is nagging me to do only shorter routes, out of concerns for my health. My heart tells me to go be a Camino hobo. The likely solution will lie somewhere in-between. We shall see...
I do know that, if I did not have responsibilities on this side of the ocean, I would likely move to Santiago and offer my services full-time. Yup. I have IT that bad...
I hope this helps.
