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Long distance camino

sillydoll

Veteran Member
Time of past OR future Camino
2002 CF: 2004 from Paris: 2006 VF: 2007 CF: 2009 Aragones, Ingles, Finisterre: 2011 X 2 on CF: 2013 'Caracoles': 2014 CF and Ingles 'Caracoles":2015 Logrono-Burgos (Hospitalero San Anton): 2016 La Douay to Aosta/San Gimignano to Rome:
You can almost pick out pilgrims who have walked a long distance on their camino - they have that chilled out (almost spaced out!) laid back, no fuss look about them. We met an Austrian in Foncebadon who had walked from home. He was so quiet and withdrawn, tanned and weather beaten that he almost blended into the landscape. Pilgrims who are just starting out or who have only been walking for a few days still have a clean-cut, worried, apprehensive, sometimes ‘loud’ look about them – like the group of pilgrims we met at Sarria who stood out with their clean clothes, raucous songs and never-ending banter.
The first few days on the camino are an anxious time for most. I think ‘jet-lag’ is a symptom of your soul trying to catch up with your body - especially if you have flown across oceans and continents to get there. It takes me at least 3 or 4 days to get over jet-lag and settle into the rhythm of the camino - getting ready in the morning, setting out into a strange land and walking every day.
The camino breaks you in slowly. At first you are shattered at the end of each day but then the endorphins take over and you get used to the adrenaline rush. You can only start to relax once the backpack is comfortable, the shorts don’t creep, the shoelaces are tied properly and once you become accustomed to spotting the yellow arrows you stop fretting about getting lost. You start to ‘go with the flow’ and you lose sense of time. After a few of weeks you get into the Zen-zone. You become one with nature and all your senses are alert – like antennae – and you can hear a gentle wind, a field mouse, crickets in the wheat and listen to the silence.
Last year my husband joined us in Sarria and walked for 7 days and although he enjoyed it very much, he said that he didn’t think he could do that for 6 weeks. I explained that one doesn’t repeat that first settling in week over and over again. The first week is the most difficult but you get fitter and fitter as time goes by; you stop fighting the camino and let it take over and when you do that, you become a part of it and that is the addictive essence of the camino. That is why we keep going back for more.
 
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Thanks Sil...read your post..this morning...great words of wisdom..reading it helped to take away my pre-departure jitters...with 21 days to departure .. I am constantly trying to decide..am I'm taking the "right" things....am I going at the "right" time...am I getting to my starting point in the "right" way.....

Starting right now..I will remove the word "right" from my Camino vocabulary and just go with the flow!

Your husband's comments were interesting....we talked about mine joining me in Sarria...but decided against it...as his rhythm would be different from mine, as I would have started many days and klms before....when he retires we can plan a Camino together!

I feel better already...now it is time for today's walk...

Beun Camino,
Marilyn
 
sillydoll said:
you stop fighting the camino and let it take over and when you do that, you become a part of it and that is the addictive essence of the camino. That is why we keep going back for more.
WOW :!: I totally agree with your opinion. Always thanks for your thoughtful and invaluable articles.

And Buen Camino to Marilyn!

- Jihyeong.
 
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Our Atmospheric H30 poncho offers lightness and waterproofness. Easily compressible and made with our Waterproof fabric, its heat-sealed interior seams guarantee its waterproofness. Includes carrying bag.

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Totally agree. I think, that any one of us would like to walk from their doorstep- only if he/she could. I wish you all to fullfill your dreams about your great camino.
 
I wonder if starting on the Camino for the second time will be quite different or mostly the same as starting on my first. Will I settle in faster and be less troubled? I guess I will find out soon. Thanks to everyone who as given thoughtful advice over the past several months. it's been good.
 

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