One of the more profound lessons I learned early on my first Camino last year was that: "
there are days to be smart and days to be brave." Although I have prior experience with wilderness hiking, military training and operations, as well as survival training, I learned FAST on the Camino exactly what Falcon says. NOTHING is worth risking your health or personal safety. Even calculated risks can be ill advised.
Just as an aside, I was on the
Camino Frances at the same time period last year when the French woman day-hiker fell 300 meters down a non-Camino trail in the Pyrenees and was consumed completely by the Griffon Vultures within 45-minutes - before rescue services could reach her. THAT story made me exquisitely conscious of the new rule of the road I mentioned above. Without getting specific, just do a Bing or Google search on "Griffon Vulture Pyrenees hiker..."
I also believe that along with places to stay and altitude views of the
Camino Frances, the starting point pilgrim offices ought to give out "rules of the road" sheets to everyone, in their own language and especially to folks who cannot possibly read the Latin alphabet we use throughout Western Europe. I am certain the translations can be done into Asian languages with nil effort or expense. At least everyone will have been duly informed.
Imagine the converse, were most of us to try to hike a trail in Thailand or India where the Sanskrit alphabet is used, or in Korea, Japan or China, where pictograph alphabets were the rule. We would be as totally perplexed as the Korean folks mentioned above. In all my travel to Asia over my career and after, I am still stymied by these alphabets. I well understand the perplexity of pilgrims from Korea, or other countries that do not share our alphabet.
I suggest it is a good idea to provide a printed list of helpful "rules" to folks who cannot handle the Roman Alphabet and a phrase-book in the several more or less standard languages along the Camino: i.e. Spanish, French, German, Italian, English, Dutch, Portuguese, etc.
There are days to be smart and days to be brave. Learn to recognize which is which and behave accordingly. If you act out of true ignorance, I submit you deserve to be rescued and not charged. However, if you were notified, as above, and failed to heed the warnings, then I maintain you should be charged.
Being made to "sign in" at the starting pilgrim office might be one way to enforce this. They already collect all manner of information now for statistical purposes. Perhaps noting the native language we read and write in, along with our signature, and perhaps our passport numbers would be useful. This "pilgrim register" would enable the rescue services to know more about who is out there.