The saddest part of the camino

[piogaw]

The saddest, the hardest and the most emotional part of the camino is saying goodbye to your camino families after meeting so shortly. You will notice as every pelegrino group approaches santiago, they do tend to slow down knowing that upon reaching santiago they will have to say goodbye.

This will be the time to make sure you ask your camino families for contact details in order not to lost touch with each other. The friendship formed with your camino families will last forever, it will be stronger than any other friendship you have formed with your other friends.

Good luck to everyone. Buen camino. May god bestow his blessing on all of you.

 

[MendiWalker]

Sadder moment is when you plan to return the following year and due to personal matters have to postpone.
It´s what´s happened to me the last 2 years, hopefully will be able to return net summer.

Buen Camino!

 

[SYates]

The hardest stage is the journey home - Buen Camino into your new life ;-)

 

[Deleted member 3000]

After two days in Santiago, everyone you met has moved on. That is a bit lonelier, if not sadder, than when everyone leaves at the same time.

 

[Tincatinker]

Always the end bit, whether it's Santiago, Muxia / Fisterra, or just that place where you have to leave Camino and return to the other life 'till next time.

 

[pattymo97206]

Last October, as I waited at the Madrid Airport for my flight home, I realized all my friends had left Santiago and I was over come by feeling of loneliness and longing. I knew I would not see most of them again and that made it even harder. I have kept in touch with many of them and for that I am thankful.

 

[Bajaracer]

It seems towards the end, you kind of slow down to savor the last few days with your Camino family.
I say start asking for contact info early on, before you even get to Burgos, because in the last few days before Santiago you might not see them again.

 

[wayfarer]

The saddest part for me was when I arrived back in Santiago a week later after walking to Finisterra and Muxia and realised I knew no one. A whole new batch of pilgrims with their owm families.

 

[mspath]

Each camino after arriving in Santiago and obtaining a precious Compostela the slow walk continuing towards the sea and lands' end at Finisterre is always most poignant. Each step taken, each hill climbed is very special for being close to the last as mentally I say adieu to 'my' Camino.

Going along I silently give thanks for all that has passed during nine weeks of walking; for my own extraordinary good luck, growing strength and intense determination to endure, for strangers' gracious offers of help and other kindnesses, and for fellow pilgrims' shared conversations and meals. What a mixture!

Of course I always hope for another Camino, but if that can not be may at least my precious memories endure as long as I. ...
"This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well, which thou must leave ere long." Shakespeare, Sonnet LXXIII

Ultreia!

Margaret Meredith

 

[Wanderer64]

I experienced sadness only once during my Camino: after a knee injury about 500km in, when I thought my Camino was finished. I fought through it and that sadness soon returned to joy. Otherwise I began my Camino with euphoria and elation, and it ended in Santiago with happiness and relief. I was not sad in the slightest leaving Santiago. I was proud of my accomplishment and excited to move on to see more of Spain.

As for Camino "family," what family? I have a very good, loving family back home and one family is enough for this pilgrim. I did not come to the Camino seeking or desiring a surrogate version. I met some great folk along the way, sharing the path at times with some temporary walking friends, but no family. In fact, as much as I love my real family back home, I really appreciated a break from family -- absence makes the heart grow fonder, eh?

I was likely most happy during those long stretches of Camino when I experienced serene solitude and felt like I was the only one out there.

 

[StuartM]

After two days in Santiago, everyone you met has moved on. That is a bit lonelier, if not sadder, than when everyone leaves at the same time.

Yep, I found that. There's that point where you realise the Camino isn't yours anymore, the adventure is over. Walking through the streets, looking at the faces in the bars and realising you don't know a single one is quite a moment. I also found spending two days in one placeafter walking seemed like an indulgent luxury too, I kind of felt guilty about it.

 

[Rosemary Lyons]

Recent pilgrims assured me , before my journey, that the best part of the Camino would be the people I met. A bit of a scoff from me as I felt I had already wonderful people in my life and was not as interested in this aspect.
From Roncesvalles to Burgos , I became part of seven walking together from Minnesota, Arizona, Korea and Norway. We walked and sang together, cooked occasionally together, laughed and cried. Without intending this to happen , not knowing I needed this at all, this group became Family.
In Burgos only three of us continued walking and although the remainder of the trip was perfect, lovely, everything , I grieved the loss of my Camino Family.

 

[JabbaPapa]

Nothing in my own experience has ever compared with the experience of leaving the Arles Way to head off alone towards Lourdes, then Saint Jean Pied-de-Port, for two weeks of solitary pilgriming after not having been alone between Arles and Castres. I had prepared and strengthened myself for the solitude until Arles ; I had not counted on how sad the solitude would be after Castres, notwithstanding the many absolutely wonderful experiences I had on that variant Way.

 

[KinkyOne]

Sadder moment is when you plan to return the following year and due to personal matters have to postpone.
It´s what´s happened to me the last 2 years, hopefully will be able to return net summer.

Buen Camino!

Exactly, MendiWalker!!! Couldn't agree more

 

[MendiWalker]

There's that point where you realise the Camino isn't yours anymore, the adventure is over.

The Camino de Santiago may be over but the Camino has just begun.

Buen Camino!

 

[angus55morrison]

On my camino frances in August September 2012,met a lovely couple who were from Barcelona, the lad was Italian and his partner Spanish ,I kept meeting them in various albergues towns and villages .They helped me get accommodation and pointed me in the right direction,although I kept a journal of my Camino I didn't write their names down ,a mistake I won't make on my next Camino.If anyone knows their names drop me a line. Buen Camino Angus.

 

[Anniesantiago]

::::crying::::
You guys are making me sad!

 

[JillGat]

[[Walking through the streets, looking at the faces in the bars and realising you don't know a single one is quite a moment. ]]
This is one of the things I *love* about traveling!

 

[Peter Fransiscus]

The saddest, the hardest and the most emotional part of the camino is saying goodbye to your camino families after meeting so shortly. You will notice as every pelegrino group approaches santiago, they do tend to slow down knowing that upon reaching santiago they will have to say goodbye.

This will be the time to make sure you ask your camino families for contact details in order not to lost touch with each other. The friendship formed with your camino families will last forever, it will be stronger than any other friendship you have formed with your other friends.

Good luck to everyone. Buen camino. May god bestow his blessing on all of you.

Hi, I said goodbye to the last two pilgrims of my Camino family last May in Brussels. They where almost home and my wife and I got our car and drove to Holland.
Wish everybody well, Peter.

 

[MTtoCamino]

It is interesting to me how some people myself included, seem to get very close to those we walk with or endure other hardship with. Yet it happens every time when we go back to simple existence. You would think we would try to reduce getting too close, just so it would not hurt so much to say good bye. In the end others bring so much joy that it is more than worth the pain. I still hold hope that those I have met I will find a way to visit.
Yet after the Camino I truly hold my faith that I will see many in a better place. We are so very blessed to have done this.
Keith

 

[Wokabaut_Meri]

It is interesting to me how some people myself included, seem to get very close to those we walk with or endure other hardship with. Yet it happens every time when we go back to simple existence. You would think we would try to reduce getting too close, just so it would not hurt so much to say good bye. In the end others bring so much joy that it is more than worth the pain. I still hold hope that those I have met I will find a way to visit.
Yet after the Camino I truly hold my faith that I will see many in a better place. We are so very blessed to have done this.
Keith

It's a curious thing, living in this world. Somehow you just can't manage it on your own. I find that the poets seem to have the pulse of it and so I'll offer you this beautiful piece by Mary Oliver:

To live in this world, you must be able to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.

 

[SabsP]

Sad for me regarding the Camino is : the thought that there was a good connection with a pilgrim friend until this bond weakened and became non existent.
Life itself...so it seems.

 

[JabbaPapa]

Sad for me regarding the Camino is : the thought that there was a good connection with a pilgrim friend until this bond weakened and became non existent.

That's happened to all of us -- it's just one of those Camino things, and I think I've concluded that superficial friendships are deeper on the Camino than elsewhere. That may sound callous, but it's actually a very good and very special blessing of the Way that it's so, as you can realise once you've moved beyond the expectation of lasting friendship. Anyway, those certainly exist as well !!