why on earth do I want to do this by myself???

[majse]

I have travelled a lot for work or with friends or family. This time I have decided to walk for 14 days on the Camino alone.
I am leaving my home on the 16th of July and it is so scary and at the same time I cannot wait!
I wish I could walk for a longer time but it is not possible.
The idea of being awfully lonely out there is frightening, but I also know I have to do this.
Still I am wondering - why it is so compelling for me to walk the camino?

 

[Sinenomene]

hi there,
i find there are people out there destined for adventure. a long distance walk is a great time for people of all ages. once you finish your 14 day walk you may find yourself wanting to walk in other places. For me, i started backpacking on the appalachian trail, then i backpacked the long trail. Once i went for a week i decided i wanted to go for a month, once i hiked a month i decided i wanted to hike for more. now i find myself leaving once again on august 1st this year and will walk from switzerland to finisterre. its like the pringles jingle, "once you start you cant stop."
just remember to go slow and go far. dont plan more than you can chew and practice walking with your loaded pack. you wont be alone out there, you never really are on any trails.
buen camino!
chris

 

[majse]

walking

Hi

Thanks for your reply.
I think you´re right about never really being alone out there.
When I was a teenager I was walking through Europe against nuclear missilies, that was a 6 week walk and the best and the worst expirience in my life. I came back from there changed.

I appreciate the advice about taking it at my own pace although I only have those 2 weeks before I have to get back to my life. I am sure I will want to stay on the road for a little longer- but maybe next year!

Maj

 

[leslie]

in spanish they say "mejor solo que mal acompanado"
people often quoted this proverb to me
someone would approach me and say "you're walking alone!" and i'd say if "i weren't walking alone, you'd never have spoken to me"
after a while my reputation preceded me
i'd arrive at an albergue and someone would say "a-a-a, usted es la americana que anda sola"
(this was in '99 before lonely planet wrote up the camino as a cool thing to do, i met 6 americans on the whole trip. in 2000 i met 6 americans on my first night, yuck)
there were times i thought i'd die of loneliness
i didn't, i'm here to tell the story
i was older than most pilgrims and quite reserved
still i met people that will live in my heart forever
why are you compelled to walk the camino?
you won't know until after you've done it
in spanish they also say "every one makes three caminos: the one you make before you go, the one you make on the road, and the one you make after you get home"
it will be beautiful, it will be horrible, you will survive

 

[majse]

walking 3 times

I think I understand about walking 3 times. I am really getting into this mood of walking the camino already even though it is almost 2 weeks from now. This strange introverted mood of preparation. I am walking here near my home with my children and they are asking a lot about what I will be doing - strange when I hardly know that myself!

 

[Sinenomene]

yes its a great sensation. we plan until we take the flight to our starting point. For me, im running through every web site i can find, translated or not, i can learn a ton by the pictures. I find myself imagining all sorts of situations. No worries about being eaten or robbed. My concrete things like blisters and will my pack make it, where will i find a 1/2 size guitar, where is the esbit stove that i need to buy in geneva before i go start the GR65. Something i like about the trail system in europe is that you can set up you own "terminus" for hiking. You can start anywhere and end anywhere.

buen camino!
sine

 

[majse]

I agree - no worries about being robbed or anything like that. I have travelled so much by myself (as some people think blond women can´t), and I never had any bad expiriences except delays or stomachache!

My worries are blisters too, and of course the loneliness that can sometimes be overwhelming when you are alone and it seems everyone else belong - but I chose this - so I will go through with it!

 

[leslie]

sine
check ebay
they used to have tons of those martin "backpackers"

 

[Tony Sabonge]

Hello from Honduras...

Hail to you all walkers!
As you will do, I would like to do "El Camino" by my own.
We all have many things to say or leave behind someday but the most important thing I guess, is a re-encounter with your beliefs.
San Santiago (Saint James) never walked "El Camino" and maybe never thought what it would become years later, but the real meaning of this is to approach each other, no matter where are you coming from, as one soul and reborn again in spirit and mind realizing that a superior force may guide our lives and give us strenght when we most need it, we´re not alone anymore, we´re walking this life in company of the Allmighty who cares for all of us, believers or not.
I´m not catholic but protestant (Methodist); but I admire the positive manner "El Camino" operates in the life of all pilgrims. Inside in my heart I would like to do it, leave behind what anchores me to my past and reborn under the stars, during my journey to Compostela.
This is more than just a walk, is a sacrifice in a lower stage compaired what our ancestors did, but the end is the same, start to walk with another point of view, another way to see living around us, meet each other in the same way we will meet in heavens and say to others there´s a way, an answers for their troubles in God.
Maybe someday I'll do it, maybe not. But in my heart "El Camino de Santiago" had already begun, not to show others "La Compostela" but to prove others that God is the real thing, the real answer and must be the goal of all roads we walk.
Hope to see you someday, I wish you a great walk and to all others too!
May God bless you!
Buen camino, peregrinos!