Walking the Camino de Santiago

The Camino de Santiago refers to a collection of pilgrimage routes that converge on Santiago de Compostela in North West Spain. More than 100,000 pilgrims walk and cycle along these routes every year, in holy years that figure more than doubles. Most of the pilgrims start walking at St Jean Pied de Port in the Pyrenees, Southern France and finish a whopping 780km later in Santiago at the tomb of St James – most of them taking a full month to complete the journey.

The route which starts at St Jean is known as the Camino Frances, it is the most popular and well supported of all the Camino routes. The first day out of St Jean is the hardest day of the 780km trek, the path leads steeply up hill and then drops sharply into Roncesvalles.

In Roncesvalles Pilgrims, as they are known, have their first taste of the pilgrim life they have chosen for the next month. There are communal showers separated by curtains, a communal cooking area, and they sleep in the largest one room hostel along the Camino. This hostel houses 120 pilgrims on bunk beds all in the one room – ear plugs are optional but highly recommended.

The hostels are for pilgrims only. Every pilgrim must have a Pilgrims Passport to gain entry to the very cheap, (€3 - €8), and sometime free accommodation. Most of the pilgrim’s hostels are run by volunteers that have walked the Camino de Santiago before and wish to give something back. Pilgrims Passports can be got from the Pilgrims Office in St Jean Pied de Port or from the pilgrims home Confraternity, the main ones are American Pilgrims on the Camino (US), Confraternity of St James (UK), and the Irish Society of the Friend of St James – you will have to be a member for them to issue the passport.

The pilgrim’s life is simple and exhilarating. They do the same thing day after day, walk – that is it. However they walk across the breadth of Northern Spain, over two mountain ranges, across the high Mesita, all the while carrying their own belonging on their back. It is a once in a life time journey for most – but many like myself get the bug and go back again and again.

There is a terrible freedom given to a person when they decided to set out on this journey. Terrible as it is a freedom that they will most likely never encounter in their daily life. To be freed from our daily background noise, from the TV, Radio, Newspapers, and dare I say it the internet and the many urgent emails.

Many pilgrims will meet and make enduring friendships; it is a quicker process getting to know someone when you walk together for 6 or 8 hours for a few days. Loose groups form and people naturally help each other; the local population provide incredible free support to the many that invade their country every year.

I sit here looking out into my green garden with the sun shining and feel shivers run down my spine when I think of those long days with blistered feet, sore legs, and wearing hand washed clothes that never got quite clean – I was never so truly content.

For the hardy they can continue to walk from Santiago de Compostela to Finisterre, another 4 days walking. Finisterre is on the coast and was known as the end of the world. During summer the small Spanish town is crammed with Pilgrims. There is a bowl to burn something that you wish to leave behind or move on from – many write down memories and set the paper alight in the bowl.

The light house at the headland is where the pilgrims congregate in the evening to watch the sunset. Often there will be 200 pilgrims dotted about the cliffs, and as the sun dips down into the sea the only sounds to be heard are the waves lapping at the rocks.