Our Walk Along the Camino Frances

How has the Camino Changed in 10 Years? “Thus says the Lord: ‘… ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.’” Jeremiah 6:16   Transformations and Changes on the Way When we first walked the Camino, it was along the Camino Francés route more than a decade ago. At the time, we didn’t yet realize how profoundly it would shape our relationship with pilgrimage and the long trails that followed. Reading these early journals now, I see the wonder, naivety, and honest discovery of that first day leaving Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port as we stepped onto the Way of St. James en route to Orrison and eventually Santiago de Compostela.     In the years and 10 years that have followed since our first walk to Santiago, we have trekked and explored around the world on  trails such as:   Ontario’s Bruce Trail Newfoundland’s East Coast Trail Completed the 28,000 km-long Trans Canada Trail   Via Podiensis / GR65 Camino Portuguese ...

Pilgrimage Advice Camino Frances Tips for Pilgrims We have now been home back in Canada for almost a month. Home is wonderful, relaxing and welcoming for about two or three days. Then one night you wake up thinking (hoping?) you are still in an albergue, or your body becomes frustrated by sitting at a desk rather than hiking 20, 30 or 40 km at day and you begin to look up long-distance hiking trails around the world and you realize (in the words of Robert Service) "you've become the worst of the worst" and you're hooked. You are a Camino addict and you begin the plan for next year's trek two weeks after having finished the "impossible task" of hiking 800 km. So here we are, and we have begun looking at a range of possibilities including the Camino Norte, the Portuguese Camino, or one of the routes through Frances (Le Puy and Arles are the front runners). However, with all of our planning and wishful thinking aside we also realized that we had some p...

Home after the Camino Frances After the Pilgrimage to Santiago We were awake at 5 AM out of habit, but we both sat in the hotel room until 8 AM, uncertain what to do with the extra time. By 9 AM we had enjoyed a brief breakfast in the lobby, checked out, and boarded the shuttle to the Charles de Gaul airport. Checked in, we were on the 11:30 AM flight from Paris to Montreal before changing aircraft for a short jump from Montreal to Toronto.  Our flights were again long, but safe and uneventful. Without the excitement of the Camino keeping us awake as we crossed the Atlantic this time, we both slept well and arrived in Toronto at 8 PM.  Here we again gathered our luggage and waited for the Airlink bus which took us from Toronto to the small town we currently call home. We arrived home at midnight. Here it did not take long for the silence of our own home in our own neighbourhood to get to us. Ironically, after weeks of being frustrated by the noises of others at night, an...

Fast Transit Navigating Home  Leaving Santiago de Compostela We awoke this morning early and wandered back to the cathedral to spend some time watching excited pilgrims rush into the main square. It was here that the depression began to settle in. Our trek was done and we didn't belong in the flood of new pilgrims who came with their groups to finish their quests. Two days after arriving it is clear the transformation from pilgrim to tourist is complete, and it is time to go home and figure out how to fit the Camino into our lives back in Canada. With all of this in mind, we began our homeward journey. We hired a taxi from our hotel to the small, clean, and modern-looking Santiago airport to catch our Air Iberia flight to Madrid.  At first, this was a stunning experience, as the taxi was travelling at a much faster speed than we had been for the past 4 - 5 weeks.  However, by the time we arrived at the airport, we had already begun to adjust back to ...

Pilgrimage at an End  Santiago de Compostela We awoke early on our final morning in Santiago in order to return to the Cathedral and partake in the early morning mass at 8 am. Today's itinerary had been the subject of debate for almost a week prior to arriving in Santiago. Shortly after leaving Portomarin, we began discussing the possibility of what to do with our extra day. We had explored the notion of taking a bus to Finisterre and back but thought that it would be better to have the time to more fully enjoy that route.  We had also considered moving our flights by 2-3 days in order to hike to Finisterre and Muxia, but that option came at the cost of almost $800.00 in fees. Added to all of this was the fact that any of these choices meant that we would have to essentially walk away from our friends after the pilgrim's mass without any time for goodbyes or reflection. As a result, for our "extra day in Santiago" we ultimately decided to spend the time, enjoy ...