Memories of the Camino
I often reminisce about the time I walked the Camino de Santiago.
It was 13 years ago that together with my adult son I walked this 800-km pilgrim trail stretching from the foothills of the French Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela in Spain’s northwestern region of Galicia
The journey took us six weeks, walking over the Pyrenees and Galician mountains and along the hot meseta and staying in simple accommodation along the way. It was a whole new experience for me, far away from my comfort zone.
The Camino is a trail that has been travelled by pilgrims for well over a thousand years. These days around 400,000 folk walk part or all of the way each year. It is a Catholic pilgrimage because legend has it that the bones of one of Jesus Christ’s apostles St James (San Tiago in Spanish) are enshrined in the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela – now a revered site of pilgrimage for Catholics.
Now I myself am not a Catholic.
However, an oft quoted 12th century poem states ‘Not only Catholics, but also Jews, pagans, heretics and vagabonds, the sick and the healthy, are welcome to walk the Camino.’
Having made many Jewish friends during my years of teaching at Monash University in Melbourne and shared Shabbat meals in their homes, I thought I could pass myself off as an honorary Jew. On the other hand, since I come from Sri Lanka and being essentially a nonconformist at heart I could claim to be accepted as a heretic or a vagabond.
But I need not have worried about my credentials. Of the four lakhs who make this journey each year, although many still do it for religious and spiritual reasons, others walk for cultural or touristic reasons and yet others just for the physical challenge.
I often think back to how we began our journey – my 30-year old son and myself – from the very small, very French town of St Jean Pied de Port at the foothills of the Pyrenees. From the welcoming pilgrim office there we obtained a pilgrim passport called a credencial which entitled us to obtain overnight accommodation in the many specially set up pilgrim refuges called albergues that, maintained by municipalities, church organizations, monasteries or private individuals, are found no further than about 15 km apart in most of the small towns and villages through which the Camino passes. They provide a cheap place to stay for the night. This is often in the form of bunk beds in dormitories – but with clean (usually) sheets and shared bathrooms, at about ten Euros for the night, who will complain?
Either at the albergue itself, or in a nearby restaurant, we were able to get a hearty “Pilgrim Meal” for dinner for around 10 to 15 Euros. Over an evening meal or sometimes just while walking together along the way we met Camino-walkers from as far apart as Canada, Brazil, Denmark and Korea – plus innumerable Spaniards. Some were determined to complete the whole journey over four to five weeks by walking 20 to 30 km per day, while others were spending periods as short as a week or even just their Easter break walking a part of the trail.
The experience of the Camino still lives on in my memory. We met and interacted with so many folk along this journey – strangers with whom we felt strangely aligned and united in a common quest but whom we would never see again. Our slow pace of travel allowed us to enjoy the natural beauty of the region – the majestic Pyrenees, the rolling vineyards of the Rioja, the forest-clad hills east of Burgos, the snow-capped peaks of the Cantabrian mountains, the almond blossoms of the Bierzo valley and the Irish mistiness of Galicia.
Now back in my own home when oft I lie in vacant or in pensive mood, I see in my mind’s eye sunlight dappling on a stream trickling underneath an ancient stone bridge – or a windswept view of the Pyrenees – or an ochre path stretching out into the far distance through flat fields of wheat. I recall evenings spent in the company of strangers who became family for a night. I remember the kindness of strangers – the lady in Ventosa who bought bread and milk for us and refused payment, the English couple from Devon who cooked a meal and shared it with us at the albergue in Navarette, the optometrist in Carrion de Los Condes who fixed my broken specs without charging me a cent for her service.
What better way to spend a glorious spring day than hiking through beautiful country, admiring picturesque views of the Pyrenees or passing through little Spanish villages that still had a medieval feel about them? I often recall the afternoon we spent in San Juan de Ortega, a village of less than 30 people – simply soaking up the sun in the picturesque plaza after having completed a
25 km walk.
At the end of each day’s walking, in a manner reminiscent of the pilgrims in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, we had the opportunity of meeting our fellow walkers and sharing meals, stories, news and views with them – pilgrims from various faiths, various walks of life and various parts of the world. They made a great and welcoming fraternity with which to break bread and share a glass of wine at the end of the day – not only the Catholics, but also the Jews, the pagans, the heretics and the vagabonds. Especially the heretics and the vagabonds.
Searching for an ideal partner? Find your soul mate on Hitad.lk, Sri Lanka's favourite marriage proposals page. With Hitad.lk matrimonial advertisements you have access to thousands of ads from potential suitors who are looking for someone just like you.