My wife and I just finished walking the Camino Frances – it is one of the Camino de Santiago treks that starts in southwestern France in a city called St. Jean de Pied Port and ends in Santiago de Compostella, Spain. It is roughly 500 miles (800 km). It normally takes between 30 to 45 days to complete depending on how many miles/km you walk daily.
Why would someone want to walk 500 miles in a foreign country? Up till about 15-16 months ago I had never heard of the Camino de Santiago. In June of 2015, my wife and I watched a 2010 movie called, The Way, with Martin Sheen. My wife and I both agreed that this was something neither one of us would ever contemplate doing.
During out 8th honeymoon (we’ve been married 48 years and take ad hoc honeymoons when the Moon is in the House of Jupiter), we started where we had been married in Violet, Texas and followed the original honeymoon trail to San Antonio for the Texas HemiSphere 68 – a six-month celebration of the 250th anniversary of San Antonio, Texas – discussing the Camino de Santiago.
We decided that we would find people who had recently done it in the Houston area and get some information we really needed to make a good decision – to go or not to go. We did find a couple of people who had done it within the past two years – both women and older than us. We then joined a local Support Group and met many people who had done multiple Caminos (different treks with different starting points). It occurred to us that it might be something we could do.
Over the course of the next several months we bought the right hiking equipment and began training – walking nearly every day. We certainly had the time and the money was a bit of a problem, but not a big one. Allow me to write additional blogs describing our story.
Congratulations your successful Camino completion. Many thanks for sharing your journey.
Way to go Red and Marilyn! I loved the movie The Way and my husband and I talk bout walking the camino. So proud to say I know two people who did it. Enjoyed all your shares from the journey.