GUEST POST: My Camino, by Ingrid van den Hoek

My Camino de Compostella

 Ingrid van den Hoek

July and September 2012

Camino Primitivo

Camino Finesterre

Camino Portuguese

Arriving in Santiago you queue at the Pilgrims office to receive the well deserved Compostella. 

3 Questions are asked.

Did you walk for 1. Religious  2. Spiritual or 3. Historical reasons?

My response? ‘All 3 and many more reasons.’

The official just smiled – probably heard this before. (Watch the movie ‘The Way’ and listen to the response of the 4 Peregrino’s at this same office – very interesting.)

Why did I go all the way to Spain and Portugal to walk 700 km?  It has been a dream for many years. I love the mountains, hiking, exploring new places and meeting people.  Having a limited budget, the Camino is an ideal way to spend a holiday. (our budget was €15 per day).

Yes, it becomes a spiritual and a religious journey, you can’t help being touched by what the Camino has to offer – walk in the footsteps of many other Pilgrims.  (Interesting articles on how the Camino de Compostella originated, can be found on the internet and worth reading before you start your walk.)

I walked with a friend from South Africa for 3 weeks – she was then 72 years old - covering 450 km. Starting in Oviedo and finishing in Muxia.

Why the Camino Primitivo and not the Camino France – a far more popular walk?

 We are both members of the mountain club, love mountainous and more remote areas and also wanted more of a challange– the Primitivo has all this to offer. The route is more up and down, but not that extreme. Anybody with reasonable fitness can attempt to walk this one.

www. Gronze.com gives you all the information you need including all the elevations of each stage.

The Albergues are much smaller and there is no rush to get from the one to the next. We even had some Albergues all to our self. This does not apply to the Albergues from Melide to Santiago. Here you meet the peregrino’s from the Camino Frances and some sleep up to 160 people. Then you walk like mad to get to albergue when it opens to claim a bed! If it is full, just walk another 15-20km to the next albergue!!!

What made me happy? Life was simple. You don’t worry about anything.  (unless you have blisters!). All you have to do is walk; follow yellow arrows; find food; admire the environment; chat to fellow walkers on route; see where you can find the cheapest vino rouge or beer and chill at the albergue. Here you will do some washing, attend to your feet, maybe explore the little village, take lots of pictures and go to bed early (with earplugs!)

There is no rush to leave in the morning – some do leave at the crack of dawn, but we took our time and still got to the next place in time.

It took us 2 weeks to get to Santiago – loved every step of the way.  We spend the weekend there (I don’t want to give away the ‘secret’ of Santiago - experience the gem yourself) and decided that this was not the end for us. We walked to Finesterre – another 100km’s.

Completely different terrain...more coastal and absolutely beautiful. Some days rather long, but you can find a private albergue if you feel you had enough. We did that once because of the heat and did not feel like another 12 km’s in the baking sun.

Finesterre – finish earth – end of the world, is the meaning of the word. 

It is a beautiful town and has a very special meaning for all the pilgrims. We walked to the light house and decided to have our picnic lunch down on the rocks. After a rather steep climb down, we could put our feet in the water and enjoy the peacefulness of the area. To think this is what the pilgrims did 1000 years ago!(they also burned their clothes and it was a real cleansing ritual.)

My friend and I felt that we did not want to end our Camino here...it just did not feel right. (don’t ask me why, but it did  not!)

Fortunately we had the time to walk another 30 km to Muxia, also a coastal town. This was the best decision we could have made. It offered everything we were looking for and more!

As in the movie ‘The Way’ we ended our Camino here.  ( I am pleased I only saw the movie after walking the Camino)

Muxia was The Grand Finale! Both of us very pleased as we received our 3^rd Compostella!

I can write a book on what I have experienced, but everybody has to make the Camino his/her own.  It was an emotional trip for me personally as I had to work through a lot of stuff that happened in my life at the time. I came home feeling strong/ready to tackle life again and the biggest thing you learn is to stop SWEATING THE SMALL STUFF....

So if you have 2 feet, a sense of adventure, needs to get away from it all....why wait?

Ingrid

Ps. I walked the Camino Portuguese in September – all on my own and loved every step of the way. (Up to a point!)

The route was probably easier than the Primitivo, but more tar and cobblestone roads and more pilgrims. The albergues were in bigger towns, busy and they got terribly full at night. I did not enjoy the masses that much, got a bit grumpy and decided in Ponteverda to make a U turn and walk/bus/train back to Porto.  The best decision I could have made! I had the most wonderful time exploring towns I skipped and this gave me the time to spend a weekend in the most amazing city...PORTO.