THE EXPERIENCE OF TRAVEL

THE WORD ‘EXPERIENCE’ IS OVER-USED IN THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY. EVERYTHING IS AN ‘EXPERIENCE’. HOW ABOUT A SHOPPING EXPERIENCE, WRITES FLOYD COWAN. REALLY? SHOULDN’T AN EXPERIENCE BE MUCH MORE THAN THAT.

IIwas blown away when I opened Facebook and saw pictures of my sister-in-law, Marion, saying goodbye at the Calgary airport to Rex, my brother, her husband and their daughter Kendhal. Marion was heading off to Spain to walk the Camino de Santiago – by herself. Today’s pilgrims call it the Camino. There are routes across northern Spain that lead to Santiago de Compostela. It originally began as a very religious pilgrimage and now, in the 21st century there are so many people doing it that there are route guides and places along the way that welcome pilgrims. You can even have your luggage taken on to the next destination. That doesn’t make the pilgrimage any less meaningful.

LOOKING FORWARD TO FACEBOOK

For the first time in my life I’ve really looked forward to Facebook postings. Marion has been very good about posting words and pictures and responding to the many comments she gets. Marion has talked about doing this for a long time, but I never new why. In a recent post she explained why she is doing this.

WALKING THE WAY

“A long time ago,” Marion wrote, “a colleague told me about a two-week vacation he had walking ‘The Way to Santiago’. He said he went town to town, drank coffee and beer and lost 12lbs doing it. That sounded cool and was the first I heard about the Camino.

While a friend was training to walk “her Camino”, Teeni bought me walking sticks and I walked with her one day. Her excitement was contagious. When I saw her after her pilgrimage, her life had changed. I knew I wanted to do the walk, but I wasn’t sure why. Just for the exercise? Didn’t seem quite right. I knew if I was to invest 33 days, both physically and emotionally, I should have a pretty good reason. My life was great. I have a beautiful, caring daughter (both inside and out) with a huge heart and a wonderful, caring hubby.

TRIP POSTPONED

Then retirement came, and I thought I would do the walk. We couldn’t do it then because Rex got a job in Whitehorse and my girlfriend who was going to come with me, fell in love and got married. That trip was postponed.

In 2017, I lost my dad. Now I had a real purpose to go to Spain and walk my own Camino. Before I booked this trip, I lost my brother Bill. Now there was no way I wasn’t going to do this journey. Nothing was going to stop me. There is a location along the way where you place stones in memory of your loved ones. I brought stones from home, not big ones in size but huge in symbolism of our families love for my Dad and Bill. Today, I climbed to the highest peak on

The Way and placed those stones there in their memory.

WHEN WILL I LISTEN?

Odd thing is, Dad would not have liked any of his kids flying across the globe, on their own, and then traipsing through the countryside and sleeping with dozens of strangers in hostels. When will I ever listen

Today was all about them. both dearly.

LIFE CHANGING

I am not sure if Marion has yet understood how walking the Camino has changed her, she may not fee it until she gets home.

To me, this is a real experience. It changes you – not simply entertains you.