Bliss on the Coastal Camino

A group of go! readers recently walked the final 125 km of the Camino Portugués. It was an energising experience, says Gerda Engelbrecht.

“Your fourth Camino?” an incredulous hiker asked me at the airport. “Why?”

“Let’s speak again at the end of this trip,” I replied. “Then we’ll see whether you still think once is enough.”

The Camino is like a box of Eet-sum-mor biscuits – one is never enough. I want to walk the route at least once a year for the rest of my life.

I came to this realisation after an afternoon nap in a hotel next to a lake near the town of Redondela in Spain. It had been a rough year and I was feeling burntout and exhausted. A pilgrimage is the perfect way to scale down and recharge. It’s like a retreat, but with more exercise and better food.

For those of you who have no idea what I’m going on about, the Camino de Santiago is a network of routes that pilgrims have followed for more than a thousand years. There are many starting points in Spain and Portugal, but all the routes lead to the cathedral in the city of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. In October, I joined a group of eight go! readers for the coastal section of the Camino Portugués, also known as the Portuguese Way. This Camino has two sections, one inland and one on the coast. We walked from Baiona and arrived in Santiago de Compostela six days and 125 km later.

We were a diverse group: Two lawyers, an accountant, an entrepreneur in the beauty industry, a copy editor, someone in banking, a retired science teacher and a surgeon. Some people knew each other already, but most of us met for the first time at the airport in Luanda in Angola, en route to Porto in Portugal.

It’s been a while since I’ve been part of a group that clicked so effortlessly. Characteristic of the Camino, we soon started to look after each other.

The group had dinner together and hung out around the table like family. By day, our guide from CaminoWays.com took the lead and the rest of us followed, each at his or her own pace. At least twice a day we stopped at a restaurant for something to eat and drink. The pace was relaxed. No one was in a rush. We talked. We laughed. Sometimes we sang out loud and off-key.

The pilgrimage started on a high – literally. The first day we walked 28 km between the coastal towns of Baiona and Vigo, mostly along cliffs on the coast. We even walked along the beach in places.

It drizzled on three of the six days. On the last day – 25 km, mostly uphill – the heavens opened. But as our guide said, you haven’t walked a Camino if you haven’t walked in rain.

It’s a special moment when you arrive in Santiago and stand in the square in front of the cathedral. You feel proud and grateful that you’ve made it all this way. You can attend a pilgrim’s mass with people from all around the world, who have all shared a similar experience. One of the pilgrim traditions is hugging the statue of St James and whispering your heart’s desire in his ear. I asked for rain in the Northern Cape.

The day after my nap in Redondela, one of my fellow hikers, without knowing my story, told me about her own recovery from burn-out, and what an ideal break the Camino had been. We agreed: This pilgrimage is like Energade for the soul. The go! tour was made possible by Hi-Tec, Arnigel and caminoways.com