Bay resident tackles the Camino challenge
IN July last year I stood outside the Spanish visa application centre in Pretoria waiting my turn to enter the building.
To pass the time I started chatting to fellow visa applicants and the obvious question was where in Spain they were going?
‘We’re going to do the Camino,’ they said.
‘The what?’ I asked, never having heard of it.
They explained it was an 800km walk across Spain.
My immediate reaction was that it was not for me. Two weeks on an ocean liner cruising the Mediterranean is what I was looking forward to.
But since my cruise, the one thing I realised after a short 24-hour visit to Barcelona, was that I would love to see more of Spain.
In early January the programme Elders was screened on DSTV, which followed journalist and writer Erns Grundling on his Camino excursion.
And that was what made up my mind.
I decided then and there that I wanted to do the Camino de Santiago de Compostela.
The Camino de Santiago is the world’s most renowned pilgrimage, dating back to the Middle Ages. It leads to the shrine of the apostle St James in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, built by Spanish King Alfonso II in Galicia, north-western Spain.
Tradition has it that the remains of the saint are buried there.
The construction of the Romanesque cathedral began in 1078 and started a golden age for the pilgrimage from various starting points, to Santiago.
Modern day pilgrims make the journey for religious or spiritual reasons, to get away from their daily life and connect with nature, for health and exercise, to test themselves physically and mentally or for cultural reasons.
Last year, more than 327 300 pilgrims arrived in Santiago to receive their Compostela.
To receive the Latin handwritten Compostela Certificado, you need to walk at least the last 100km into Santiago and present your credentials (pilgrim passport stamped at least once a day, or twice a day if you are starting your Camino in Galicia), to the ecclesiastical authorities at the Pilgrim’s Office.
Thereafter you can attend the daily pilgrim mass in the cathedral.
The longer route I am walking is the Camino Francés - undertaken by 10% of pilgrims - which starts in the French town of Saint Jean Pied de Port.
I will then cross the Pyrenees mountains into Spain and continue the 753km to Santiago.
It will take me five weeks to reach Sarria (112km outside Santiago - 27% of pilgrims start here), where my wife Zelda will join me for the last week’s walk to the cathedral in Santiago.
During the six weeks I will be staying over in albergues (shared pilgrim hostels) and will have a rest day after each six days of walking.
I will be carrying all my clothes, toiletries, cellphone and charger, sleeping bag and a hydration pack in a backpack.
My walk will start on Friday, 26 July (tomorrow) with a 24km stretch over the Pyrenees.
We plan to be in Santiago on 4 September.
I plan to send regular updates and photos of my progress to the Zululand Observer for readers to follow.
Hopefully it will be informative to aspirant pilgrims or help you decide what is next on your bucket list.
So please, follow my walk through Spain, not on Facebook, but in the Zululand Observer.