June 27th, 2017

I'm so excited! It's official...I am going to walk the Camino de Santiago, a 480 mile trek, this September.  I booked my flight to Madrid two days ago and now I'm obsessed with the details of making this adventure happen!




For those of you who may be hearing of the Camino de Santiago for the first time, this walk is actually considered a pilgrimage by many participants...as it has been for hundreds of years.  Some people walk the camino for religious or spiritual reasons.  Others approach the hike as an athletic endeavor, as a way to memorialize someone special...or even as a vacation!




Just as it has multiple purposes, it also has multiple beginning and ending points.  Actually, there are beginning points all over Europe but most walkers stick to a few of the more popular ones. People coming into Europe from the US or other countries have to fly in to one of the European hub airports and make their way by train, bus, or taxi to their chosen starting point. Although not everyone chooses to go to the very end, a common endpoint is in Santiago, Spain. This is close to the western coast of Spain, and I think I read that St. Jame's body was rumored to have washed ashore there after having previously been placed in a boat and left to float on its own.  This is what has made many consider the endpoint a holy destination.

This backpack is too big!

My goal is to walk the entire length of one trail called The Camino Frances. It begins in the south of France, takes you over the Pyrenees Mountains, and then continues along the northern border of Spain.  This is the camino most people pick so it is well marked and has a lot of hotels, hostels, or Bed-and-Breakfasts available for staying in overnight.  That sounds really good to me and it's not even cheating!  This is part of the plan.  Everyone walks during the day (an average of 15 miles per day) and then dines and sleeps at one of the many places in the village you end up in.  Many pilgrims stay in alburgues, dormitory style rooms that are reserved exclusively for those making the journey.  Walkers (or bicyclists) are identified by a necklace they wear that has a shell on it as well as by a Pilgrim Passport they are provided with at their starting place.                        

                                                                                                                       

This is from a hike I took in the Sierra Nevadas 

My mission is to walk the full Camino Frances powered by a plant based diet and to carry a backpack that is equipped with cruelty free supplies.  Others have done this before me...there are vegetarian/vegan Facebook pages that cater to those who have had the same dream as I am working on right now.  So I'm not original in this quest, but I am filled with curiosity about it.  I am not a young woman and I am by all standards chubby and outright fat by others.  I want to know if I can walk almost 500 miles, by my chubby self, powered by plants.  I also want to see if God will talk to me.  I haven't been a big fan for the last 30 years...and I am hoping that if I am making a big mistake with that, that he will help me to see that somewhere on my journey.  So it will be an athletic challenge with a chance of spirituality.


Some friends have already said I'm nuts. I know, I probably am...but I am more determined than I am nuts, so off I will go.  I am going to journal my attempts at getting fit before I go and the way I am able to plan out my trip here on this blog.  Maybe it will help someone someday because it is not simple to put this itinerary together! That's assuming that there are some other nuts out there! LOL.




Well, where ever you plan to walk today, make it a good walk.  Be kind to those you encounter. And as they say on the pilgrimage...buen camino!        

Peace!