A Seven-week Adventure
A Seven-Week Adventure
by Bruce Cass | Hurricane, UT
36 days on the trail.
2 days in Lisbon, Portugal.
2 days in St. Jean Pied de Port, France.
2 days in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
3 days in Porto, Portugal.
37 different beds.
37 different showers.
50 days without English-speaking TV.
50 days I didn’t drive a car.
50 days without American food.
50 days with the same limited set of clothes.
50 days outside the United States.
Reflecting on my Camino Francés pilgrimage in 2022, there were difficulties and challenges. This comes with the Camino. Whether for better or worse, one faces each one as it is presented. All the places we stayed, all the people we met, all the different places where we ate and different types of food we consumed make the adventure a positive experience.
We walked, we talked, we experienced silence, we rode in airplanes, trains, buses, cars, and on a riverboat. There were days with great elevation, days with the wind in our faces, days of unseasonably warm weather, and a couple of days of rain. Days of exhaustion and days of ease. Best of all we had no illness, and I had no blisters. Our journey in this respect was flawless. Others we encountered on the trail had some difficulties, including joint pain, sore hips, aching knees, blisters, colds, sore feet, and many things that day-after-day walking a variety of trails and surfaces can do to one’s body. No one said it was a stroll in the park.
The Camino is what you make it; you can’t change the conditions of weather, food, trails, many of the fixed things that make up the 800-kilometer journey. But you can adjust your attitude to fit the journey. With that said, it will draw you in and draw you back time and again. The rewards are worth the challenge provided by the Camino. Each pilgrim has a different reason or reasons for taking this challenge of walking the Camino. Each pilgrim will gain a different experience and a different reward for their efforts.
That’s the beauty of the Camino.
Bruce took the popular Camino Francés. Learn more about it on our Camino Francés route overview.