13, 14, 15 SEPTEMBER - SAN ANTON

We woke up about 6am.  I had to use the loo so was the first up.  When I got back to the 'ice box'
the men were already dressed and Kevin had opened the big gates and the albergue doors.  Sunrise would only be just before 8am so we worked in candlelight, setting the table, boiling water on the gas stove, cutting bread for breakfast.  We spoke in whispers until 7am and then we started talking in normal tones as one by one the pilgrims started coming in for breakfast.

Once the pilgrims had left Kevin told me that they'd found occasional bed bugs, scourge of the Camino albergues, so he got me to help strip the beds, placing the sheets in large plastic basins so that they could be 'stewed' in boiling water to kill any bugs that might have been brought in by the pilgrims.  Every day he found a few bugs, either on the beds or on the walls at the back, so we carried all the mattresses out and examined them by brushing the seams and folds with a toothbrush.   They were then sprayed.   I didn't really know what bed bugs looked like but that day Kevin found a couple which he squashed before showing me.
Once that was done we shook each bunk bed to dislodge any bugs that might still be there, sprayed the floors and the walls and closed the door.  Then we had to spray all the blankets and put them in black bags in the sun.  After 30 minutes or so, I swept the dormitory using a dustpan so that I could check to see if there were any bugs.  This was painstaking, heavy work and I wasn't sure that two women would be able to continue with this regime once the men left.

As we started to carry the mattresses back into the room, Rebekah arrived with mattress and pillow covers and three large plastic containers.  YAY!  This meant that we would not have to carry the mattresses out every day and we'd be able to put the blankets into the containers in the sun.   Whilst we were treating the mattresses, blankets and linen, Robert was 'stewing' the sheets and we helped to hang them.  Robert liked to do the main room so I cleaned the shower and toilet and our container. 

During all this housework, pilgrims started arriving from nearby Hontanas at about 8am and we often stopped working to answer questions and to promote the albergue.  Kevin was really good at that!  He took his washing to the water pipe at the canal that ran alongside the ruins and solicited passing pilgrims - hence we were full nearly every night!  In the afternoon a dear little man by the name of Justi arrived.  He was standing in for the owner, Ovidio, who was away on holiday.  If we needed anything we could phone Justi at the hotel.

We had some great candlelight dinners using what we had in the pantry cupboard like pasta, lentils, chickpeas and rice with a salsa sauce and a salad.  Kevin got the pilgrims involved, some doing flowers for the table, some setting the table, others helping with preparation.  After dinner Kevin asked each person to pass a candle around and say thank you to the Camino.  There were some special moments when pilgrims got emotional or shared deeply personal information about why they were walking the Camino. 
The next morning a pilgrim who initially wasn't going to stay the night, told Kevin that he had caught his wife with his best friend and although he was still very angry and deeply hurt, his stay at San Anton had given him the courage to write to her and forgive her.  He had decided to stay at San Anton after I told him that it was a place of healing.

On the 15th Kristine from Australia arrived at around mid-morning.  She came bearing gifts as well as two large fruit cakes!  Robert and Kevin offered to show her the ropes and tell her about the different chores that had to be done. She shook her head, "My background is in nursing, and I am very good at delegating." She said.  Kevin gave me a raised eyebrows look.

Whilst I was hanging the sheets Marion and the rest of the group arrived.  I was so pleased to see them and even got a bit emotional about some of the hurting people who had stayed at the albergue.
 Kevin had his last day, staying to help us with the dinner before he left.  Robert spent the night with two ladies in the ice-box, nearly injuring himself when Kristine's head lamp fell down from the top bunk and landed underneath Robert's bed.  He tried to hang over the side of the bed and retrieve the torch but being a long, lanky fellow, ended doing a somersault, head first off the bed with his backside in the air and head under the bed!  We laughed so loud that the container shook!

7 September - logroño to Navarret

We met downstairs and walked together out of the city.  It seemed more like a few months ago rather than 16 months ago that I had walked out with Kathy.  We stopped at the cafeteria for a coffee and hot chocolate and also at Marcelino Lebato's table in the woods.
When we approached Navarret I took a photo of the spot where I had fallen last year.  I crossed my walking poles on the spot and forgave the Camino for my accident and broken arm.
Everyone was thrilled with the 3 star Hotel Sancho. We were too early to check in so we left our packs and went looking for a supermecado to buy food for the road tomorrow. It was siesta so everything was closed. The church was open and I put a Euro in the slot to switch the lights on so that we could see the magnificent interior of the church.
When we checked into the hotel Marion and I were amazed by our room which had a small sitting room area with a double settee and tables.   It was the smartest room we had ever had on the Camino and I decided to take advantage of the bath and soak with the sachets of Bath foam they provided.
We found a special place to et that offered something different to the regular pilgrim food. I chose 3 different tapas rather than the menu which included peppers stuffed with Cod and a black squid ink sauce.
I still can't get used to the pillows here.  They are long sausage shaped pillows and you only get one.  It was quiet cool but there were extra blankets and we had a good sleep.

Navarre

The cheapest flights from South Africa are on the middle eastern airlines Emirates or Qatar.   Many south Africans fly to Europe and other destinations on them. Qatar is a 5star airline but, flying 8 hours East and then another 7 hours back West isn't great! 9 of us flew from RSA to Madrid on Thursday - 7 from Durban which involved 3 flights and a scary 4 hour bus ride along a twisting road from Madrid to logrono. It wad exhausting and I was so pleased that we didn't have to start walking the next day.
Moyra and Connie from Canada were waiting for me when I arrived on the bus at 14:45. They helped me drag my suitcases to the hotel which is opposite the cathedral in the center of town.   As soon as I unpacked all the stuff for San Anton  and Santiago,  Moyra and I found the Correos and I posted the two boxes.
At 6:45pm we walked back to the station to meet Marion. Her bus was 30 min late and it was nearly 8pm  when we got back to the hotel.
The four of us had a meal at a restaurant about 50 from the hotel. Connie and Moyra went to bed and Marion and I waited up for Randy and Bonnie who arrived at about 10:30pm.
When I finally got to bed I was feeling delerious with lack of sleep and after a shower got into bed and died!

'Complete Your Camino' recce walk

amaWalkers Camino offer 22-day walks on three sections of the Camino Frances.  When we first planned the sections in 2010, most people wanted to start in St Jean and finish in Santiago so that they could earn a Compostela.  This meant splitting the 775km route into three sections.  We decided on walking 9 days from St Jean to Logrono, getting a bus to Burgos, Leon and Astorga then walking in the Irago Mountains and Bierzo Valley to Villafranca del Bierzo or Ambasmestas before being taxied over the Cebreiro hill to Samos and walking the last 130km to Santiago. This means walking almost half of the Camino Frances.

Over the last 3 years, many of those who have walked the amaWalkers Camino 22-day walk have asked if we could offer them a walk to 'Complete' their Camino by walking the sections they missed.  When I sent a suggested route to them - from Logrono to Astorga and Ambasmestas to Sarria - many asked if they could either continue walking to Santiago on a different route or walk to Finisterre from Santiago.  We agreed to offer both short routes as possible endings to their 'Complete Your Camino' walks in 2015.

Although I have walked the Camino Frances a few times, and have done the Camino Ingles and Finisterre route, I didn't stay in hotels and walked as little or for as long as I felt like doing each day.  When you plan for a group walk, you need consistent daily distances of about 20km and accommodation in pensions, hostales, hotels etc.  So, we need to walk the route again and check out the accommodation along the way.

From 25th May my friend Kathy and I  will do a reconnaissance walk of the new routes.  We will both walk the section from Logrono to Astorga, crossing the beautiful meseta.   Kathy will then get a bus to Villafranca del Bierzo and walk from there to Sarria.  I will get a bus to Ferrol and walk the Camino Ingles to Santiago. 

When I put this plan on Facebook, a few people asked if they could join me on the Camino Ingles walk, so now there are 6 of us, including 90 year-old 'Uncle Bob' from California, my husband, cousin, sister-in-law and Penelope from Oregon.  We will walk ± 10km per day from Ferrol to Santiago in 11 days.  Accommodation has been booked ahead and we will use luggage transfers.

In September, amaWalkers co-director and Group Leader Jenny Rooks, will do a 4 day recce walk from Santiago to Finisterre.   Once we have walked all of these sections, estimated daily stages, transport possibilities and checked the accommodations we will offer the walks in May 2015.

I am leaving in 8 days time and will arrive in Spain on 21st May. Before Kathy arrives I will be visiting friends we have made of hotel, pension, B&B and Gite owners in St Jean, Viscarret, Zubiri, Estella and Logroño. 

I am not well prepared for this walk.  A month ago I got Shingles on my face and scalp which knocked the stuffing out of me. Then I had to go on a diabolical drug to reduce a swelling in my right retina.  The side effects include dizziness, nausea and reflux, diarrhea and pins and needles in the tongue and fingers.  I haven't been able to do any long walks for over 5 weeks.  I will finish this medication 3 days before I fly from Durban and I'm hoping and praying that most of it will be out of my system before I go. 

CAMINO LINGO

In 2001 I took a 6 week Spanish course at our local University in preparation for my first Camino. 

We learned to count to 100, say the days of the week and months of the year, all the colours, name all the rooms in a house, the buildings in a town, to introduce ourselves to Senor Gonzalez and to make appointments, shop, cook and entertain in Spanish.  We learned to say, "My hamster is behind the sofa" and "the bird is on the window sill".

I typed out five pages of verbs and their conjugations - I, You (singular), He, she, You (formal), We, You (plural) and They.  We learned about common verbs, AR verbs that change, ER verbs, IR verbs, O-UE verbs, E-IE verbs, IR verbs E-I.  Accompanying these are pages and pages of present tense verbs, stem-changing verbs etc etc e

It makes my head spin just to look at all the pages on Grammatical structures, Interrogative sentences, rules on gender, diphthongs, cognates and so on. 

No wonder I didn't remember much Spanish when I finally got to Spain.  There I learned to ask for a coffee and the toilet and to say, "Beun Camino" to all passing pilgrims.

In 2006, in preparation for my walk on the Via Francigena in Italy, I did a 6 week Italian course at the University.  I wasn't very good at it and the strange thing was that although it wasn't a difficult course, all the long forgotten Spanish words kept popping out!  Instead of saying Grazie, I was saying Gracias! 

In between walks in Spain I've tried online lessons, bought Spanish Words and Phrases books as well as CDs which I listen to in the car.  Most of them are aimed at tourists and have lots of words and phrases that a Camino pilgrim will never need. 

Last year I started taking small groups of pilgrims on the Camino and decided that I should take Spanish classes again.  I contacted my friend and Spanish teacher Reinette Novoa and after a couple of weeks of useful verbs, adjectives and grammar rules I told her that all I really wanted was to learn words and phrases applicable to walking the Camino.  I didn't want to be able to ask where to launder my suit or where to take my car for a service!  She suggested I write out in English the words and phrases I needed and she would provide the Spanish and pronunciation.  It worked like a charm!  I learned more in two weeks than I'd learned in all those weeks of lessons and listening to CDs!.

I then had the idea that she and I use these lists and collaborate on writing an English-Spanish Words and Phrases book for pilgrims on the Camino.  We decided to call it CAMINO LINGO - which means that although it is not a perfect English-Spanish book, it is pefect for the Camino pilgrim!

 In the Introduction we started with the polite words one would need in Spain, like hello, thank you and please - hola, gracias, por favor etc.  Then a few not-so-polite words like 'bugger off', 'shut up' and 'F#@* off'!    The five chapters follow a pilgrim on the Camino from packing the backpack, flying to Spain, arriving and asking questions, using bus or train to get to the start, checking into a hotel or albergue, washing clothes, eating, shopping, walking the trail, sightseeing, making friends and arriving in Santiago.  There is a chapter on health and medical as well as cycling words, money, banks and  post office.  Five appendices offer basic pronunciation, a menu reader, and an extensive English-Spanish dictionary with over 650 words and phrases aimed at Camino pilgrims.

My friend Sandi Beukes, who did the drawings for YOUR CAMINO, offered to do the illustrations for CAMINO LINGO as well and her delightfully quirky drawings bring the chapters to life. 

In text boxes Reinette gives advice to the pilgrim.

 Reinette says:

If you don’t have sufficient words to ask for something - smile, make a questioning face and use hand signals. You can also show Spanish people the words and phrases in this book.

 

Blisters    las ampollas  ahm-poh-yas

(Point to your blisters!)

Pilgrimage Publications have agreed to publish the book in print and eBook form and I know that it is going to be a great help to English speaking pilgrims on the Camino.  CAMINO LINGO should be available before Christmas.

EXPECTATIONS

If the Camino doesn’t live up to your expectations, it’s your fault – not the Camino.
The Camino is what it is, what it always has been. 
The Camino is unchanging – only pilgrims change. 
The Camino doesn’t belong to you.
Not everyone will have the same experience on the Camino. 
Don’t try to walk someone else’s Camino.
Walk your own Camino.
“If you want to make it to Santiago, the first heavy thing you must leave behind is your expectations."

 Some people walk or cycle a Camino purely for the challenge of doing so.  They are rarely disappointed and get exactly what they wanted out of the experience – a great hike across scenic landscapes with reasonable accommodations and friendly fellow hikers - no more and no less.  When they return home they cross it off their bucket list and start planning their next adventure.  “I don’t know what all the hype is about,” said a returning pilgrim.  “I’ve had better holidays in Tuscany.”

Some people do a Camino because it is the fashionable thing to do – all their friends have done it or are planning to do it and they don’t want to feel left out.  They buy all the right gear and do a bit of research and then set off for France, Spain or Portugal to start the Camino.  The first few days are a shock.  This is no gentle meander from one charming village to the next.  The paths are muddy or rocky; villages are decrepit, monuments in ruin. The locals are un-sophisticated and, they don’t speak English!   After a week or two they decide that this is not for them and they return home.  One such ‘pilgrim’ wrote, “I had a stiff G&T and decided that if I ever got the urge to try it again I would lie down on my bed until the feeling passed!”

Some people plan a Camino with a spouse or with a friend or two, or even a group.  They get on well together and are excited at the prospect of sharing this journey.  Hiking together for weeks can bring out tensions and different expectations in the group.  “I am a fast walker and the others couldn’t keep up.”   “I expected to keep walking but he couldn’t go any further so I ended up twiddling my thumbs every afternoon.”  “I wanted to sleep in the albergues but she wanted to sleep in hotels. She also wanted to eat in restaurants and I couldn’t afford to do that every night.”  These different expectations are the things that can lead to a breakdown in friendships and relationships on the Camino. 

Some people, who have hiked other long-distance hiking trails around the world, might be disappointed to find that the Camino isn’t a wilderness trail (like the Appalachian Trail in the US).  They bemoan the fact that there are always signs of civilisation, trains, electricity pylons, highways in the distance, lots of villages and towns, and far more people on the trails than they expected.  Some of the Camino routes have lots of road walking and this too is a shock to the person who thought he would be hiking mostly on cross-country trails.

Some people, many at cross-roads in their lives, do a Camino hoping to ‘find myself’.  They hope that by walking or cycling the Camino they will find answers to the many uncertainties in their life; perhaps the loss of a job, the break-down of a relationship, or a mid-life crisis.  Some will have an epiphany on the road and return home full of new found vigour and ideas, but others go home more confused than ever. The Camino failed to provide the answers and solutions they were looking for.

Some people walk for religious reasons.  Many, hoping to emulate the pilgrims of old and walk in faith and piety in order to earn a reward at the end of the journey (usually forgiveness of sins), are disappointed and disillusioned by the commercial aspects of the Camino.  They find closed churches, queues of tourists outside cathedrals (which charge them to enter) and an array of cheap Camino souvenirs in every village.  They feel let down because the Camino doesn’t meet their expectations. “Very little is real, authentic or genuine” said a pilgrim. 

Some people might start off doing a Camino as a nice long distance walk, with no expectations of having a spiritual or meaningful experience.  When they reach Santiago they say, “That was a great walk, but I don’t think I’ll want to do it again.  There are lots of other places I want to visit.”  A few weeks, months or even a year later, they are dreaming about the Camino and feel a ‘call’ to go back.  They join their local confraternity and start to plan their next Camino.

Some people, although eager to experience what others describe as an intensely spirituality and life-changing experience, just don’t feel it.  “I wanted to feel the magic and euphoria that so many pilgrims have described,” commented a pilgrim at a workshop, “but it just didn’t happen for me.  It was a wonderful walk and I loved being with the other pilgrims, but I really didn’t find it life-changing at all.” 

Some people have high expectations and everything about the Camino is a disappointment.  One blogger was explicit in his condemnation.  "Roncesvalles - had a typically bad Spanish lunch; Burgos cathedral - I’ve seen hundreds of cathedrals in my life, but this one in particular disgusted me; it was a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. We started the day in Peregrino Purgatory; there are many structural and systemic reasons that Spain is one worst countries in the Financial Crisis, including economic, legal, and behavioural; watched as a busload of Japanese tourists (who were dropped off to hike the last kilometre up to the Iron Cross) crowd out the true pilgrims. Unfortunately El Camino de Santiago is a pre-packaged tour masquerading as something else. "

Some people have pre-conceived ideas about doing the Camino in an ‘authentic’ way [which presumably means in the way of the medieval, mendicant, penitential pilgrim.  They develop strong opinions about all the other pilgrims they meet on the road.  To be ‘authentic’ they should walk alone, walk very long distances, carry a heavy pack, only sleep in pilgrim shelters, not eat in restaurants, not do ‘touristy’ things, attend mass as often as possible and never take transport.  They are disappointed that there aren’t more like them on the Camino and post disapproving comments on blogs and forums.  Pilgrims are ‘cheats’ they say, undeserving of any rewards including the Compostela certificate when they reach Santiago.  This view of authenticity only applies to pilgrims walking to Santiago (not the millions of pilgrims to Fatima, Lourdes, Rome or the Holy Land). These ‘authentic’ pilgrims can have Gortex shoes, wicking hiking gear, carry a credit card, cell phone, send emails home and post on their blogs – and the criteria of authenticity only applies to walking one way (they don’t have to walk back home like the medieval pilgrims did.)

Some people have an unexpected, life-changing experience on the Camino, so much so that they say that it was their destiny to do the pilgrimage.  Many return home, sell up everything and move to Spain or France, setting up a pilgrim shelter on one of the routes.   One pilgrim left her husband and returned to Spain, married a local and now runs a tour business taking groups of pilgrims on the Camino.  Another walked the Camino when she was retrenched from a lucrative job. She returned to her home country, wrote a book and incorporated the Camino into her life by setting up a Camino website to promote it, made a film about the Camino and gives motivational talks.

Some people love doing the Camino so much that they return time and time again, either doing the same route or trying different routes. Each time they say, "Ok. I've done it again, now I must try something different." But, the call of the Camino is too strong, and within a year or two they are back on the Camino trails, and mostly they can’t tell you why!


'The journey is never over. Only travellers come to an end. The end of one journey is simply the start of another. You have to see what you missed the first time, see again what you already saw, see in springtime what you saw in summer, in daylight what you saw at night, see the sun shining where you saw the rain falling, see the crops growing, the fruit ripen, the stone which has moved, the shadow that was not there before. You have to go back to the footsteps already taken, to go over them again or add fresh ones alongside them. You have to start the journey anew. Always.  The traveller sets out once more."  Jose Saramago

WHAT WAS YOUR REASON FOR WALKING THE CAMINO?

There are as many reasons for walking a Camino as there are pilgrims.  Some walk for fun, for sport, for religious or spiritual reasons, after the loss of a loved one, to say thank you for something special or grace, after a change in professions, a change of life.  (Very few pilgrims will tell you that they are walking to Santiago in order to venerate the remains of the apostle and pray at his tomb.)
When the Pilgrim's Office asks you this question they are only interested in four possible replies:

Religious. Spiritual. Cultural. Sporting.

They don't ask out of idle curiosity. This is one of the qualifying criteria when pilgrims arrive at the Pilgrims’Office in Santiago to collect the Compostela, a certificate of completion awarded to pilgrims who walk the last 100km to Santiago or cycle the last 200km.

Ticking two out of four will qualify, but if you don’t tick the right box, you don’t get the certificate.  Many pilgrims know this so they tick the first two - or all four - just to make sure.  This probably inflates the statistics of pilgrims walking to Santiago for Religious reasons.  For the first 5 months of this year (2012) the stats showed that Religious reasons for making the pilgrimage was about 41% whilst Religious and other was 53% and not religious was (5,52%)

Canon Genaro Cebrián reminds us that to be granted the Compostela "it is necessary to confess a religious faith. Pilgrims are not asked about their faith, if they are Catholics, Buddhists or Islamists. We only ask that the reason is religious", he added. "Therefore, atheists and agnostics can only aspire to an alternative “welcome” document." (I am a Buddhist, therefore a non-theist, so I don't ask for the Compostela although I did get one after my first walk in 2002)

Perhaps the Pilgrims’ Office should ask the question, “Are you Catholic?” 
It would be interesting to know what percentage of pilgrims who walk, ride or cycle to Santiago is Catholic because this must impact on the person’s reasons for doing the pilgrimage, how they see themselves – as a pilgrim or as a ‘religious tourist’ - and how they see other pilgrims on the road.   
Acts of penance, confession, revering relics, the power of the bones of Saints are all very Catholic and millions of Catholic pilgrims visit the tomb of Santiago every year arriving by plane, train, car, in church groups or on pilgrimage tours.

Every now and then, a returning walking ‘pilgrim’ (Catholic or Protestant – we don’t know) will post a scathing attack on a Forum about his/her fellow pilgrims because they did not fit his/her view of what a real pilgrim is or should be.  E.g: They should have walked further, carried a heavier pack, not taken any transport or had any back-up during the walk, not stayed in hotels, eaten frugally and so on.   

In many cases those who have walked further, carried the heavier pack, not sent their packs ahead, and who have only stayed in pilgrim shelters, feel that their extra (self-imposed) hardship makes them a better pilgrim, more worthy of special treatment.  The question they should ask themselves is, "In whose eyes?" Or, "In whose opinion?"  The Santiago pilgrim's office doesn't offer extra Brownie points for phyiscal suffering or longer distances, nor do they care how your backpack reaches Santiago - as long as you can prove that have walked the last 100km or cycled the last 200km, and you claim to have walked for Religious reasons, you will get your certificate. 

The narrow view of the mendicant, penitent, long suffering pilgrim is a hangover from the Middle Ages when Indulgences were introduced for the remission of sins and time spent in purgatory; when the longer and harder the journey, the more time you earned off purgatory. It no longer applies to those making pilgrimages today - and it never did apply to people who were not Catholic.  Catholics can still earn an indulgence by visiting the tomb of Saint James but they don't have to walk or cycle there to do so.

An accusation often made is that pilgrims starting at the 100km mark don’t deserve to be given a Compostela (even though this is the only requirement imposed by the church to earn the certificate) and even if the pilgrim is a local Catholic, fulfilling a pledge to walk to the tomb of his patron saint with the intention of earning an indulgence by attending mass, taking Holy Communion, saying confession and making a donation or doing a good deed.   

Non Catholic Christians (Protestants) don’t walk for rewards or believe in purgatory and the remissions of sins. Non-Catholics cannot earn indulgences or any other ‘get out of jail’ card as so many pilgrims seem to believe.The Compostela is a certificate, a lovely souvenir of your walk, but has no other function.
   
Essentially, el Camino de Santiago is a Catholic pilgrimage.  Founded when a long hidden tomb, discovered on a hillside in Compostela, was declared to contain the remains of the apostle Saint James the Greater – Sant’Iago.  For the first three hundred years pilgrims to the tomb were mainly locals.   Those that visited the tomb did so out of curiosity and a desire to visit the body of an Apostle of Jesus.  Indulgences for visiting shrines were only introduced two hundred years later.

‘The earliest record of a plenary indulgence was Pope Urban 11’s declaration at the Council of Clermont in 1095 that he remitted all penance incurred by the Crusaders [to the Holy Land] who confessed their sins, considering participation in the crusade equivalent to a complete penance.’ (Wiki)  Indulgences were first written by hand but after the invention of the printing press, were churned out in their thousands.

It would be another two hundred years before indulgences were extended to the ordinary masses which would result in a tsunami of superstitious people seeking out shrines that offered the most generous indulgences for time off purgatory - some up to a thousand years.  
(The Orthodox Church did not believe in purgatory as the word does not appear in the Bible so they did not follow the Catholic Church in this practice.)

The earliest documented account of indulgences granted to pilgrims to Santiago dates from the middle of the 13^th C and we can presume that until then, pilgrims walked to the tomb of Santiago with a sense of piety, caritas and curiosity – not for a reward.  Their reward was arriving at the tomb, kneeling before it, praying to the saint and to God, and living with a sense of achievement and satisfaction.

Once indulgences were introduced, a cruel pecking order soon devleoped based on who was considered more worthy of remission of sins; those who walked a longer way, those who walked in winter; those who wore a hairshirt and self flaggelated along the way, those who died on the road to Santiago.  Rewards for taking part in all sorts of rituals in Santiago were introduced and a 13^th c catalogue, recorded by the British pilgrim William Wey in 1456, lists these indulgences:

·                for making the trip to Compostela - remission of a third of one’s sins.

·                if you die on the road - total remission.
·                for taking part in each religious procession in the city of Compostela - 40 days’ indulgences; if the procession is led by a mitered bishop - 200 days more.  if the procession is on July 24^th - 600 days.
·                hearing mass at which an archbishop, dean or cardinal officiates - 200 days.
·                hearing mass at the Monte de Gozo - 100 days. 

If you visited all the shrines along the way to Santiago de Compostela, you could collect indulgences for thousands of days off purgatory – it was a Holy rewards program, a bit like the modern day Voyager Miles program.  By the 14^th C wealthy people could buy their indulgences instead of making long, dangerous journeys to far off shrines.  They could pay proxy-pilgrims to visit the shrines on their behalf.  By the 15^th C people were urged to buy indulgence for their deceased loved ones who were probably burning in purgatory because they had not had the opportunity to buy or earn their own indulgences.

Vast sums of money were needed to finance the colossal reconstruction of St Peter's in Rome which had started in 1506. “Professional ‘pardoners’ (quaestores in Latin) - who were sent to collect alms for specific projects - practiced the unrestricted sale of indulgences. Many of these quaestores unfortunately exceeded Church teachings, whether in avarice or ignorant zeal, and promised impossible rewards like salvation from eternal damnation in return for money.” (Wiki)  

In 1517 Martin Luther, a German monk and priest, called for reforms in the Church, including a stop to the selling of indulgences, the veneration of the saints as a means of reaching God, and the use of opulence and graven images in churches. He argued that the forgiveness of sins came through Christ alone who died on the cross, and that one could not buy His grace with money or earn forgiveness through long journeys to the graves of dead saints.
"All pilgrimages should be done away with" he wrote in 1520 "for there is no good in them, no commandment, but countless causes of sin and of contempt of God's commandments. These pilgrimages are the reason for there being so many beggars, who commit numberless villainies, so all pilgrimages should be done away with”.

Christian pilgrimage was practically built on the precepts of relics, reliquaries and remissions of sins, and the money brought into the churches’ coffers by pilgrims was essential to the continued building and maintenance of the Vatican and of the great pilgrimage churches which started in the 11th C and 12th C.  The result of this challenge to the church was a split in the Holy Roman Catholic Church that changed Europe and Christianity forever. 

Until the early 16^th C almost all Christians were Catholic.  By 1555 Christianity was divided between those who agreed with Martin Luther, known as Protestants (from ‘protestors’), and the Roman Catholic Church.  Religious wars resulted in the slaughter of Christians from both camps and hundreds of monuments and churches were destroyed.  Pilgrimage became unpopular and was banned in some countries. Pilgrims were looked upon with suspicion and were reviled as vagabonds and villains.

The pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela didn’t suffer quite the same fate as other shrines in Europe but it became a more local and regional destination rather than an international one. In 1589 the relics of St James were under threat and were moved and hidden to prevent a possible attack by Frances Drake. Their exact whereabouts were forgotten for almost 300 years. It’s not surprising that the number of pilgrims to Santiago dried up almost completely. With no body to venerate it would be almost 400 years before they started to arrive in any numbers.

‘The Spanish Civil War of 1820–1823 further prevented pilgrims from visiting Santiago and, in whole of the 19th century less than 20 000 pilgrims visited Santiago – most of them from the areas around Santiago, and the majority of those arrived in the Holy Years.’ Don Jose Ignacio Diaz Perez

‘In the Holy Year of 1867 just 40 pilgrims turned up for the celebrated mass on 25th July.’ Cordla Rabe

 A search for the relics was launched in 1879 and they were eventually found between the walls of the apse. Five years later, in 1884, a papal bull from Pope Leo XIII declared them to be genuine (which silenced the sceptics) and there was a growing revival in the number of visitors to the shrine.  T
wo years later, P. Fidel Fita rediscovered the Codex Calixtinus, a copy of the so-called Pilgrims’ Guide that never was, after it had been lost for centuries. This was fortuitous timing as it spurred historic research into the pilgrimage routes to Santiago just when interest in the shrine was being revived.

After the re-discovery and authentication of the saint’s relics, pilgrim visitors started flocking to Santiago once again and there was a steady rise in the numbers especially in the Holy Years. But, the old trail routes remained overgrown and forgotten and the number of people walking to Santiago was so insignificant that no records were kept of their arrival.

In the last century there were always a hardy few, nostalgic Catholics, medievalists or other academics, who tried to find the old pilgrimage trails to Santiago and reach it by means other than by car or bus.  In 1917 Georgiana Goddard King completed The Way of St James, a three-volume work tracing the pilgrimage trails to the shrine of St James, based on her journeys on foot, donkey cart, mule and other transportation.

Dr Walter Starkie made the pilgrimage through France and Spain on foot, by car and bus four times from 1924 to 1952. In his classic book The Road to Santiago he makes many references to the work of G.G. King.

In Pilgrim Stories Nancy Frey wrote: “In the 1965 Holy Year the number of ‘visitor pilgrims’ more than doubled (2.5 million) compared with 700 000 in the 1954 Holy Year but walking to Santiago was still not an important criterion.”  The journey was not important - but the destination was. This still holds true for the other great Christian shrines like Jerusalem or Rome and the more modern Marian shrines of Lourdes, Fatima and Guadalupe (the most visited shrine after Rome).

An article in the New York Times (dated 16 August 1965) about the 1965 Holy Year describes the atmosphere in the cathedral as thousands of pilgrims, who arrived from all over Europe in buses and cars, lined up to kiss the stone-sculptured head of the apostle at whose tomb they had come to pray. The 50 miles of road between La Coruna and Santiago was crowded with huge tourist buses and cars.  (There is no mention of people having walked there although locals must have done so.)

There are no surviving records of pilgrims arriving in Santiago before 1970. The late Don Jaime of Santiago’s cathedral found an old book kept by his predecessor, which showed that in 1967 a total of 37 pilgrims arrived at the Cathedral’s pilgrim office and in 1971, which was a Holy Year ,there were 491 pilgrims.

The revival of ‘The Camino’ as we know it today only began in the late 1970s and 1980s with a dedicated priest from O Cebreiro, a group of hard working volunteers with a few tins of yellow paint, and the formation of Camino interest groups. These events, coinciding with the advent of Internet and the World Wide Web in the 1990s, saw the numbers of people visiting Santiago explode with exponential growth into the 21st century.

Millions of pilgrim visitors still journey to the tomb of St James every year – an estimated 12 million in the 2010 Holy Year.  We can presume that their motives were to venerate the relics of St James the Greater.  Unlike these pilgrim visitors, however, you will rarely hear today’s walking or cycling pilgrims say ‘I am making a pilgrimage to the tomb of St James of Compostela’.    For the majority of walking pilgrims today the Camino itself has become the destination – not St James’ relics in the Cathedral.

What is the Protestant view today of pilgrimage?

"It's been possible after several centuries to disentangle pilgrimage from the works righteousness that Luther so disapproved of, so that now Protestants can go on pilgrimages—though most often, they don't call them that—without any sense that they are earning God's favor by doing so. For most, they are like study tours or holidays with a spiritual dimension." [Christianitytoday.com)

I have walked to Santiago six times and will do so again next year.  I was raised a Protestant and was married in the Lutheran church.  For the past 35 years I lived my life according to Buddhist principles and have not experienced any conflict with the Buddhist way of life and my Christian upbringing.  I do not walk the Camino for religious reasons and according with Buddhist philosophy, it’s not the destination that counts, it’s the journey. 

The Camino has become my alternate life and I can enjoy it at home.  Besides memories, I live it in books, in DVDs, in Cyber Space on forums, emails, with friends on Facebook, at workshops , hospitaleros course and pilgrim get-togethers etc.  I sometimes think that I am like the Camino!  What I mean by that is that although I walked the pilgrimage for the first time in 2002 - I (Sil) became the pilgrimage – and I am still on my own personal pilgrimage, processing the experiences of the many walks I've done. 

Walking it in different ways, on different routes, in different seasons, with friends or alone, with my husband, with a group; as a 'real' pilgrim carrying a pack and staying only in albergues, or with baggage transfers and staying in Casas; serving as a hospitalera, writing about it, sharing at workshops - all of this is beginning to come together as a whole experience and not fragmented, different experiences.

My motivations for walking a Camino have changed from the first walk in 2002 when I did it for fun and as a physical challenge but although it has become a deeply spiritual journey, a I am not a Saint James pilgrim in the accepeted sense and still don't qualify for the Compostela.