¡Buen Camiño!

From 17th of May to 18th of June I walked from Lourdes to Fisterra. The total of 1,130km in 33 days, just on foot. This is how it went – step by step...

A Begining

I heard about 'the camino' before. It refers to Camino de Santiago, also known as Way of St. James. A pilgrimage to the city of Santiago de Compostella, where a giant shrine is dedicated to St. James – a patron of Spain. Few of my friends walked the camino and all of them declared it as something special. I was thinking about doing it, but in some non-specific future that might, or might not, happen. This abstract notion started to dissolve on my last birthday, when I got a present from two of my friends (M. & P.). I got a very concrete plane ticket – with a fixed date and my name on it. Some potential future plan materialized in an instant.

A most popular camino, Camino Francés (Frech Way) starts in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and spans ~824km. I like round numbers, so I decided to extend it to 1 million meters, so 1,000km – Lourdes to Fisterra. And since I also like unrealistic goals, I wanted to do it in one month. I am not a hiker – the longest hike I've ever done was 25km as a single day event. Though, I walk with my dog 10km every day, so I could roughly imagine what to expect. What would usually take me 3 months, I am gonna do in single month. Easy.

One thing I couldn't understand – the 'why'. Why my friends think I should go? I am not religious. I don't like hiking. I can't bear hot temperatures. I don't want to leave my dog. I don't feel lost. So, why the fuck should I do a religious pilgrimage through arid land without my dog and for no cause? Hm.

The Preparation

Thanks to my friend B., which completed few caminos and is well versed in solo camping, I received the best advice I could ever get – 'Your bag is as big as your worries.' It is extremely easy to think of some made up scenario which might happen and use it to justify taking obviously useless shit. Yes, anything can go wrong, but not everything will go wrong. I knew that I can't prepare for every situation, but I knew that I can solve any situation. In other words, feedback beats planning.

One principle I like the most is delaying decision as long as possible, and then make a snap and strong commitment to the best choice. I had roughly 5 months to prepare for this trip, so naturally, the first 4.5 months I did...absolutely no visible action. Two weeks before the flight, I intesified my non-action. And when the last responsible moment came – 3 days to go – I sourced exactly everything I needed and nothing more.

The In-Between

During the time I was getting to the starting line (🚕🚌✈️✈️🏨🚶‍➡️🚂🚂🏨), I finalized the three rules for myself:

1. Only walking – no bike, no bus, no taxi, etc.
2. No zero days – every day some progress, even if it is just 1km
3. Average of 33km per day – keeping an eye on the overall progress

I strictly adhered to these rules, but everything else was adaptable. I had no plan for shelter, food, or similar, as I knew those will be circumstantial and different every day...

The Day

The usual day of a pilgrim