For the past twenty years, I’ve dreamed of walking the 566 mile Camino de Santiago.
Spilling over the Pyrenees from France and across northern Spain, the network of trails that make up the Route of St. James — or El Camino de Santiago — converges at the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
Like pilgrims have done for thousands of years, I’ll be hiking with a small backpack over the Pyrenees, the high plains of Castilla and the hills of Galicia.
I’m told I’ll be challenged physically, psychologically, and spiritually.
Physical challenge comes first. Everybody gets some physical problem from blisters to tendinitis, to broken bones.
Then comes the psychological challenge. It gets boring walking all day. Central Spain is flat as a tabletop with endless fields of hay, wheat and nothing, with no place to sit down and no shade.
At the end, the Camino is a spiritual challenge. Questions finally emerge. Why am I doing this? What do I want to learn? Where do I go from here?
I’m fortunate to be in the physical condition make the journey, and take the amount of time I need to complete it.
If you are interested in knowing a bit more of what is in store for me during the journey, here is a two minute trailer from a documentary you can watch on Youtube .
I look forward to reconnecting in July. Until then, safe travels.