Saint James’ way, or Jeremy’s way?

What an astonishing gift I was given by my friend Peter.
Without his support, I’d never have been able to spend six weeks walking the Camino de Santiago.
As he said, “neither of us could have gone without the other” – so his impetus got me on the Way.

The Way has changed dramatically over the past few years.
In 2022 there were one hundred and sixty-five thousand pilgrims, the next year two hundred and fifty thousand, this year just short of half a million.

When we set off, it seemed crowded. We decided to book accommodation a few days in advance, but soon discovered that it was already booked up!
We switched strategies and started walking “different” distances, things became easier. The Camino is often split into defined “Stages” so we decided to walk “in-between these” rather than following them exactly.
John Brierley’s guide to the Camino is favoured by most Americans (and there are plenty of them..) Lots of pilgrims follow his suggestions, so these places get booked really far in advance.
If you decide to break away from the suggested stages, then booking becomes much easier.
Booking you say? I was doing what we referred to as a “POSH” pilgrimage..
(Not that posh it has to be said! We stayed in a few dodgy Truck stops along the Way too!)
Most young people and authentic Pilgrims stay in the Auberges.
These vary in Quality, and Bedbug count.
The municipal Auberges can be exceptionally cheap, or some are even free!
You might pay €10 per night..
The better quality of Auberge might be €15 to €18 and will have much more modern conveniences.
We stayed in a mixture of boarding houses, auberges (with a private room), the occasional AirBnB and one or two star hotels (and Truck Stops!)
We paid on average €22 to €30 per night each. (Two people sharing a Twin room)
Using our method, we only had to listen to one other person snoring, not forty others, and the odour was less noxious! A private bathroom is a real joy after a long day’s walking!
Very often the places we were staying offered a Pilgrim’s menu.
Everybody would sit together at big tables and have a three-course meal for about €13. (Soup or Salad, Pork fillet and Chips, Custard with Cinamon ..Wine occasionally included for the drinkers..)
The menus aren’t varied, god alone knows what Vegetarians or people with intolerances eat, but it’s really welcome, and fantastic to eat with your Camino family each night.

Inevitably, you meet and re-meet people along the way.
You start to walk in rhythm with the same people.
My Camino family included a wonderful Surgeon and his lovely pastor wife from Massachusetts, a wild and wonderful couple from Maine, a fantastic younger couple from Haarlem in The Netherlands, a pair of great ladies from Australia and New Zealand, young ladies from Japan, Germany, and California and a former fighter pilot from Taiwan!
There was Tom, a Canadian, who lives in Tokyo, and Dom a tall Englishman with a long stride! They both quickly outpaced us, but we kept in contact all the way to the end of their Caminos.

Each major town we came to, we took an extra day off to recuperate and resupply. Inevitably, we’d go out looking for dinner and find some of our Family already out having beers.
It was a stunning communal endeavour. If you were struggling, there was always somebody to cheer you along, when you stumbled, somebody there to pick you up and get you going again.

Paul was from Denmark. He was variously aged as 72 to 80 years old, depending on who you talked to. He was Diabetic, and would experience low blood sugar moments, that would see him dramatically fall down.
We picked him up off one of the mountainous sections of the Camino, and our friends found him having just bounced his head off the pavement.
He wore a big bandage on his forehead for a few days after.
He was thin and frail, yet day after day, he overtook us.. walking at great speed, but however never seeming to know where he was!
We kept map reading for him, and assuring him, whenever we saw him
One afternoon, we engaged him in conversation. “Why are you doing this walk, as you seem to be really struggling?!” – I hoped there would be some beautiful, heart-rending story to explain his pain.
He just said “I don’t know – and I’m never doing it again!” And that was that!
He finished the day after us, and jumped on a train home straight away!

I met an Australian called Paul, he offered me an acronym.
S P A C E..

Simple (also maybe Silent /Solo..)

Purpose

Adventure

Community

Environment (Or exercise)

It really struck home for me. All the space that The Camino provided was amazing.
I have often joked about going to  Prison, or back at Boarding school and how the process is so easy. The Camino is a process too. You don’t need to think.
I walked for about 40 days.
Each morning, you rise, eat breakfast, walk for 20 kilometres come rain, come shine, rest in the afternoon, eat dinner and sleep.. Rinse and Repeat. Again and Again.
Being on this conveyor of life is amazing.
Long hours to be with yourself, like you’ve probably never allowed yourself before.
I was lucky, and my walking partner Peter less so. His Father-in-law passed away after about ten days of our Camino. Peter went home. (He rejoined me two weeks later)
I was given the gift of being TOTALLY alone on the Camino for two weeks of solitude. This was the Meseta section of the Camino. Long flat empty stretches of arable land, with nothing to break the rhythm.
I went really deeply into the story of me..
Who am I?
Then the Hurricane arrived. Most decided to hunker down, or to Cab it to the end of the section. I decided to walk the thirty kilometres alone.
It was SO wild that day. Horizontal rain, winds gusting up to sixty Kilometres per hour. I was being thrown around like a crazy rag doll.
I had a lovely, crazy breakdown.
Alone in the fields I cried, and I shouted at the wind. I sung and I danced like a lunatic. I jogged and I stumbled through the chaos to be reborn as something different.
There’s no real explanation, except that I faced death and laughed.
(I suppose I could have been killed by some random flying object, I might have tripped and fallen into a drainage ditch, but there wasn’t any real danger I don’t think; but I really felt crazy and deranged!)
I emerged a different person.

As we say, as we walk – “The Camino will provide..” and it always does..
It provided me with Space to shout and dance like a lunatic, it provided me with Space to think,  Purpose and Adventure, such an amazing Community and the most amazing natural Environment.

The Camino is BEAUTIFUL..
The Pyrenees were heart-stoppingly beautiful and SO HIGH!
The Castalia and Leon region provided vineyards, and beautiful mountains
Galicia, my new love, Galicia. It spoke to my Celtic soul.
The people were amazing, the food beautiful, the oak forests; they will always live in my heart.

We don’t challenge ourselves very much any more.
Life is so pedestrian and safe.
Self-reliance is a rare commodity.
I really feel that by learning willpower, we can heal ourselves so much more effectively.
Better to learn the way of Willpower, before you need it and find yourself lacking.
Better to discover that there is ONLY you on this journey. It’s beautiful to have supporters “witness” your journey. But there is only ever really you.
You are the eternal flame.. You are consciousness, playing this wonderful crazy game called life.
I would recommend the Camino Frances to everybody.
As I said to Peter on our last evening together in Santiago.
This is one on the greatest experiences of my WHOLE life.
It’s been as important as the birth of my children, my wonderful marriages.. the family deaths.. This has been as important an event as all of these.. “Hun Yuan Ling Tong”  – means “Universal Energy flows through everything..”
It was overtly present on the Camino, It showed me The Way.
This was St James’s “way” – but it really allowed me to flow in the Dao – the Chinese idea of The Way… This was Jeremy’s Way..