If you have read Paulo Coelho's best-selling novel, THE ALCHEMIST, translated into many languages worldwide, then, you know where Camino de Santiago is.
Our guest photographer in this entry walked to Camino de Santiago for 3 weeks, hiking across wheat fields.
This is what she has to say about the experience:
For those who don’t know (I sure didn’t before I got to Spain!), the Camino de Santiago is a 750 km pilgrimage through the north of Spain. The official starting point is Saint-Jean Pied-du-Pont in France and it stretches across the Pyrennes, Navarre, Rioja, Castilla-Leon, and Galicia Spain almost to the north Atlantic Coast. It is the third most undertaken pilgrimage in the world for Catholics, first is Rome and second is Jerusalem. I did about 600 km (about 375 miles), or the driving distance of about 7 hours or so, at a rate of 25-30 km per day. This is about 5 hours of hiking a day with me, an mp3 player, and an 8 kilo backpack (18 pounds). Best experience of my life.
I know I said I did it alone and a lot of it I did. I went by myself, but then I met some of the most amazing people on the way. How about the Lebanese-Canadian girl who was also doing it by herself on a summer before med school. Or the 45 year old French alcoholic who had already done the Camino 6 times and continuously had a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Or the Belgian family who started the camino IN BELGIUM and was doing it with the father, the uncle, two little kids not older than 8 years old (boy and girl), and their donkey!
Enjoy the hike!
