It is two years since I last walked the Camino de Santiago - I had walked it two years in a row, the first time because my friend hassled me, and I have never really figured out why I decided to walk all 780km the next year again.
Being there, walking every day, a complete escape from all normal day to day worries - the whole package is very calming, freeing. I did not miss TV, newspapers, or the radio. I loved the silence, the wide open spaces of the meseta, and feeling fit and healthy.
Both times I walked the Camino Frances, this is the most popular of the main five Camino routes, it is also the best supported with many hostels along the way.
When I built my first web site it was about the Camino and very easy to write as I love the pilgrimage and knew a good deal about it. I am now taking on another Camino task, one that I don’t find so easy. I have decided to write a Camino guide book, one that will be available for download from my web site by March of next year - hopefully. Writing a web site was fairly easy, loads of my friends looked at it and suggested corrections, however writing 150 pages of a guide book does seem a bit more daunting.
I also have a reward system set up for finishing it. The Via de la Plata is another Camino route, it is about 1000km and I have this in mind to walk when the book is finished. I reckon it will take about six weeks to walk, sounds bloody wonderful.
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Good luck with your guide book Leslie! And buen camino on the VDLP. I hope that you will have a running blog so that we homebound peregrinos can follow your journey.
Pilgrim hugs,
Sil
That should be a fun project, Leslie. The big advantage of an ebook is that you can include lots of color photos without exorbitant printing costs.
thanks both of you. I was over joyed at having the time to do it, the book that is, and now I am seeing how much work it is. But as with the Camino itself there are fun parts in it also…
Just completed the camino frances a month ago (with a friend who suggested it), and i am already contemplating doing it again. Maybe because i want to do it for myself and at a time that suits me better - whenever that may be. And maybe that is why you did it twice.
Thanks for the info on your website - it proved useful when planning the trip.
Buen Camino from Yorkshire
And I must admit I would love to do it again - trying to plan for next year cycling the Camino Frances. Life has moved on and it is hard to see me leaving for four weeks now, cycling I think would take me two and a bit weeks.
I have known a few people to go back and walk again, I hope you get time for it. All the best.