Spain's long walk: The Camino de Santiago, Santiago de Compostela
From Mary: "I am leaving for Spain in June to walk the Camino. Then I am traveling around Europe for 3 months. A lot of Ireland and Scotland."
Mary picked the right year to go and would not recognise it now. When she wrote this, something like seventy thousand people a year collected a compostela in Santiago. It is now well over four hundred thousand, and the Camino Francés in high summer is a different proposition from the one she walked: beds gone by early afternoon, and the last hundred kilometres from Sarria carrying a large share of the traffic because that is the minimum distance the certificate requires.
What that changes, in practice:
- You need a credencial, the pilgrim passport, stamped twice a day over the final stretch. Get it before you start, from a confraternity at home or a parish on the route.
- Walk the Francés in May, June or late September rather than July and August, or walk a different route. The Portugués from Porto, the Norte along the Biscay coast and the Primitivo out of Oviedo are all quieter and, in the case of the Norte, considerably better looking.
- Booking ahead is now normal on the popular sections, which purists dislike and which saves the afternoon from becoming a race.
The Pilgrim's Office in Santiago publishes the requirements and the monthly arrival figures, which are a useful way to pick a month.
For a taste of the walk itself, this account is the one to read.
Posted 24 April 2003 by Ant in BootsnAll Travel Community · updated by Chris