My times on the Camino de Santiago
A new and worthwhile link for you.
To improve how we pack, the guys at the following site have talked with 21 experienced pilgrims and asked them to share their best advice on kit and packing.
Read on and learn from their best tips and tricks.
https://mightygoods.com/camino-de-santiago-hikers-packing/
Hi folks. If you are planning your Camino, the information you receive from people who have walked the Camino previously can be more valuable than the information you find in guide books. So the following may prove valuable to you. I came across a podcast owned by Dave Whitson from Portland, Oregon, called “The Camino Podcast”. There are over 20 episodes uploaded on iTunes, Soundcloud and on his website www.northerncaminos.com. Dave is also the author of “The Northern Caminos” guidebook which dissects the Caminos north of the French Way.
A number of episodes on his podcast form a series where Dave “re-walks” the Camino with previous pilgrims. So far, there are 3 episodes with each person discussing 3 stages according to Brierley’s guidebook. I was delighted to be asked to discuss the stretch from Santo Domingo de la Calzada and Burgos (You can hear me at the 29 minute mark in part 2). Below are all three episodes and you can find further uploads from Dave by clicking here.
Hi folks. Just a quick post to make you aware of Andrew Suzuki’s new website “BeyondTheWay.net“. Andrew has been creating a documentary via Facebook and YouTube about the Camino and now you can watch these under the one roof. He also provides great tips in his “Don’t Stop Walking” videos and he has 5 episodes of “Beyond The Way” uploaded documenting his Camino from 2014 (Episode 5 below).
The website is great, very user-friendly and I give it a big thumbs up. So if you are not a Facebook “fan”, then you can catch all his episodes on his website. Don’t forget to pour yourself some vino tinto beforehand as you will be drawn in :). I will post this link in my Camino Links page also.
There’s nothing more I enjoy than reading stories from peregrinos on arriving home. Some have found it life-changing while others not so. I have introduced some of that into this site with “Camino Through My Eyes”. However, three guys have put together a great website with many different and varying stories. Nilanj Desai, David Franz and Greg Scheaffer created www.porqueperegrino.com following their Camino in 2014.
Below they give their reasons for creating the website:
We started this website because we noticed that nearly all of our fellow walkers had very interesting reasons for hiking the Camino. We all had remarkable, even profound experiences, yet we didn’t see anything that really captured these amazing, vivid stories. Most online message boards or Facebook groups are great about telling you how heavy your backpack should be, what to use to protect against bedbugs, or how to prevent blisters. But I found nothing truly inspiring, that might really excite a prospective pilgrim about the journey, or that might cause someone to go who might never otherwise have considered it. Nothing to capture how much of a life-affirming adventure this has been for hundreds of thousands of peregrinos.
I will place this in my Camino Links page, however, I’d encourage you to check out the site.
Just a quick post to recommend a site that you all should visit. I’ve updated my Links page to include this, should you miss this post. John Mattingly has a great Facebook page where he uploads his drawings of landscapes from the Camino Frances. He has over 400 members at this stage, but in the last few days he has decided to create a Flickr page to group all these drawings together. At the time of writing, there are over 5o pieces of work. They are awesome!
So go check his Flickr site out here
Another weekend has arrived and yes, it can only mean one thing…here’s another weekend watch!! 🙂
Here is a great 5 minute summary of a full Camino uploaded to YouTube in the last week. The start of the clip has a great phrase: “Everywhere is within walking distance, if you have the time“, which is very true. I long to have the time to walk 1000km. It’s great that the uploader managed to take clips of the running of the bulls in Pamplona and some of the festivities in Navarra.
You can find my Camino de Santiago playlist on YouTube and the full “Weekend Watch” archive is located here.
Enjoy!
It’s the weekend once again, folks, and another “weekend watch” is due. This clip shows one man’s walk from the start to the end of the Meseta on the Camino Frances. The Meseta is the central Spanish tableland, which divides the Camino Frances between Burgos and Astorga. It is a part of Spain known among pilgrims for its wide skies and flat lands, all of which mess with perceptions of time and distance. Some people find this part of the Camino daunting as it is likely to get under your skin, test your mind, and confront your heart. As a result, many people choose to skip this section by bus. I have walked the Meseta in 2013 and 2015 and much prefer it to Galicia or Navarra. I can’t wait to go back!
You can also find my Camino de Santiago playlist here.
