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My pals and I had been speaking about doing one thing particular for our fiftieth birthdays for years in that optimistic method that busy ladies of their 40s speak about all of the issues they’ll do someday.
Then, instantly, “one day” arrived. My pal Tara, who’s the kind of one who really makes issues occur, introduced she had been wanting into organising a visit to stroll the Camino de Santiago in Spain.
Over the following few months, there have been dozens of emails. There had been spreadsheets. There had been lodging bookings, practice instances and a packing record involving a variety of quick-dry underwear. There had been fixed chats about an app referred to as Splitwise. Some pals dedicated, then retracted. Others hesitated, then jumped in.
Finally, six pilgrims had been locked in. We reacted as all smart ladies of a sure age would – with pleasure, gentle panic and a flurry of messages asking issues like, “How many pairs of socks do you need for a pilgrimage?” and “Should I buy Salomons or Hokas?”
Ten months later, we discovered ourselves within the tiny Spanish village of Sarria, shoulders squared underneath our backpacks, squinting on the horizon with equal elements marvel and terror.
The Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St James, is a community of historical pilgrim routes stretching throughout Europe, all converging on the tomb of St James the Great within the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain. While it originated within the ninth century as a deeply non secular Catholic pilgrimage, right this moment it attracts a whole lot of hundreds of individuals yearly from all walks of life. Many nonetheless stroll it for non secular causes, whereas others go for health, or after a heartbreak, or just because they’ve seen the Martin Sheen movie The Way and thought it appeared good.
Now, to be sincere, none of us are what you’d name critical trekkers. Most of us are ladies whose train routine includes doing yoga or Pilates often and saying “we should go hiking more often”. We put collectively a pre-trip coaching routine and promptly deserted it.
Tara had correctly booked the choice the place our lodging was organised prematurely and our baggage was transferred from one resort to the following every day. Each morning, we’d go away our suitcase within the resort foyer, set off with solely a small daypack after which, as if by miracle, our baggage could be ready for us on the subsequent resort (until you went over your bag weight restrict, an costly lesson I learnt once I needed to pay for mine to be privately transferred).
But what was most likely most shocking about our bundle was the value. Accommodation, day by day breakfast, day by day dinners and the baggage switch solely price round $200 per day.
At every resort, we stayed in twin-share rooms, bringing our friendships even nearer, with a degree of intimacy we’d by no means have in any other case found. For occasion, I discovered that one pal sleeps with her mouth firmly taped shut; I’ll by no means have a look at her the identical method once more.
Purists would possibly shake their heads, but when there’s a method to trek throughout Spain with out a backpack crushing your backbone, I’m taking it. Besides, the “real” pilgrims we met alongside the best way, a few of whom had already walked greater than 800 kilometres, by no means judged us. I feel they had been too drained to care.
There had been steep hills, a beating solar and mornings when sitting on the bathroom was a painful reminder of the kilometres we’d trekked the day earlier than.
We’d chosen to stroll simply the ultimate 114 kilometres of the Camino, sufficient to earn the official Compostela certificates with out requiring a hip alternative on return, and our day by day distances ranged from a straightforward, breezy 14 kilometres to a gruelling 28-kilometre stretch.
On the primary morning, as we set off towards Portomarín, a silence fell over the group. We had been busy mastering our strolling sticks and questioning why even our daypacks instantly felt so heavy. Tiny villages appeared within the distance. Church bells rang someplace distant. We walked alongside dusty paths and thru forests, passing cheerful strangers who referred to as out “Buen Camino!”
By morning tea, we’d grow to be completely fixated on foods and drinks – cafe con leche, croissants, toasted sandwiches – and from then on, each cafe cease felt miraculous, the mid-morning break changing into a spotlight of every day.
Walking all day does humorous issues to your conversations. At first, we talked in regards to the ordinary issues – work, youngsters, husbands, ageing mother and father, perimenopause and whether or not anybody had remembered to convey magnesium. But after some time, the conversations modified. There was a variety of laughter. More than I can keep in mind having in years. Just a few tears. There was additionally a variety of speak about blisters.
There had been steep hills, a beating solar and mornings when sitting on the bathroom was a painful reminder of the kilometres we’d trekked the day earlier than. And but, each morning we laced up our Hokas (or Salomons) and did it once more. From Sarria to Portomarín, then Palas de Rei to Melide. By day 5, traversing the stretch from Arzua towards O Pedrouzo, our toes had been screaming however our spirits had been hovering.
There is a way of freedom in strolling with solely what you may carry. Or, in our case, strolling with solely what suits in a daypack as a result of the remaining is being transported by another person. Most of us packed headphones, however none of us ever put them on. There was an excessive amount of to absorb. A distraction from all the wonder was not welcome.
On the sixth day, the spires of the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral lastly pierced the skyline. When we walked into the grand plaza, we stood there – exhausted and elated – and realised we’d executed it. We’d bloody executed it! We’d not solely walked the Camino, we had been six ladies in our 50s who’d mentioned sure to the journey. Which is perhaps the best pilgrimage of all.
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