Season 1

Ep 006 Camino de Santiago Discussion

Show Notes:

We begin our episode of the Camino de Santiago Discussion with an excerpt from our book on day one of our Camino. Then, we discuss day one and how we felt about it.

You can find our book on Amazon, Walking the Camino de Santiago - An Ordinary Couple...On An Extraordinary Journey by Scott and Jaynie Wall.

Jaynie Reads:

The day we had been waiting months for had finally arrived! All of our training, hiking, and preparation would be put to the test. It was day 1 of our 500-mile walk on the Camino de Santiago.

I'm sure you can imagine how we felt as we made our way in the dark to our first Pilgrim's Breakfast at 6:30a.m. Our host from the hostel gave us each a cereal bowl, a cup, and a spoon. We sat with two young Korean men and a man from Ukraine. Our host gave us orange juice and bread and then asked if we wanted coffee. I declined, as I was worried the coffee would bother me as we would be hiking at a higher elevation all day. The rest of the table said yes, and she proceeded to fill their cereal bowls full of coffee. Yes, their cereal bowls! Very little English was spoken, so the men watched Scott as he poured milk and sugar into his bowl. They followed suit and all drank their coffee from bowls. Scott and I wondered if it was the way coffee would be served on the Camino.  Lucky for us, it didn't end up that way other mornings. We did learn along the way that we would be given one glass and it would be used for wine, water and anything else at our meal.

We had a very minimal breakfast of juice, bread, and jam with very minimal conversation with our fellow pilgrims. Scott asked the Korean men how to say hello in Korean. They wrote it down on a piece of paper which Scott kept in his pocket for several days, ready to greet them or any other Koreans we may see along the way.

We hefted our packs and made our way up the street to the first of many yellow Camino arrows which would guide us the next 500 miles. Wearing long sleeves and shorts, we were comfortable in the darkness and fog.

We followed the main road uphill for the next five hours. Some areas were very steep, sometimes it was a dirt path next to horses or cows, and sometimes just a trail near the road. We saw other pilgrims like us, carrying our packs, with the faraway destination of Santiago de Compostela as our goal.

There were groups of pilgrims moving quickly without packs, they had shipped theirs ahead to be picked up at the end of the day. We met several people and chatted as we walked, but mainly we all said "Buen Camino" in passing, as it was a greeting which covered all languages.

We were amazed at how far up into the mountains we climbed. It was absolutely beautiful, as the rolling hills were dotted with livestock and it was so green.

We were surprised at how many older people were walking the Camino. Quite a few were between 60-80 years old! We walked with a little, old, French woman for a long time. Although we didn't speak each other's language, we did smile back and forth often. Scott and I stopped often to take pictures or eat a snack. We saw the little, old,  French lady pass us by. Eventually, we passed her again, until the next time we took a break or were sidetracked by a flower we had never seen before or a horse walking by. Back and forth we went with the little, old, French lady. She took small steps and just kept on going all the time. I really admired her determination. Weeks later as we were walking the Camino, if I became tired or was climbing a steep hill, I told myself to keep taking small steps, don't stop, be like the little, old French lady. I may not have seen her again after this day, but she was often in my thoughts.

One highlight of our day as we neared the top of our climb,