Brenda and Brent - Trip Diary
Camino de Santiago
The History
The Camino de Santiago is a collection of pilgrim routes
through Europe that end at the
town of Santiago de Compostela. The various parts of the routes have
specific names. The name
usually associated with the route we are taking is the French
route.
The Pilgrimage to Santiago is one of the three main Christian
pilgrimages - the other two are
to Rome and Jerusalem.
The books say this pilgrimage started in the 9th century. We were
told by a local historian
during a visit to a church in the very small town of Boadilla del
Camino that in pre-Christian
times people walked along the route to Finis Terrae - the end
of the earth. They usually
brought back a scallop shell to show they had actually reached the
ocean on the west of Spain.
The popularity of the route changed over time. Various religious
groups built refuges along the
way to help the pilgrims. Over time, the route and which refuges
were operated changed quite a bit. In
recent years, the growth of towns and roads connecting them has
affected the route. In the last 30 years the
number of pilgrims has increased from almost none to between 30,000
and 40,000, mostly in July and August.
A google search on Camino de Santiago or Pilgrimage to
Santiago will get you
lots of stuff about the route and the history of the pilgrimage.
Guide Books, Maps
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We are working with a number of guide books to help us find the way
and to tell us about the
things we see. The main one is called "The Pilgrim Route to
Santiago: A practical guide". It has
an extensive series of maps in a very useful scale. This is a
typical map, with the scale in the
bottom left.
The various routes are shown in the ladder type line. The green
circles with the different
icons indicate the different places of interest along the way. The
map also shows the roads along
the route for those of us on bicycles who are tired of looking at
the trail all the time - watching
for rocks and pot holes - and would prefer to look around a little.
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We have another sheet with all the altitudes.
This is the map for the bit we will be doing tomorrow, assuming it
does not rain. It is hard to read,
but the scale on the right side is the altitude in meters, with the
bottom in this map at 400 meters and
the top at 1400 meters.
The big climb goes from the town of Hospital Ingles at about 700
meters to the top of the hill at El Cebreiro at
1300 meters - a climb of 600 meters over a distance of about 8
kilometers. We have done 3 kilometer climbs at
6% in under an hour on a hot day. This 8 kilometer climb at 7.5%
will be tougher, but it will be cooler
(but hopefully not raining).
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The Pilgrims
A pilgrim can walk or go by horse. Some time recently, they decided
that pilgrims could also bicycle.
By far, most pilgrims walk - perhaps several hundred walkers per
cyclist. We have seen no pilgrims on horseback.
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Almost all the walking pilgrims carry all their gear with them. They
often have a walking stick of some kind.
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A few walking pilgrims get taken to a spot and walk a bit then get
picked up again. They usually only carry day
packs and water.
This little cafe/bar, called the COWBOY was blaring out
country music, in English.
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Almost all the cyclists we have seen are using standard mountain
bikes - big knobby tires. A few others are
using hybrid bikes like ours - smooth tires, higher handle bars,
built for comfort.
Most of the cyclists we see are traveling without any packs. They
have someone taking
their packs from town to town for them. Some of these stay on roads,
some stay on the walking track. We followed
one group of older Germans, most certainly in their 70s, who had
mountain bikes but almost no packs.
They had a bus with a trailer for their bicycles and packs that met
them at the end of each day.
We have seen a few other cyclists like us - carrying all our gear
along, doing some tracks but also
using the roads a lot. We have found the roads on the steep hills to
be impossible to cycle - too steep, too many
rocks, a very uneven trail surface. When we have done these we have
carried our bicycles up and down the hills.
We now stay on the roads around the big hills.
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Most pilgrims come prepared for weather of all sorts - they are very
well equipped. This one looks a bit like a walking green garbage bag -
he and his pack are covered from heat to ankle.
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This is how the less well equipped ("well, if it rains we just won't
cycle that day") cycling pilgrims handle things.
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This pilgrimage for many is a religious experience, according to the
material I have read. To date though, about 2 days cycling from
Santiago de Compostella, I have seen little evidence of this. The
walking pilgrims seem much the same. The only real change I have
noticed is that most now walk more smoothly - there is much less
evidence of sore and tired feet and limping.
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