021: Who Says You're Too Old for the Camino?
Lois walked 523 miles at 73. Meet her this Wednesday.
Hello Camino friends! Here’s what’s in this issue:
📆 “Who Says You’re Too Old for the Camino?”
📸Scenes from the Camino: Lois on the Camino Francés
🎥Camino Conversations — Live!
🥾How to get help planning your Camino.
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“What’s the Camino?”
❓Not even sure what the Camino de Santiago is? Start here.
🤔Heard of the Camino but not sure if it’s for you? Read this.
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Who Says You’re Too Old for the Camino?
“You would love it,” I said to my friend Lois. I had just returned from my first walk on Spain’s Camino de Santiago and was still trying to put it into words—literally, as we were at our yearly writing retreat.
“I’m sure I would,” she said to me. “But I think I’m beyond the point in my life where I could do something like that.” She was 70.
I was only with Lois in-person in 1-2 week spurts when a small group of us would head to the mountains or the sea to write.
I realized I didn’t know much about Lois’s physical health. Yes, she went for walks. But calling the Camino “a walk” is like calling Mount Everest “a climb.”
But I had met people over 80 on the Camino, so I knew age wasn’t the determining factor. It was definitely physical ability —or, more accurately, what we thought our bodies could do. Because, let’s be honest: how many people have ever done 10-12 mile daily hikes for one week, let alone more?
I knew from my own experience that you didn’t have to be an athlete or regular gym attendee to do the Camino, as I was neither. So if Lois was already walking a few miles a day, I had no doubt she could do it physically.
I also knew the Camino played with your head. Nearly every morning on the Camino, my first thought on waking up was, “Seriously? I’m going to do this again?”
But Lois has one of the best mental games of anyone I know. I don’t know if it’s her age, her life experiences, or her genes. Maybe a combination of all of those. When I’m 70 (or, ideally, before), I’d love to have her spirit, determination, wisdom, and life outlook.
So though she thought her days of doing something like the Camino were behind her, I thought otherwise.
When I wasn’t using it for source material, my Camino journal sat out on the coffee table of the house we had rented. When you write memoir, leaving your journal for fellow writers to read isn’t really a big deal.
Lois read it cover-to-cover.
An Offer I Didn’t Make Lightly
“If you ever want to do the Camino,” I told her, “I’ll go with you.”
This wasn’t an offer I made lightly. As my recent Camino Conversations guest Tim Wesolowski said about choosing a Camino partner, “maybe the most important thing of all is somebody I wanted to spend 24/7 with.” He also needed someone who was interested in doing it, physically able, who had the time and had the money. “. . .By the time I went through that all those funnels, it came to exactly . . . zero.”
Lois, having traveled independently as well as with her husband, family, and friends over the years knew the importance of a good travel partner, too.
Over the next three years, Lois would occasionally email me articles she came across about the Camino. When I wrote back, I always included the same offer. “If you ever want to go, I’ll go with you.”
Lois was no stranger to foreign travel. Before she turned 60, she’d never left the US. But her first international trip? Kenya. Then, China. And not just a short trip—an entire month. She’s floated down the Yangtze and the Amazon.
But I knew those trips were 1) all with tour groups and 2) completely different from doing the Camino.
Who Says?
The wisest words I ever heard from Lois:
Who says?
Who says you have to do X? Who says you have to be Y? Who says you have to feel Z?
At 60, she tossed out all her makeup.
Now, at 83, she calls herself “OLD — thankfully.”
“I wish we’d quit making that a cringe-worthy problem instead of a privilege! With these accumulated years, I continue to age, like fine wine.”
She’s “reduced this period of life to AAA. Aware of what’s happening. Accept the fact of it. Adapt to life as it is now. And I can tell you unequivocally, acceptance is the hardest.”
She spent ten years writing her life story — every day digging into how the events in her life shaped her and her children. She’s let go of “productivity as a measurement of worth.” These days she wears what she calls her “uniform,” has short hair (for minimal upkeep), and the only time she sees a scale is at the doctor’s annual physical.
“Appearance needs to be tended to — not addicted to,” she says.
So perhaps you can now get a sense of why I made my offer to Lois—selfishly, I wanted to spend more time with her.
The “Yes” That Changed Everything
On April 25, 2015, Lois once again sent me a Camino-related article. I wrote back:
Lois, I'd go with you in a heartbeat.
I know you've said it's not something you could do but I . . . don't think that's the case. A few miles a day. They have buses for when you don't feel like walking. And you can stay in towns for a couple days to rest.
You could even just do a week of it (but you'd fall in love and not want to leave).
They have services that carry your pack for you. I'd let you do your own thing when you want as it's (not about) being with someone the whole time.
We'd take it super slow.
What would it take for you to go?
She wrote back:
Rebecca, you will never know how much this offer means to me! Truly, I cried. I cry now. How wonderfully thoughtful.
AND I’m thinking… I feel sure I could do the walking at a pace. I regularly walk two or three miles a day. I could lengthen the distance.
Oh, Rebecca…you give me pause. Thank you – simply for the genuine offer. I will be eternally grateful for it. . .hmmmm
Ten days later, Lois asked, “So, Rebecca, IF we'd go...when you thinkin??? . . . AND, good grief, if window of opportunity passed, don't give it another thought. Life's fluid!!! I surely understand that. Frankly, your sincere offer was gift enough. Was truly humbled by it.”
On September 2, 2015—exactly three years after my initial offer—Lois and I were on a flight across the Atlantic. She was 73.
When we started, she said to me, “I have no problem taking a bus or a taxi one day if it gets to be too much,” but when we go to the halfway point and there hadn’t yet been a need for that, Lois decided she was going to walk every mile—all 523 of them. Just in time for her 74th birthday.
Less than 6 months after our return, Lois walked a half-marathon. Ten years later, Lois still walks 5 miles every day that the weather allows it.
Meet Lois
If you’re thinking, “Wow. This woman is something else,” I have good news: She’s my next guest on Camino Conversations—this Wednesday at 11am ET.
Like my first guest, Lois holds nothing back. Plus we get the benefit of hearing what ten years of looking back on her Camino has shown her. I hope you’ll join us.
And if you every have a voice in your head that says you can’t? Just think of Lois and ask yourself, “Who says?”
With love,
Rebecca
📸Scenes from the Camino Francés with Lois
🎥Camino Conversations—Live!
Sure, I can tell you all about how to train for, plan, and walk the Camino de Santiago. But what’s better than me? Conversations with others (45+) who have done it!
If you can’t make it live, I send out the recordings within 24 hours.
Wednesday, July 16, 11-11:45 ET: Lois B. — At 73, Lois walked over 500 miles from St-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France to Santiago de Compostela and then to Finisterre.
Wednesday, July 23, 11-11:45 ET: TBD
Wednesday, July 30, 11-11:45 ET: Maria Seco teaches pilgrims the Spanish they need to make the most of their time on the Camino de Santiago.
Wednesday, August 13, 11-11:45 ET: Hana Maris — Last August, at age 65, Hana walked the Camino Primitivo.
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📖What I’m Reading
I’ve been a fan of Dave Whitson for quite some time. He hosts the longest-running podcast about the Camino (The Camino Podcast) and, since his first Camino in 2002, has walked thousands of miles on pilgrimage routes in China, Japan, India, and Italy. He’s not religious, but finds meaning in walking pilgrimage routes and long-distance walks in general (he’s also walked across America!).
I’m currently reading Whitson’s book Pilgrimage: A Medieval Cure for Modern Ills and next on my list is his most recent book, Camino Compendium: A Historical and Cultural Exploration of the Camino de Santiago.
I’m also delighted that he’s accepted my invitation to be one of my guests on Camino Conversations. When the date is set, you’ll see it on the schedule below.
🥾Ready to start planning your Camino?
Rebecca Weston is an American who walked her first Camino in 2012.
She helps people 45 and over plan their own walks on the Camino de Santiago through her business The Camino Calls.
She and her husband live in Spain in a town of 6500 people on the Camino del Norte. She’s walked more than a dozen Caminos, spent many days volunteering along the trail, and if she’s not walking one now, she’s planning the next—and would love nothing more than to help you plan yours, too.
I walked from Geneva to Saint Jean Pied de Port last year and met quite a few 70+ walkers. They’re so inspiring.
Aware ... Accept ... Adapt – I love this and can't wait to 'meet' Lois on Wednesday!