Huffing up into the Pyrenees on the first day of my first Camino a compact woman who looked to be in her late sixties caught up to me.
“Bonjour,” she said.
“Bonjour. Ça va?” I asked.
After exchanging details about where we were from she asked me if this was my first Camino.
“Yes,” I said, thinking, Why on earth would someone do this more than once?
She told me it was her seventh. I thought I misunderstood her French.
“Septième?” I asked.
Yes. Seventh time.
Half-way through that first Camino, I turned into that French woman.
Well, not exactly. I certainly don’t speak French like a native. Nor am I as old as she was. But I found myself on my seventh Camino long before I reached her age.
So what is it that keeps people going back?
Many of you reading this have yet to do your first Camino. Consider this your warning: you may get hooked.
A client who walked a Camino last summer with his 16-year-old daughter told me that when he got to Santiago he thought, “That was great, but I don’t think I’d do it again.” But within a few weeks, he couldn’t shake the desire to be back out on the trail. And his daughter—who was not in the best of spirits when they got to Santiago de Compostela—feels the same way.
There are dozens of routes to get to Santiago de Compostela, so a pilgrim could traverse up from Portugal one year, from southern Spain the next.
But then there are those of us who return to a route we’ve done once before.
Why? Because you never step in the same river twice.
Why do you return to your favorite restaurant week after week? Why do you spend time with the same friends repeatedly? Why do you go to the same church? The same gym? And root for the same sports teams over and over again? Because there’s something you enjoy about those places, those people, those experiences. And that’s why I return to routes I’ve already walked.
Whether it’s your first or fifteenth Camino, you eventually ask yourself:
Where else in the world can you walk a few miles, sit for a cup of coffee with strangers doing the same, then walk again, into an ancient town that has welcomed pilgrims for over 1200 years?
Where else can you meet people from twenty-five countries in the space of one week-–people who will, within a few minutes of meeting you, tell you their deepest fears and their highest hopes?
Where else can you turn off technology for an entire day (or week or month) and be present nearly every moment, with more than enough time to reflect on your life–-alone, or with people who are genuinely interested to hear about it?
Where else, in the space of a single day, can you spend quality time with people from newborns to ninety-somethings? (In Germany, as in many developed countries, parents get generous paid maternity and paternity leave—thus the German couple I met doing the Camino with their newborn.)
And where else can you do all of the above all while also spending at least 6 hours per day outside getting more exercise in a day than most of us get in a week?
In one of her podcasts, Kelly Corrigan noted “. . . the thing that social science tells us is the number one driver of happiness: meaningful connection to others.”
I’m sure the Camino de Santiago is not the only place in the world one can experience that connection. But it is one of the few places in recent times where I’ve had the time and freedom to experience it so deeply, so continuously, so easily. Hours upon hours, days upon days, of connecting with people from around the world.
That connection is one of the reasons so many of us walk Caminos year after year. We come home and ask, “Where else can I get that level of deep connection?” We try to find it. Sometimes we do. But the thirst just can’t quite be quenched in our “hyper-connected” (digital) world. So we go back.
My father (6-time Camino pilgrim) says, “You just can’t explain it.” But we try. I try every week to inspire you to get on this path or return to it. Some of you are here because you’ve done it and know, for a variety of reasons, you won’t go back. But you want that connection.
Whether you’ve done a Camino or not, I’d love to know:
Where do you find deep human connection?
I look forward to hearing your answers.
With love,
Rebecca
🥾Ready to start planning your Camino?
Rebecca Weston
Camino Planning & Preparation Guide (for People 45+)
Rebecca@TheCaminoCalls.com
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About me: I’ve walked more than a dozen Caminos since my first in 2012. I’ve spent many days volunteering along the trail, and if I’m not walking one now, I’m planning the next—and would love nothing more than to help you plan yours, too.
Reading this made me think of a pilgrimage we have in Greece. Every May, people walk from Chalkida to the shrine of Saint John the Russian in Prokopi, a journey of roughly 50 kilometres through Evia. I have not walked either route, so I stand rather humbly before those who do, both there and here. Whatever the particular faith or personal reason behind the journey, I deeply admire people willing to carry it with their own bodies, one step at a time. Perhaps some forms of connection can only be understood by walking beside others towards the same distant place.. i loved your article..
Thanks as always for naming this, Rebecca!
Interesting to me that for such a physical experience, it winds up being all about the emotional and spiritual side.
I think when we can get out of our heads and into our bodies, we are more primed to make those connections. Nothing like walking 8 hours a day to get you out of your head, into your body and then to open your heart!