006 : Hike or Bike Spain’s El Camino de Santiago

El Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage route across the northern part of Spain that leads to the beautiful city of Santiago de Compostela. There are a lot of different old pilgrimage routes called Caminos that all end up in Santiago. Janet Hanpeter, Chief Travel Adventurer at Planet Janet Travels, talks about her travel adventure at El Camino de Santiago. She shares what can you do and some of the reasons why people are making the pilgrimage. Moreover, Janet recommends the best time to go there, the things you need to bring, the accommodation, and the essence of doing your own pace in this adventure.

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Listen to the podcast here:

Today we are hiking or biking a section of the famous El Camino de Santiago, the world’s most popular long distance trail!  Our guest today, Janet Hanpeter, walked the second half of  the 480 mile Camino Frances (French Way)  to Santiago del Compostela, Spain.  The route runs through mesas, mountains, pastures, villages and cities for a ‘never a boring minute’ adventure.  Return refreshed and renewed on this trail famous for replenishing the soul.

Key Takeaways and Links:

• The Camino de Santiago is actually multiple caminoes, or paths, all of which lead to Santiago, where it is believed that the remains of St. James are buried.  The most popular trail is the French Way, which starts in St. Jean Pied du Port, France and crosses the Pyrennes into Spain.  The trails are commonly called The Way of St. James or The Way.
• Our guest, Janet Hanpeter, hiked a half Camino, 230 miles into Santiago.  She, like other walkers or cyclers who do this journey, is called a “Pilgrim”.  A Pilgrim MUST walk at least the last 100 km or cycle the last 200km (about 60 or 120 miles respectively) to earn his or her Compostela (or Certificate of Completion).
• Many Pilgrims hike from Sarria, a town 110 miles from Santiago and can be hiked in 5-8 days.
• A popular movie about the Camino, commonly called The Way, is a 2012 movie by the same name starring Martin Sheen (trailer and link to the movie below).

Janet Hanpeter is a globe-trotting Baby Boomer who has visited 80 countries and all 7 continents. She has her own travel blog – Planet Janet Travels – to help inform & inspire other mid-life women & men to travel the world more widely, confidently and joyfully. Her blog’s tagline is “Experiencing Grand Adventures Beyond the Guidebook.”

Janet’s first career was nursing. In her 30s, she worked for 5 years as a travel agent which deepened her passion for international travel!  In 2001, she took a trip to China & Tibet which was truly life-changing, causing her to fall in love with “exotic” travel!  Janet now shares equal passion for cultural travel and “soft” adventure travel.

Last year, Janet walked 230 miles of Spain’s Camino de Santiago. She has hiked Peru’s Inca Trail, summited Mt. Whitney, trekked in Nepal’s Everest region, tracked mountain gorillas in Uganda & Rwanda, hiked the Routeburn Track in New Zealand, sea-kayaked in Antarctica, scuba dived on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, and gone shark-cage diving in South Africa.

This is a great adventure for someone who wants to take a break from their everyday life.

 Whether you do a section or the entire trail, you will return MORE WHOLE than you started!

You can read Janet’s blog post on her adventure at Planet Janet Travels.  While not originally planned, Janet feels called to go back in 2018 to do the first half of the trail (she did a half Camino by design the first time).  I’ll be sure to update this page when she gets back!  To read about more of Janet’s exciting adventures, be sure to visit PlanetJanetTravels.com!

Here’s how to connect with Janet:

Hike Or Bike Spain’s El Camino De Santiago with Janet Hanpeter

I have an extraordinary adventure for you. One that can be hiked or cycled and follow in the footsteps of millions of people before you. The world’s most popular long-distance hike, the Camino de Santiago. While this hike started as a religious pilgrimage back in the early middle ages, it has often morphed into a more secular hike or cycle in the last few decades. People are going not just to hike for spiritual reasons but also as a hike for self-discovery and self-analysis.

To get away from the chaos of everyday lives, too much business, too much family, too many problems and just take time to think. To get away from the internet and just spend some time inside yourself, this amazing trail combines history, culture, cute villages, food, beautiful historical cities and gorgeous landscape. You will meet people from all over the world, everyone with the same common goal of working their way to Santiago. We’re heading to Spain to hike or cycle the El Camino. Can we start with you introducing yourself?

My name is Janet Hanpeter. I’m in my 60s and I’ve been a lifelong traveler. I developed a passion for international travel in late high school when my mom and dad took me to Europe. At that point, I love to travel abroad. I moved to California right after college and I was definitely getting into the sports world. I enjoyed a little bit of running and swimming and a little bit of hiking and found a great group of friends. Over the years we did different things. Probably around 2001, with some of my good friends, we did a hike to Mount Whitney.

I’m not your big camper girl but we did a three-day Mt. Whitney hike. As a result of that, I developed some competence. The next year we went to Peru and hiked the Inca Trail. From that point forward, I love to combine my international travel with some of the things that were a little bit more adventurous and included some outdoor sports that we’re hiking. Each time you do something after you’ve trained and you’ve done it, you realized you can maybe add the next thing that’s adventurous that’s a little bit in your doable list. That’s how it started.

What do you get out of this adventurousness? There’s a bit of uncertainty and uncomfort that comes along with it. What are you getting out of it?

When I’m doing what I call my exotic travel or when I’m traveling around the world, whether it’s a physical adventure or a cultural adventure, it’s something that’s a little more exotic. It’s a little bit outside the comfort zone, at the same time it’s exciting because it’s something new and different. My general adventurous spirit likes to learn and grow and to experience new things that I haven’t experienced before. The adventure travel piece adds into that, like the opportunity to go to New Zealand and do some hiking in that beautiful scenery. When someone gives you that idea, you go “That sounds great.” It’s that I’m always ready to add one more new thing to my list that sounds fun, interesting, and unique but yet I know that I can do it with maybe sometimes a little bit of training ahead.

You do both kinds of travel, the regular cultural travel as well as adventure travel. Do you find that it’s easier to meet people on the adventure side as up to the cultural side?

It’s much depends on who your travel partners are. If you’re talking about meeting the local people in a place that you’re going, it’s almost easier, whether you’re on an adventure trip or a cultural trip, if you’re traveling on your own by yourself or maybe with one friend. It’s often easier to meet some of the local people as opposed to when you’re with a formal group of people that’s already your self-contained group. You’re almost doing a lot of your socializing within your group. That can be true whether it’s a cultural trip or an adventure trip.

We want to talk to you about your adventure on the El Camino. Can you give us a brief overview?

The Camino de Santiago become quite well-known over the last many years. It’s a pilgrimage route across the northern part of Spain that leads to the beautiful city of Santiago de Compostela. The cathedral there is where the bones or the relics of the Apostle St. James, which in Spanish his name is Santiago, lie. For over a thousand years, religious pilgrims have been making pilgrimages across all of Europe to arrive in Santiago. As a result, there are a lot of different old pilgrimage routes called Caminos that all end up in Santiago.

The most famous one, the one that the majority of people travel on, and the one that I did is the Camino Frances or the French Way. That is around a 480-mile pilgrimage route that starts in France, which is why it’s called the French Way. At the beginning in the foothills of the Pyrenees, within a day or two, you’ve crossed into Spain and the whole rest of the Camino goes across Northern Spain to Santiago. That is the traditional Camino. I imagine, Kit, you have seen the movie The Way with Martin Sheen.

I’ve heard of it, but I have not seen it.

I recommend that to all the readers. It’s a phenomenal movie that came out in 2001, very beloved and it’s a fictional story set on the Camino. Martin Sheen walks it but it’s filmed on location and the scenery is stunning. As a result of that movie, a lot of the American audience, including me, learned more about the Camino and said, “Someday I want to do that.” That’s what put the idea in my head to walk part of the Camino.

This movie, along with several events that happened in 1987, increased the popularity of hiking the route. That year, not only did UNESCO declare it a world heritage site, but the European Council designated it the first European Culture Route. These routes promote the shared culture and history of European integration. Last but not least, the immensely popular The Pilgrimage, written by Brazilian Paulo Coelho, reinvigorated the pilgrimage.

This tale is part adventure story and part journey into self-discovery and was immensely popular. Since Paulo’s memoir is as much a guide to self-discovery and that was one of the main reasons it was popular. I’m wondering how much influence this book had on encouraging, if not welcoming those that choose to hike this trail for self-development and self-realization reasons as opposed to religious pilgrimage. What percentage of the people that you came across were doing it as a pilgrimage or as a more secular hike?

In the past, the people that walked were true religious pilgrimage type people doing that. Now no matter what reason you do it, we’re all called pilgrims. There are some doing it for strictly religious reasons. The vast majority are doing it for their own personal reasons. Many of us are wanting to have some semblance of spiritual experience but at the same time also that opportunity to see the beautiful scenery, to have this physical challenge by walking that, and getting a chance to meet people from all around the world. Sometimes it’s a chance to get out of your crazy busy life and take maybe two or three weeks for yourself if you’re walking part of it to get out in nature and have some chance to have some clarity in your life. There are multiple reasons but for most people it’s not strictly religious. For many people, there’s a spiritual component to it which is quite different.

Most of the way is relatively level and often on the pavement, correct?

No, the traditional French Way or the Camino, the full way is if you start at the official beginning, which is the 480 miles or 800 kilometers, but you can start the Camino anywhere along the way that you want. A few starts at the beginning but many start somewhere along the way. I chose to do a half-Camino. I started at a halfway point and walked the last 230 miles myself.

If someone only has a week’s vacation, where would be a good starting point?

A good place to start for that is the town of Sarria. When you walk the Camino, you have a pilgrim passport that you have stamped every day in the city or the town where you’re lodging that night. When you arrive in Santiago you go to the pilgrim office and you are able to then prove that you were a pilgrim and that you can get a certificate of completion or that’s the Compostela. The reason I say that is that to get that certificate or Compostela, you have to prove that you have walked at least the last 100 kilometers of the Camino which is 60 miles.

The starting town where many people start their Camino because they only have a short amount of time is Sarria. That’s the first big town. It’s 110 miles away from Santiago. That’s a good place. I was in good shape by the time I got into Sarria so I was able to do my Sarria to Santiago in five days. I had good friends in San Diego that have returned from walking the Camino starting in Sarria and they did eight days. They did a slower version because she had some injuries. That’s a good place for getting a taste of the Camino in one week.

The Pilgrimage

It’s important to get your credentials or your Pilgrim’s passport and get it stamped along the way because those stamps show that you are a pilgrim. That enables you to stay in the inexpensive hostels. You can buy a pilgrim’s passport for a couple of euro at the tourist office, many churches, and hostels. What’s the significance of the scallop?

The Pilgrims would walk to Santiago. It’s about another three or four-day walk, about 70 miles or so to arrive out at the ocean. The town there is called Finisterre, which means “End of the Land” or “End of the Earth.” Back centuries ago, when the people didn’t know the globe, they truly believed that’s the end of Spain. When you go out to the ocean that was the end of the world. They would go out to the ocean, get a scallop shell, and return back. That became the symbol for the Camino. All of us pilgrims pick up a white Camino shell at the beginning of our Caminos and wear it on our backpacks. That helps show that we’re pilgrims as well as the fact that we’re all carrying big backpacks, that’s a giveaway. We have hiking boots, and we look a little disheveled.

Many liken the fan-shaped spines of the scallop shell all pointing to the base as representations of the different hiking trails that lead to Santiago. There are four main routes, the French Way that Janet did, the Portuguese Way, coming through Portugal, the Primitivo, which is the oldest established route, and the North Way through the Basque. That’s the hardest route. The French Way is the most popular route. The scallop shell is the symbol of the trail. Not only do all the pilgrims wear a shell but along that route, you will see symbols of the scallop shell to tell you which way to go. Tell us about the villages you go through?

There are many things that are special about the Camino. It is an amazing experience in that you are walking through existing Spanish countryside in Spanish towns, Spanish villages. You’re walking through normal daily life that the actual Camino route happens to go through. What’s great about it is it’s not just a hike in the woods where you don’t see anybody for a long time. You’re sometimes in the woods and sometimes you’re walking through little villages or even big cities. You’re getting to see every day Spanish life and some of the villages are very small and charming.

That one main road of the Camino is the actual paved road that goes through the town and you’re seeing the villagers in their daily life. When you’re in the Galicia region, which is the last area and Santiago is also in Galicia, it’s a cow country. It’s green, lush, and a little bit rainy. It’s filled with pastures and cows. You’re going through villages where it’s rural life as well. You’ve got beautiful big cities like Leon, with gorgeous cathedrals and things to see. There’s always something new and unusual to keep you interested as you’re doing your walk.

What age groups did you see along the way?

It’s truly the cross section and it depends on what time of year. The Camino over the years has become more and more popular and crowded over the years. The last few years or so, almost over 280,000 people completed the Camino from one of the different Caminos, they ended up in Santiago. It’s become very popular. I don’t recommend going in the summers. July and August are extremely crowded because then a lot of the Europeans are on summer vacations including a lot of the Spaniards. It gets filled up with people and probably a lot of younger people. The rest of the time, I was walking in September, October and also May, June. The shoulder seasons of late spring or early fall are good times to walk.

My experience is probably typical for the shoulder seasons and you’re still seeing people of all ages. What was nice is being a 50-plus person, there were large numbers of people that were in their 50s, 60s, and 70s walking the Camino. In fact, a lot of my Camino friends were in that age group. It’s heartening because part of it is if you’re walking even a half-Camino or even the last two or three weeks, you have travel time to and from Spain besides walking the Camino. That ends up to be a significant amount of time off. It’s often hard for working people that have two weeks of vacation a year, as we do in America, to take off a lot of time to walk the Camino. Often, it’s people that have a little bit more discretionary time and that often means they’re a little bit older.

Tell me about some of the people you’ve met along the trail.

Another one of the great joys of the Camino is the fact that you get to meet the locals. You get to know some of the local people particularly the ones that are running your lodging but you’re meeting fellow pilgrims and they are from all over the world. It’s like the United Nations walking and you get to make friends from all over. What I found is the pilgrims are made up of a lot of European countries. You’re meeting a lot of Spaniards, Germans, and French, from England, the UK, and Ireland, and a smattering of the different other European countries. There were also quite a few Americans and many Canadians. I also made friends from Australia, New Zealand, and Poland. There are a lot of South Koreans walking. It’s fun to find out where people are from.

I was lucky on my first day as a pilgrim. That evening I was staying in one of the pilgrim hostels and I had met a lovely woman I was walking with during the day. She and I went down to dinner at our albergue, the hostel, and joined another group of four people at the table. The six of us laughed and giggled for two hours. We had so much fun and for the next two or three days, I walked a lot with this particular group. It was three good guy friends that had been walking the Camino every year for a few weeks together, and then another woman, Camilla, from the UK who was a nurse-midwife. They were in their 50s and probably early 60s. We got along and had some deep friendships. I am still in contact with at least two or three of them. It’s a real treat.

I find that bond more quickly with the people I meet on the trail versus those I meet in real life. Do you find that as well?

It’s so true. When you’re doing an adventure trip of any type. Part of that question when you’re meeting someone on the Camino is, “Hi, what’s your name? Where are you from?” The third question is, “Why are you doing this?” because not everybody is going to do these adventure trips. Not everybody is going to walk the Camino. When you’re talking to a fellow person going, “What made you decide to do this?” There’s a natural bond. That takes a lot of guts and it takes a lot to commit to doing a multi-day walk, carrying a backpack, doing all the things and preparing that it has. It shows that somebody took some real initiative.

You have a real bond, your conversations are generally deeper, and they’re not as superficial because when you’re on these types of trips, you are who you are. There’s no pretense and you don’t have makeup on. You get a chance to be authentic. The relationships are deep, genuine, caring, and compassionate. What we find is there’s a real deep pilgrim community. We’re all in this together. We’re all pilgrims and everyone’s out to help everyone else. You give some advice like, “How are your blisters? Here are some things I can tell you. I heard about this great hostel. This is something you should do if you’re going to that town. I heard it’s a great place.” You’re doing a lot of sharing back and forth.

I know not every day is going to be lollipops and rainbows. Did you have some days that you thought to yourself, “Why on earth am I doing this?” Do the people along the trail, the fellow pilgrims, do you help each other out?

Before I left on the Camino, one of my closest friends had done the full-Camino and I did the second half. She did the full-Camino five months before I did. When she returned home I knew that she was going to be my mentor and she was. I was incredibly prepared for what to expect from all of her great advice. One of the big pieces of advice that she gave me which I continue to pass on to everyone is that, when you’re walking the Camino, it’s not a race. It’s a journey and your pace is your pace. There’s no right way to do it. You don’t have to go to a certain number of kilometers every day. In fact, the injuries that people get with blisters and tendinitis type of injuries are those that go too fast or too far.

I took that to the heart from what she had told me. I took it easy. Every day, I averaged twenty kilometers a day which is twelve miles. I took an easy pace. I would stop to take pictures. I took breaks and also my mileage wasn’t that huge. As a result, my body never broke down. I didn’t end up needing a rest day because I ended up having a few short days. If I had pushed it like a lot of pilgrims do, I would have had some days where my body was rebelling. That very much happens, where pilgrims may need to take a day or two off because they’ve pushed too hard and their bodies tell them to slow down.

Without question, whatever you’re dealing with, there are pilgrims all around you. You’re staying in pilgrim hostels and they’re there to encourage you. There are the hospitaleras, these are the volunteers that run a lot of the pilgrim hostels. They’ve experienced Caminos. Many of them have walked the Caminos in the past. They’re now back to serve for maybe a two-week or four-week volunteer stint. They know about the pilgrim life and they know about injuries and blisters. They are there to support and encourage. It’s an incredible and encouraging family. If you’re having bad days, there’s always somebody around to support, help and love you. It’s amazing. There’s probably not an environment as supportive as this. It’s truly this unique spot in the world.

In case you’re multitasking while reading this blog, I want you to stop for a minute and emphasize something that Janet said about hiking your own hike. Doing your own pace is super important. I remember a time when my girlfriends and I were doing a section hike on the Appalachian Trail. There are many and mainly the young people out there that are all in a competition to try to see how many miles they can do each day. They’re trying to bang out twenty and 30 miles but they’re missing the trail and they’re missing the point. The guidebooks all have cute little detours that they talk about.

One in particular that always struck me about that trip was there was a gravestone from a hermit, an Uncle Nick Gransby or something like that. On his stone says, “He lived alone, he suffered alone, and he died alone.” It’s 30 feet off the trail. It was a cool historical gravestone and not one person that entire afternoon, even though dozens upon dozens of hikers walked right by the gravestone, stopped even to take a look. They were so much in a hurry to get as many miles as they could that day. I think that’s sad. I want to emphasize and encourage you to hike your own hike and go at your own pace. You’re doing this for reasons other than clocking in the miles. Let’s shift gears. Can you tell us about the accommodations and in particular about the hostels?

First, let me tell you about the pilgrim hostels and then the other options. I stayed probably two-thirds of the time in the pilgrim hostels. In Spain, they’re called albergues and there’s a wide variety of them. Generally, what that does mean are accommodations that are only for pilgrims. You have to show your pilgrim passport to get in. They’re generally coed dorm rooms with bunk beds. They provide mattress pillow and blankets and so you need to bring your own sleeping bag. The rooms can vary. It can be one big room with maybe 50 bunk beds for 50 pilgrims in it or it can be ten different rooms where maybe there are only bunk beds for eight people per room. You’re generally sleeping in this coed environment.

You have your bathrooms. Occasionally, they are coed with the shower stalls are closed, etc. Many times I was pleasantly surprised, there’s a separate men and women’s bathroom. These days, there are many different types of albergues and more and more of them are privates, which means they’re privately run and operated, often by families, often fairly newly opened and done very lovingly. I was amazed at how modern, clean and how well set up they were for pilgrim needs. The other advantage of that is you get a chance when you’re staying in the pilgrim hostels to make many new friends. You might be eating your meals there for an extra fee. They will offer dinner. You’ll make some nice friendships at the hostels as well.

Occasionally, some of the albergues, particularly the private ones, do have sometimes a couple of rooms that are private. You can be staying at the albergue, but you’ve got your own room and maybe even your own bathroom which is a lovely thing. You can upgrade. I’ve done that a couple of times. Those as you can imagine go quickly. The next level up in places where I’ve stayed quite a bit were the pensiones. That is one level up, where that is not quite as fancy as a real hotel, but it’s more like a B&B.

You’ve got your own room which is great. You’ve got your own bathroom or maybe a shared bath with one other room. Those were a little bit maybe three times as much money but still very reasonably priced. I would vary at times. I would do the pilgrim hostels. A couple of times, maybe every fourth day, I would book a pensiones so that I can have my own room. I have a little bit of privacy and be able to have lights out time that was on my own time and not with the dorms.

Logistically, how do you handle laundry?

You become good. Your life as a pilgrim is walking, eating, drinking, sleeping, and doing laundry. Those are your five main duties. Particularly the pilgrim hostels and even the pensiones that deal with pilgrims are well set up. They’ve got good laundry areas. Even more and more these days have washing machines with pay. You need to put in your coins and often with that, will have dryers. All of them have a laundry area. They’ve got a washing area with big bins where you can wash your clothes and big laundry lines where you hang them outside. I only used the washing machines one time because it’s a hassle. You have to keep coming back.

I generally almost always hand washed my clothes. That’s the first thing you do when you get in early or middle afternoon when you arrive after walking that morning. You get to your room. You get to your bunk, and you unpack. You head off to the shower immediately so then you could put on your clean clothes. You head off to do the laundry of the dirty pair that you wore that day. You want to get it on the line by the later afternoon so it has time to dry in the sun before getting up the next morning. It worked out well. You’ll learn when you go that you’re taking clothes that are very much easy to wash and dry quickly.

Bringing proper clothes is super important. You want to stick with the synthetics that they sell in outdoor sports places like REI or online or wherever you choose to shop. Avoid cotton, it does not dry quickly. If you get cold, they have a saying, “Cotton kills” because it does retain that moisture. You want to be able to dry out as quickly as possible. If you see me in most photos, I’m wearing almost the same attire. I replace it as needed. It’s one of those long sleeve shirts which is also great to keep the sun away that you can roll up to short sleeves and the zip off pants. If I get drenched, they dry out almost instantly. That’s why I wear them all the time. I love them. Wool is also another nice option because it does keep you warm even when wet. Janet, when you look back on this adventure, what’s your favorite memory?

It’s hard. I don’t think I have one. It’s like each day was special. Each day, the scenery was beautiful. Each person I met and so many pilgrims I met were so special and interactions with them. I could probably sit down and give you 50 of them. I can’t say one stands out above the others. It was honestly the composite of every day it was experience after experience. I had to journal every night so I could try to remember it, even though I was taking pictures as well. You’re filled with amazing memories and heartfelt experiences, the pilgrims you meet and the locals you meet.

Getting into Santiago and knowing that you finally arrived in your destination city after nineteen days that was like, “I’m finally here.” and being able to be in the church service. They have the famous thing when you are in Santiago at the cathedral. They have the pilgrim mass twice a day at 12:00 noon to 7:30. It’s filled with pilgrims. We’ve come from all the different Caminos. It’s our first day or we arrived the day before. We’re sitting through a traditional Catholic mass and you don’t have to be Catholic to appreciate it. You’re here in this famous beautiful spiritual Cathedral. It feels like such a culmination of all the effort that you’ve done and like, “I’ve done it. I am a pilgrim.”

In case you’re wondering why St. James is buried in Spain. It was St. James who brought Christianity to the Iberian Peninsula. After he was beheaded in Jerusalem, they brought his remains up to Spain in 44 A.D. The tomb was abandoned in the third century but rediscovered in 814 A.D. by a hermit who saw some strange lights in the night sky. The bishop recognized this is a miracle and told the king, who then ordered the construction of the church on that site. It is said that the king was the very first pilgrim. Tell me this, Janet. I have this image of people hugging complete strangers when they finally complete this trail.

You know who else is a pilgrim, you may not know them personally but when you’re in the main plaza in front of the cathedral as you’ve just arrived and everybody’s got their hands up in celebration and getting photos taken, you’re congratulating each other. You may not have ever seen them or know them, but you have this shared experience that you can appreciate what they’ve done. What an accomplishment it’s been whether they’ve walked for 7 days, 20 days or 42 days, it’s still an amazing accomplishment.

Arriving at the church has special meaning for those that have hiked for religious or penance reasons. You will find that on the years that St. James Day, which is July 25th, falls on a Sunday. It will be especially crowded on the trails because that year has been declared a Holy Year or Jubilee Year of special indulgences or special forgiveness. The next time St. James Day falls on a Sunday will be 2021, 2027 and 2032. You will see a tremendous spike in the crowds those years. Of the multi-day treks that you’ve done, how does this hike compare to those and which ones are you comparing them to?

I’m always getting asked because I travel a lot. People ask, “What’s your favorite trip?” I say, “It’s like asking a mother or father with six kids who was their favorite kid?” You can’t, they’re each wonderful and unique. I might compare it to my nine days trekking in Nepal which was equally special and fabulous. Both places you’ve got gorgeous scenery. The scenery is very different. In the Camino, the variety of the scenery starting halfway, I had everything from the flat meseta, where I started in the middle of the Camino which is the meseta.

It’s a flatter area, but you head up into the mountainous hilly region where everything’s green and lush. You have such a variety of scenery, the little villages, and the big towns. That part of the Camino, you never get bored because the scenery is always changing. That’s one thing that’s very special. The fact that you’re part of history because you’re walking on this pilgrimage route that has been walked by pilgrims for a thousand years. There’s a piece that you connect to something bigger than yourself, which makes it so special.

Another piece is the fact that it is such a multi-day. It’s even way more than the nine-day Nepal Trek. For me, I was walking nineteen days, which it’s almost three weeks. That makes it such an accomplishment where it’s day after day. The time goes quickly, you can’t even believe at the end, you’re going, “I’ve almost been doing this for three weeks, where did the time go?” That is a special aspect and a feeling of accomplishment. The fact that like many pilgrims, I did carry my own backpack. That’s a huge challenge in itself, being able to pack everything that you need for your nineteen days or longer in your backpack and to try to keep it under twenty pounds. That includes two pounds worth of water.

That’s a huge challenge and knowing that you’re carrying this day after day over terrain from flat terrain up to a mountain. We did have one mountain, O Cebreiro. It was a 2,000-foot elevation gain and I carried my backpack up that mountain and it was okay. It’s all of those pieces and the international aspect of meeting pilgrims from around the world. All of those combined to make it such a unique experience that’s unlike anything else. It’s a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual challenge to do something that is unlike anything any of us have ever done before. You’re outside your comfort zone at times. Luckily, you’re in such a supported environment of the Camino. Any of your needs, there’s going to be somebody around that can help you. That part makes this challenge doable because you know you are being supported. All of those together is what makes it so incredibly unique and special.

On a scale of one to five for difficulty rating, where would you put this if five is the hardest?

I would put this at a three or four. That would depend. The Camino is great. Everyone can plan the Camino that’s right for them. You can start at the beginning of the French Way and do all 480 miles or you can start at Sarria and do the last 70 miles. That gives you that option. You can carry your own backpack as I did and many pilgrims too. There are excellent services where you can ship your backpack. If you’ve got a twenty-pound backpack and maybe you’re not strong enough or you’ve got some injuries, you can ship your backpack ahead every day to the lodging where you’re going to be staying that evening. That takes a huge not only weight off your back but that makes that little bit more manageable.

If you’re walking the whole Camino and you’re carrying your own backpack, it’s probably a four. If you’re doing a smaller amount of it and maybe you’re shipping your backpack ahead during some of the hard sections. Sometimes pilgrims will carry up their own backpacks, but if they’re hitting a day with lots of uphills that was going to be big or even some tough downhills, they would ship their pack ahead. They would sometimes do that when they maybe had some injuries they were trying to recover and they would give themselves a break for a few days. Knowing you’ve got that option of the backpack being shipped ahead and only carrying a daypack, that helps lessen some of the stress on your body. It’s generally a three and could be up to four if you’re doing the whole thing.

Do you have to book your accommodations in advance or can you get away with winging it?

I was a little surprised. I started in mid-September and I’m thinking that things would be a little bit better. The fact that the Camino has gotten so popular, I happened to hit a bulge of pilgrims around the same time I was on parts of the Camino. You would find out you would get to towns and it would be quite booked up. You learn as you’re going. I didn’t book anything ahead but once I got there, you’re always planning. What was great is you have the flexibility when you’re going independently as I did. I went on my own that you can decide where you’re going to walk each day. Generally, I would know that day where my goal was for the next day. If I was finding during that particular cycle of time I was in that there was a bulge of pilgrims, that some of the towns were getting booked up where I was hoping to stay that next night, it was not a very big town and they didn’t have a whole lot of pilgrim hostel options, then I would often call ahead or book ahead. At least I knew that I had a room waiting for me when I got there. You could play it by year but I would probably book ahead about half the time, one day ahead.

Is this a trail like many where they always make room for you even if everything is full?

What you hear is and I had an experience that if you get to a town and it’s filled, and maybe the closest town is another two or three miles away, people will work with you and figure things out. Maybe another pilgrim has got their own room, but it’s got two beds and will hear about it and go, “You can come to share with me.” One day in Rabanal, I was trying to make reservations ahead, but no one was answering my calls. I arrived in town a little bit nervous because I knew I wanted to stay there and there wasn’t a lot of other options.

I went to one of the albergues there and the man at the desk said, “I’m sorry, our regular dorm rooms are filled up. We’ve got an overflow room where you can sleep on the floor we’ve got a mattress. Will that be okay?” I said, “Are you kidding. I will take anything” It turned out to be a huge room. They ended up putting seven mattresses spread out across the floor. It was way more comfortable than if I had been in the dorm room. It was a great experience. It’s like in the Camino, there is a term that we use, “The Camino provides.” When you have a need, things seem to open up and you get taken care of. Someone figures something out. Generally, things work out.

Worst scenario, there are taxi services. If you happen to hit a town in a horrible time, there’s absolutely nothing available, and you’re there late at the end of the day, you can always take a taxi to the next big town and stay there for the night. Take a taxi back the next morning to where you started or where you last left the Camino so that you’re doing the full thing. There are always options. You get creative and that’s where pilgrims can help. You learn the pilgrim world, how things work and you get a lot of advice from fellow pilgrims. Lodging can be challenging, but it always does seem to work out.

Is there anything I did not ask you that you’d like to convey to our audience?

You did ask about the terrain. When you’re doing the full Camino or the full French Way, the meseta or the mesa, which is more of a flat section, is the middle third of the Camino. The first third, when you’re starting in France in St. Jean Pied de Port, going over the Pyrenees all the way to the town of Burgos. That is an area of both mountainy and hilly areas, then you hit the flats. The last third of the Camino is where you start getting back into hills and then some mountains. You have a real variety. You have hills and some mountains and there’s a lot of up and down. What’s great about the Camino is occasionally, you’re on some roads and if it’s a bigger busier road they usually made a path that is like a dirt gravel path that parallels the road, often sometimes tree lined. You’re at least able to walk not on the road, but along the side.

Many times, if you’re going through a little village, you’re on the paved road but it’s a small little road and there’s very little traffic on. A lot of the Caminos are on dirt gravel tracks through the woods. Sometimes it’s rocky. There are times you feel like you’re walking on the pavement. Other times you’re on a real hike, where it’s uneven terrain that’s dirt and rocky. You’re going up and down, it’s a hike and just glad you have hiking poles. It’s a variety of terrain for someone. It’s more than a flat walk in town. There are hiking aspects but there’s nothing that’s a major technical. When someone’s training for the Camino, you want to do some hiking so you’re comfortable with uneven terrain for your footing. There are times that hiking poles do come in handy.

Is the trail easy to navigate?

Yes, you always see the pictures of the famous yellow arrows. Camino Frances is the most popular and number one. There’s a huge pilgrim infrastructure all along with it. There are great facilities of lodging and of towns with cafes. Lots of people are doing it so there are lots of social aspects as well as the fact that it’s very well marked with the yellow arrows and they’re very creative. You get quite good at looking for the yellow arrows that are pointing you in the right direction, plus you do use your guidebooks.

I used Brierley’s which is the main Bible and his book has got very detailed trail maps for each day. Between Brierley’s trail maps of knowing what I was going to be doing that day, how far from each place, how far to the next cafe, how far to the next water fountain, and being able to match that up with the yellow arrows along the trail. I would get turned around a little bit, but it wasn’t too bad. It’s well-marked which is great.

How do you determine where you’re going to travel next and what’s on your bucket list?

My next trip is going back to Spain. I did not expect this when I first planned to walk my half-Camino, the second half. I had no intention of going back to Spain to do the first half. Even as I finished the Camino in Santiago, I still wasn’t sure if I’d want to go back. About three weeks after I got home, all of a sudden it hit me like, “I’ve got to go back. I’ve got to go see the first half. I’ve got to experience that part of the Camino and see the Pyrenees, the towns of Pamplona, and the Basque country.” I’m going back, walk my first half and experience that. That’s certainly next on my list. I’m not sure after that what’s on the adventure bucket list. I’ve done many different things. I have to think about what might be next after that.

Janet, you travel so much that you’ve become a travel blogger and run Planet Janet. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

That’s Planet Janet Travels, that’s officially the trademark. I became a travel blogger as my full-time gig about a few years ago because all these years I’ve done many different things, but travel has always been that unifying passion. As I’ve got to the point back in 2001, I did my first photography tour to China and Tibet. I fell in love with that type of exotic travel. I loved being in cultures like China and particularly in Tibet that were so different and so exotic. My soul was on fire. I loved being around that and the place was so different. It’s like an adventure travel, honestly. I knew I wanted to do more of that. I came home from that point and started just doing Europe which is a wonderful place.

I started branching out and seeing other parts of the world and going on African Safaris. I had a chance to go to Antarctica for the first time. I’ve done the Galapagos. It’s just been Asia. I’ve been adding more and more of these incredible destinations that I’ve been wanting to see out of my own desire to explore the world and meet the people that inhabit it. I started getting more and more of these trips. More and more people were following me. I would have email reports and do some slide shows about my trips. It became clear that that’s what I was known for and what my passion was. That’s why I decided to make this my full-time vocation now to share my travels around the world. To inform and inspire my readers and my audience, so they can get out and travel the world even more widely than they have and to do it joyfully and confidently.

I’m aiming at fellow Baby Boomers for the midlife and above to get out. Kit, I know you know how this is, there’s so much of the world to see and experience. We’re not the young twenties or something that have six decades of travel ahead of them. Our clock is ticking and there’s a lot of the world to see. I’ve got a lot I want to be doing. I’m wanting to encourage people to get out and travel as if your best life depended on it. That’s Planet Janet Travels. I do blog post stories about my travels. I have a website so people can come and see all of my different blog posts. I have a weekly newsletter where I talk about my most recent favorite trip and give some travel tips.

I want to thank Janet for spending so much time with us and teaching us about El Camino. It sounds like a trip that I’m going to add to my bucket list. Be sure to download the free travel planning cheat sheet on El Camino that you can find at the website at ActiveTravelAdventures.com, episode number six or you will get this automatically if you register for that monthly newsletter. It includes all the details that you need in order to plan this trip. Whether you do it by yourself or with the tour, and all helpful hints and information about traveling in Spain. I hope you enjoyed this episode and are enjoying the Active Travel Adventures podcast.

 

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