Finding Myself on the Camino: A Transformative Experience

What if your journey could transform you in ways you never expected? Join me as I recount my solo adventure walking the Camino, where each step brought new insights and challenges. From pushing too hard on the first day to learning the art of lightening my backpack, I share the seven key lessons that shaped my pilgrimage. This journey might have fulfilled my pilgrimage craving, yet it sparked a curiosity for other trails in Japan and the Canary Islands.

Sometimes the path you plan isn't the path you take. Knee issues led me to switch from the coastal to the Central route, but with this change came unexpected rewards—new landscapes, diverse encounters, and the invaluable camaraderie of the Camino community. Embracing adaptability taught me more than just how to handle physical setbacks; it opened my eyes to the importance of kindness, shared experiences, and even reassessing my comfort levels with hostel accommodations. Every interaction along the way, from fellow solo travelers to larger groups, enriched this transformative journey.

Traveling solo is as much about discovering oneself as it is about exploring the world. This episode delves into the confidence gained through self-reliance and problem-solving on the Camino. These experiences made me rethink my future hiking goals, such as section hiking the Appalachian Trail. Journaling played a pivotal role in capturing these reflections, offering a peaceful escape from everyday stressors, and encouraging a deeper self-awareness. I also share practical advice for future pilgrims on physical preparation and the underestimated challenge of adapting to long-distance walking with a properly weighted pack.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Lessons Learned From Walking the Camino
• 15:57 Adapting and Learning on the Camino
• 28:58 Discovering Self on the Camino
• 33:11 Preparing Physically and Mentally for Camino

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:41

Hello sister travelers. Well, I am back from walking my Camino and I know some of you are very anxious to hear about my experience on the Camino. It is good to be back. I will say, if you didn't follow me on Instagram or catch up with me on my Facebook page to kind of see, the Instagram page SoloTravelAdventures50 was really highlighting every single day I did post something about where I was, where I walked to some different things that I saw along the way. So if you weren't following and you missed that, you can go back and see that. But I'm here to share today what that experience was like.

Speaker 1: 1:28

Also, I will actually start the episode by giving some really good what I would do differently, right kind of advice. So this could be great suggestions if you are personally considering doing the Camino and you're not sure what is the Camino, or you want to hear kind of how I prepared for it. That is in episode 104. You could also listen to episode 105. Joy Alway shares her experience on she's done a couple Caminos, so someone who has more experience than me walking Caminos, me walking Caminos. But I wanted to share to start with, kind of I have seven things and I was. You know I was looking back in my journal before I got on here to record, because I was journaling while I was, of course, in the process of walking the Camino. Every day I would write and kind of highlight and then just different things I learned along the way, and so I have a whole page of like itemized things that I would do differently if I were to go back to the Camino.

Speaker 1: 2:35

Now, before I get into that, many people you know they're excited when I get back. They're asking those questions Well, how was your trip and would you do a Camino again, are the two most common questions I have been getting. So I will answer these very broadly. So my first question is would I do the Camino again? My answer is and I had someone else actually say this to me and I'm kind of stealing this, so she mentioned that I feel the same way that doing this Camino satisfied my desire to do this kind of walk, this kind of pilgrimage, and so to answer, I likely would not necessarily do a Camino, but there are other hikes. I would definitely do other hikes. There's some other ones. There's one in Japan that really interests me, and there's also the ones on the Canary Islands that interest me. So I'm not saying no, but I'm not saying yes to some of those popular caminos that dump you into Santiago. I feel like what I did really fulfilled that desire to do that.

Speaker 1: 3:45

And then, how was it? Well, my general answer with that question is it was a learning experience, and I'll get to more into that in a moment, but let me share some of the things that I would do differently, and I want you, if you are considering doing the Camino these are definitely things that maybe I didn't talk about when I talked about preparing for my Camino. I've had other people mention some of these. I think Joy mentioned a few of these things as good, things to either prepare in your preparation, things to do differently or while you're there. So most people will tell you this is your Camino and so you need to walk at your own pace, even if you're with a group, because I noticed there was some tour groups, but even they let you walk at your own pace. You don't have to stay with their group, you just have to get to that end destination, and so I would say don't try to keep up with someone else's pace that is maybe faster than you If you want to slow down and have a conversation with somebody that's walking slower than you. Great, don't feel bad about telling someone that you, you know, maybe you've connected with somebody and little chit chat along the way that you're either going to go forward, or I have had to tell people on the Camino, like so I don't feel like I'm holding them back to say you go on ahead, I'm happy at this pace. I'm not able to keep up with you. Well, I made that mistake of not saying that a little too late actually on my first day, that a little too late actually on my first day, and what happened was, I believe it really aggravated my knee. It was already on that course, but towards the end of that first day I did connect with another pilgrim and we had hit a place in the boardwalk. You know we were along the coast Portugal coast route that there was a detour, the boardwalk was closed, and so the sign was telling us to go kind of like through town, or I could have walked through the sand. We chose through town and we were walking together.

Speaker 1: 5:59

Now this is a wonderful, nice lady. She was from Estonia, young, I would say, probably in her 20s, maybe late 20s, and also very tall and fit. So her walking was rather quick and I did try to keep up with her for a while because I didn't really want to get lost by myself, although we both ended up getting lost. And at one point I mentioned that I felt like we were going the wrong way. We were headed away from the ocean and more inland to the east and I felt like no, we need to be going this way. And at one point I did stop and you know I did tell her. I said you know you go on ahead, I need to rest my knee's bothering me and I can't keep up that pace. I ended up looking at a map. She kept going the direction she was going. Unfortunately, I don't feel it was the right way because I actually had to backtrack and kind of get back on course. So I lost some time, had to walk a couple extra miles because of that.

Speaker 1: 6:58

So my advice is go at your own pace. Don't push it so hard that you know you're going too fast that you could injure yourself. Okay, that was point number one. Number two lighten your pack as much as possible. I know that's kind of a thing Now.

Speaker 1: 7:14

Some people, some pilgrims, are pretty adamant that you carry your own stuff. That's like part of the you know the whole pilgrim, and some have them transported daily, whether it's through the tour group or you can actually hire a transport company to do that for you on a daily basis. Or, if you want to carry your pack, make sure it is as light as possible. Unfortunately, my pack with everything in it water, my pack and like my little fanny pack too, like with some essentials that I need to get to quickly um, it ended up being 20 pounds and I wasn't planning. I was hoping to get it a little lower. Um, it definitely aggravated my knee, um, and so I would highly recommend Hindsight 2020. I should have had my pack or, if you wanted to use a suitcase, you just have that transported every day and you just carry a little day pack so that you just have your water and you know a couple things with you on your daily walk. So that is, don't be ashamed to have your pack or your luggage transported. I think it's a great option. I think it would have helped me to enjoy my hikes a little more and probably take some pressure off of my knee.

Speaker 1: 8:39

Number three, I would say a lot of people get concerned about where they're going to stay, and so they're rushing to get to their end point. A lot of people leave before dawn and it's dark out, or you leave right at dawn and you probably do need to arrive at your albergue or hostel by two or three o'clock in the afternoon, because otherwise you may struggle finding a place unless you have really pre-booked. I'm talking several days in advance, but most pilgrims, including myself, would usually get up in the morning, get going and then kind of decide, okay, I'm going to make it to here and then book that day or maybe the night before, and so getting somewhere by two or three o'clock is kind of a good time frame, because a lot of albergues, even if it's like a first come, first serve, and there's some that will not take reservations there was several like that and so they open around two or three o'clock and so you have to get in line. So that's the other reason arriving around that time is kind of crucial. The next thing is, I would say, factor in a rest day. That was one thing I did not do, particularly if you are doing the St James, the original way, or they call it the Francis way, where it takes like 33, 35 days or so. To do that one, you definitely need a day or maybe two days of rest, kind of sprinkled in there. If you're pretty adamant about not having a rest day, then you need to have a day or two where it's a very short day, so you're not continually doing all these long days where you're not giving your body the chance to recover, and that's again where injuries can kind of come into play. So consider that Hiking poles are very helpful.

Speaker 1: 10:37

I unfortunately did not take any because my original plan was to be on the coast the whole time and my plans changed and I'll get to that in a moment but it definitely. If you have any kind of joint issues, particularly knees, you definitely want to use hiking poles. And if you're like me and you didn't check a bag so you couldn't take them through security, then plan on purchasing a set once you get over there. And then you know, as far as packing, a lot of people are like, well, what, what didn't you use? Like you know, a lot of people are like, well, what could I have lightened from my pack, right? Well, I actually.

Speaker 1: 11:18

I think I used just about everything except for my duct tape, some of my first aid stuff, of course, thankfully, and my feet were pretty good, and then I didn't end up using my bathing suit, but there was potential opportunities. I just heard the water was really cold on the coast there. So two things that I was so happy I brought and was and I often get asked because some albergues or hostels will provide a towel but many will not, so it depends on the level. So I was happy that I did have my own towel all uh, all the time, and it was one of those fast drying ones. And then a sleeping bag liner, um, and if you're going when it's a little colder, um, many albergues they will give you a pillow, but yeah, yeah, usually a pillow, and then one of those disposable sort of fitted sheets and that is it. You get nothing else. So there were a few places where I was happy I had my sleeping bag liner, at least to have something to keep me kind of warm. Some people, if you get later in the season, you might actually need a lightweight sleeping bag if you're going sort of in those colder, as it getting colder months, okay, and then, um, finally, my last suggestion and this served me well was I did bring some of my own food, and some of that is because I have a lot of allergies.

Speaker 1: 12:54

But it came in so handy, particularly when I got to a smaller town on a Sunday when just about everything is pretty much closed. So it was challenging to find food on Sundays, depending on where I was, and even along the way, because along the coast and even along the way because along the coast there were not as many opportunities for provision, at least in my experience, unless you love pizza and you know like coffee, because lots of you know a selection of provisional places, and so I was happy to have. You know, I had pistachios, I had almonds, I had some turkey jerky, some a little nut mix with some raisins and stuff like that. So I was very glad I had that stuff. And then I ended up getting into a habit of when I got to a town and I did find a grocery store that I would grab a piece of fruit for the next day for when I was walking. So maybe an apple or an orange or something like that was really nice to have for the next day. So those are sort of my suggestions.

Speaker 1: 14:23

You're getting ready for your Camino. Consider those things and you will have a wonderful time You'll be happy that you did these things and you'll make your walk definitely more enjoyable. So let me get to what was my experience like. Now, again, I will reiterate everybody's Camino is different, different in many ways. Different, because maybe you've gone in with a different attitude or different intention than somebody else, maybe you're on a different route that you know might kind of determine your experience. For example, many people that did the St James Way, the original way, the one through the French Pyrenees, all the way across the northern part of Spain, or even the last 100 kilometers that go along that pathway, find that in the summer months that particular route is extremely busy and maybe that's not something that would make your pilgrimage enjoyable. So that would be something to consider and that definitely affects the factors that makes your trip, your route, whether it was a good or not. So good experience I'm not saying anything is a bad experience because for me my experience was a learning experience, as I said, and I will be honest, it was more challenging than I anticipated.

Speaker 1: 15:58

So I originally started my route on the coast and my intention was to do the coast all the way up and after my first day I was having some serious knee issues. It was really bad. My knee had blown up, there was a lot of pain involved, um, and I wasn't even sure, if you know, I would be able to make this. I think it's like 270 kilometers or so uh track, and so I had to kind of rethink, even though I had someone ask well, didn't you plan this all out? You know, in your stages I'm like yes, but after day two I had to throw that out the window and really rethink. So that'd be the other thing I would kind of make sure, when you go into your Camino walk, that you are willing and open to, you know, pivoting or changing things. Because, as I like to say, the Camino that I walked was not what I expected, but it certainly was what I needed and what I could handle. So I had to adjust.

Speaker 1: 17:03

So after day three, I decided that I would go over to the Central, because I was really struggling with finding food and even, it seemed like, the sections in order to find appropriate accommodations you had to walk pretty far and you know my knee was not liking. You know, really, walking the distance I was making it walk. So I decided to take a train over to the central area and to Valencia, and then from there I continued across into Spain and continued through the central route into Santiago. I love the fact that I got to experience the coast and the central, so I got like some water and I got some forest experience. So it definitely was hillier, of course, than the coast, and so this is where these hiking poles would be so helpful. If that's the route you're choosing, and if you're doing any of the other ones, I would definitely say you know you need some hiking poles for sure.

Speaker 1: 18:19

So you know that I was willing to change my route and that certainly, you know, changed everything. It shortened my route a little bit and you know I met so many people, so many people's, different walks of life, different countries. So, for example and I can't remember them all, but you know I ran into met some Canadians. I met this amazing 67 year old Japanese guy who this was his second Camino Super nice, and we had a great little conversation with his limited English and people from America, of course, a lot of Germans, oh, just so many Germans. I mean I think that's like the thing for them people from the Netherlands, of course. There were some Spaniards, there were people from Mexico, costa Rica. I mean really, oh, new Zealand, brandon, just some people from New Zealand, yeah, so really it is, you know, just this gathering of all these nationalities, which was super exciting to just meet all those people. I will have to say, if I were to do a walk like this again, I would definitely want to probably actually have someone join me.

Speaker 1: 19:35

I did find that on my walk there is, of course, a greeting that everybody does when you pass somebody, you say buen camino and very friendly. It just means you know having a good walk, you have a good walk and it's just a nice gesture and it's encouraging, right. I didn't always receive that and I found the people I didn't receive that from because I was walking pretty slow, so like everybody was passing me up at this point because of my knee that if they were a solo traveler as well, or if they were in just a you know, a duet or maybe a trio, those people tended to be more engaging. But I found that when people were in like these larger groups whether it was they were with a tour group or they had done it themselves and there was a big group of people, they were kind of within their group. They weren't thinking outward and even acknowledging people outside of their group, which is unfortunate, because I think that kind of misses the whole point of you know what we know the Camino to be, as this camaraderie, this community, this friendliness that is typically experienced on the Camino, and so that's just something I noticed, the Camino, and so that's just something I noticed.

Speaker 1: 21:04

I would say too that you know I learned things about myself. So here's some things I learned about myself. First of all, I'm not as in good shape as I thought I was right. So my knee presented an issue. I had to deal with it and I know now that I'm, now that I'm back, I need to focus some time to rehab that knee properly. It's an old injury that from 10 years ago at least, that kind of flared up. So I was not expecting that, which made me had to pivot my plan, which was fine. It all worked out.

Speaker 1: 21:32

Um, the other thing I learned about myself was that I am likely feeling maybe a little too old to do hostels or albergues anymore, and you know I love it because it was inexpensive and you did get to meet some wonderful people. I remember getting to this one small town called Moss and it had one albergue and it was full, of course, and I had three floors. The third floor was a wonderful floor. Many of the people on that floor were roughly middle age or my age and you know along those lines. So we had this kind of camaraderie and respect. All of us went to bed pretty early. It was nice. We shared the washer and dryer together, and then some of us, a big group of us, nine of us ended up going to dinner together and then walking the next day a little ways together. Of course they left me in the dust, but anyways, great people, and so having some of those experiences, of course, is a wonderful reminder of just the kindness that is out there in the world and that you know, we're all human and that we're in this Camino thing together, and so that was encouraging.

Speaker 1: 23:00

But you know, there were times when there were a little more disrespectful people, like maybe one of my pet peeves, staying up late watching a video on their phone with no headphones, right, kind of that kind of thing, um, so, and I can't climb up on a high bunk anymore. Just, you know, I had to do it a few times, um, but definitely something I learned about myself. Um, a couple of times I did have to get a hotel, and those were actually some of those better days for me. So I had my space, I got to take a hot shower, got to have a good night's sleep without, you know, snoring that's the other thing. Like I just a snoring. I'm such a light sleeper that snoring will keep me awake all night. And so, like my second night, there was eight of us in a room and six out of the eight were loud snores. Oh my gosh, as I said on one of my videos, there was a choir of snores that kept me awake. So, um, definitely, uh, that's why you know, when some people do the Camino, they will actually do hotels versus albergues or hostels, and that's perfectly fine. I find that I did a little combination of that and just, I'm probably getting a little too old. I'll probably, if I do something similar to this next time, I will definitely probably do the hotel thing.

Speaker 1: 24:30

Some other things I learned about myself would include I definitely would have my pack or my suitcase transported between each spot so I did mention that as something I recommend and things that I learned. And then the bouncing around from place to place, so every day I was moving to a different spot, packing, unpacking, that whole process it did get tiresome. I mean at my age I think, when I was younger it didn't faze me, but I feel like that that, um, you know, again might be something to consider. I had run into a lady who was on a bus with me and she mentioned she used a tour group and it was interesting how they did the. Um, you know, they transported the bags but what they did was, uh, occasionally they would stay at a hotel and they would stay there like for three nights and then they would drive you to the area where you finished your hike the day before and then drive you back and then again drive you, so they weren't always moving every single day. That was kind of. I hadn't even realized that was a possibility. So I like that, you know, you're not having to move every single day, but maybe every few days.

Speaker 1: 25:52

Um, the other thing I learned about myself is that I had some days at the end of my walk to, quote-unquote, be a tourist and check out some sites Lisbon, sintra, um, I had spent some time in Porto before I did my hike. Loved Porto, by the way, but being a tourist is tiresome and some of the destinations, although they have wonderful public transportation in Europe, some of the destinations I was wanting to get to were a little tricky to get to, maybe a little took a couple buses to get to, were a little tricky to get to, maybe a little took a couple buses to get to one. So, and you know, from a mental standpoint, something I learned about myself was I often, you know, when we get to these low points in our life whether it's life or just you know you're struggling with your hiking. For example, mine was.

Speaker 1: 26:50

I was in a lot of pain and almost disappointed with how the hike was turning out and, you know, almost at one point thinking I may not even finish, like I was kind of that low point at some point with my knee really bothering me and unsure, because I need my knee for my other job where I do fitness, and like I don't want to damage it so much that it's irreversible. So I really had to, you know, also honor my body but also think about, well, how could I get to Santiago to truly finish this, this hike that I set out to do? And you know, we get to some places in our life where we have this what we call negative talk. And so we really have to look at and just really tell, tell ourselves that we can do this. And it's a lot of mind over matter. I mean, even when I hiked Guadalupe Peak and again that was a challenging hike how I had to mentally keep telling myself, you know how strong I was, despite how I was maybe physically feeling, and how I could overcome this, and it just kept going. And so there is some mental part also of this hike, of this Camino, that played into the part. For me, that was the spiritual part, where I did find myself again at a really low point where physically all my defenses were down, mentally my defenses were down, but it allowed me which was one of my intentions it allowed me to dig deeper into some of my deeper emotional things, garbage that I needed to deal with, and even get deeper connection with God, and that spiritual aspect, you know, came into play. So there was a lot that I learned about myself on the Camino. So, if anything, that was a win-win right.

Speaker 1: 28:58

And I like to also just look at any travel, any travel that we do as a, you know, learning experience. We learn things about ourselves, we learn things about what we like or don't like. We learn how to problem solve, we learn how to be strategic or, you know, figure things out, which is huge, and we have that self-reliance that helps, of course, to build our confidence. So, you know, many people were just couldn't believe I was doing the Camino by myself and you know I wasn't alone. But I had plenty of alone time because of how slow I was walking, but plenty of opportunities to talk and meet other people along the way, and I do recommend a Camino. I would recommend going in to the whole process, even the planning process, with a very open mind, knowing you know if you're a planner, knowing that that plan might have to be thrown out the window once you get there. And, um, so I loved the experience. Um, I look forward to other, maybe similar, hikes. Um, I don't think I will return to do an actual Camino into Santiago, um, but there's so many other beautiful places that I feel like I could experience and do a similar hike. I know what I need to do next time based off of this experience. So definitely will be a great preparation ground reminder for any future long-term hikes. Oh, and I wanted to say what it did also reveal to me this is huge. But you probably heard me talk about um.

Speaker 1: 30:56

One of my bucket list things for a long time has been to walk um section hike. I should say I would never want to do a through hike of the Appalachian Trail here in the US. Now, if you do a through hike, that's like five to six months and I was looking to do just like some sections, particularly Georgia section, which should take would only take me about seven or eight days. Well, I have determined, based on my experience of the Camino, that I took that off my list, which is hard. But I realized at my age and sort of some of the comforts that I would not have on the Appalachian Trail and all that I would have to carry on my back tent, sleeping bag, food that that would likely be a little more challenging than I would, my body could physically probably handle. I know we can rise above that, but you know I've determined in sleeping in a tent on the ground for days at a time. You know, one time like maybe doing an overnight might be fine, but I just realized, okay, that's not for me and that's okay. So it was a beautiful realization of something I thought I might want to do and now it's okay.

Speaker 1: 32:24

Moving on to some other things that I think I would enjoy more, and that's all right. That's things that we discover, like I said, about ourselves during our travels and I hope that anytime you travel that you approach it the same way. You look at, you know what you're doing and how it's maybe changing you as a person, and even if it happens, I like to do a lot of self-reflection after. But I also journal while I'm doing it, because then I'm remembering firsthand, right away, day to day, what is happening, what's going through my head. I strongly recommend that in any travels you do Great time to kind of self-reflect.

Speaker 1: 33:11

In many ways as we move away, we have that opportunity to be away from our day-to-day grind and to be, you know, out of a place that is often a comfort zone where we get into sort of these habits, these habitual ways that we move through life. And by being in an unfamiliar place we are often, you know, can be a little more self-reflective because we don't have maybe those emails or work hammering us and we can really unwind. And that was the other thing on the Camino, you know I was disconnected social, you know, from social media. I did post in the evenings but, like all day, you know you're, you're walking and so it's not don't have time to be doing any scrolling, so that was sort of a nice break from that as well.

Speaker 1: 34:03

I hope you enjoyed this episode and if the Camino is something you are considering, I hope you will consider some of my recommendations. Again, you can always go back, listen to episode 104 and 105. I would also just add you definitely want to get in shape before you go. I mean not overly, but just kind of get used to those long distance walking. I think that's the part of the training that I missed. I did practice with a pack of 20 pounds, so I was kind of okay there, but I think it was the daily, daily, daily walking so many miles that I was not accustomed to. So something to consider. If you are planning a Camino and you want to prepare particularly physically, all right, sisters, get out there and have that adventure.