Walking the Camino with Travel Counsellors

Kathy O`Sullivan 28 October 2015
In May we organised a group to travel to the Camino Way and I was the lucky one to travel with them along with our guide Noel. We set off from Wexford with excited nerves as there was some in the group that came on their own and others came in pairs and most unacquainted with each other but throughout the week friends were made, many laughs were had and even a few tears were shed.

Our route was the last section of the French Way Camino from Sarria to Santiago de Compostela which was to take us over 6 days and walking 110km. I would like to say we were hard-core and carried our bags on our backs each day and bedded up in hostels but we like our creature comforts so we had our pick up at the airport, a mix of small family run hotels, Casa Rurales which are beautiful converted farm houses and our bags were transferred each day. On day 1 we were transferred to our hotel from Santiago Airport to Sarria and enjoyed our first evening meal together.

On day 2 to 6 we walked an average of 5 – 6 hours a day stopping along the way for a break enjoying a café con leche at the many Camino cafés along the way and then again at lunchtime. We walked through forests, country roads, sleepy villages, over streams where the terrain is not too demanding except for a few hills along the way but a reasonable level of fitness is needed to really enjoy the walk.

Each person in the group was aware that this was their own personal experience and their own personal achievement so to enjoy it to the fullest we were encouraged to walk at our own pace. We would regroup for lunch and at the end of each walk before we headed to our next home for the night.

Weather at the time was mixed with rain, sun and cloud…something similar to our own you might say. On the dry days everyone is more sociable and what proved a real highlight to me was talking to different people from all walks of life and listening to their stories of why they were doing the Camino. I spoke to an American family whose son just returned from his second placement in Afghanistan and was suffering PTSD and they feared for his mental and physical health but after 3 weeks on the Camino they felt they got their son back! It was stories like these that makes the Camino very special. Rainy days were just as enjoyable as we put the hoods up, heads down and got lost in our own little worlds in the quietness of the Galician countryside.

On day 6 we were on the home stretch, we reached our final destination Santiago de Compostela just before noon and just in time for the Pilgrimage Mass in the wonderful ornate cathedral. The bodies were tired and a few blisters picked up along the way but it was an amazing experience, a wonderful sense of achievement and a great privilege to share it with a wonderful group of people.

Everyone walks the Camino for different reasons it could be religious, spiritual or a personal fitness goal but whatever it may be, you will come back with a lot more than what you went out there with. Buen Camino!