Walking the Camino

Since 2018 I have been dreaming about walking the Camino in Spain.  So many things have kept me from going.  This year (2020) I was most disappointed and decided to begin watching and reading everything I could find available to me to read and watch.  Here is my list I have been working through.  

In July 2020, I chose to walk, very socially distant, camino at home. I decided if I walked 10 miles a day, I could walk nearly the whole way through Spain to St. James grave in one month.  I began with great gusto.  But then realized how much time 10 miles took me away from my duties as a family- nearly four hours.  So I modified it to 5-6 miles.  And some days I rode my bike which reduced my time by half.  

Over all I was able to walk or ride nearly 180 miles in 30 days.  I felt very encouraged to continue and have walked 4-6 miles at least four days a week since.  I'm hoping that my body will be closer to being ready when the border is open for me to travel to Spain one day.  

Here is one day I convinced my children to join me on a long walk.  We came across a wheat field.  Think I will see wheat in Spain?

How about you?  Have you been encouraged or inspired to make something happen (even if it's in your imagination) during this time of COVID?

Here's my epic list.

Anne Carson, "Kinds of Water" (1987). A prose poem that traces the narrator's journey, focusing on the philosophical questions it raises, especially with regards to the nature and desire of the pilgrim. The piece can be found in the anthology of Carson's essays, Plainwater (1995).

Paulo Coelho, The Pilgrimage (1987)

Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (1926). Jake's journey from France to the fiesta of San Fermin is an undertaking of the pilgrimage of Santiago de Compostela.

Jack Hitt, Off the Road: A Modern-Day Walk Down the Pilgrim’s Route into Spain (1994)

Hape Kerkeling, I'm Off Then: Losing and Finding Myself on the Camino de Santiago (2009), on his 2001 voyage. It is the best-selling German-language non-fiction book since Gods, Graves and Scholars (1949).

David Lodge, Therapy (1995)

Shirley MacLaine, The Camino: A Journey of the Spirit (2001)

James Michener, Iberia (1968), contains one chapter about the Camino de Santiago.

Cees Nooteboom, Roads to Santiago (1996, English edition)

Conrad Rudolph, Pilgrimage to the End of the World: The Road to Santiago de Compostela (2004)

• Walter Starkie, The Road to Santiago (1957) John Murray, reprinted 2003.