El Camino de Santiago or The Way of St James is a Pilgrimage to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Northwestern Spain, where it is rumored that the remains of the apostle Saint James was buried.
You can start your Pilgrimage from anywhere really, its a personal thing traditionally people would walk out their house and just start. However there are a few routes that are more traditional for starting points and its the Camino Frances that is the most popular however year on year all Camino’s are getting busier and busier.
The Frances route is from Saint Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago. This is around 800km or 500 miles total. There are 3 primary ways of doing the Camino on foot, cycling or on a horse.
More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_French_Way
Although still a Christian Pilgrimage many people do it for non-religious reasons, myself included. The entire route is marked out by scallop shells or symbols.
Pilgrims pick up a Pilgrims Passport called a Credencial del Peregrino, which allows you to stay in the hostels (Albergues) where you also collect stamps along the route and then once you reach Santiago after showing your Credencial you get the Compostela a certificate of doing the Camino. Pilgrims must walk 100km or cycle at least 200km to be able to get the Compostela.
After walking the Camino Frances in 2013 and cycling it in 2014 I wanted to return to walking but give myself more time to achieve it with hopefully less injuries.
In 2015 I did 2 smaller Camino’s, starting with the Camino Portugues kicking off In Porto & the Camino Ingles.
In 2019 I did the Camino Primitivo, covid put a stop to anymore but now is time to do the French route again more slowly in 2023.
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