To Walk Far, Carry Less : Camino de Santiago (2 page)

The information in this book will help you better prepare for your Camino pilgrimage, so you arrive safely at your destination feeling fit and as though you’ve “thrown a backpack from your soul,” as Vidal said. He was the first of countless pilgrims who have demonstrated to me over the years the Camino tradition to help and support other pilgrims. It’s in that spirit that I hope this book helps you walk far by carrying less.

Buen Camino,

Jean-Christie

A pilgrim friend tests the Example Camino Pack List on the Vía de la Plata route in Spain.

Camino de Santiago (Spanish)

Chemin de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle (French)

The Way of Saint James (English)

Over the past one thousand years, millions of people have walked to the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela following routes affectionately known as The Camino (often called The Way in English). And the endless river of people continues: each year tens of thousands of men and women—from students to seniors—take a break from their ordinary lives to walk for days or weeks on the ancient pilgrimage routes throughout western Europe. The most popular of these routes run through France and Spain.

The original inspiration for the Camino pilgrimage tradition started with a legend. Around the year 813 AD, the remains of Apostle James the Greater (later known as Saint James) were said to be buried at the site where the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, stands today. Since then, this legend has inspired members of the Roman Catholic Church to go on a pilgrimage to “Santiago”—Sant Iago is the name for Saint James in the Galician language spoken in northwest Spain. The first Camino guidebook was written in about 1140–1150 AD, and by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries about a half million pilgrims were making their way to Santiago each year, traveling on or near the same routes pilgrims use today.

You’ll meet people of all faiths, or of no faith at all, on their way to Santiago. Everyone walks for their own reasons, spiritual or otherwise—and everyone’s called a pilgrim on the Camino, whether they’re religious or not.

“Give yourself to the Camino,” an elderly Spanish man told me over dinner one night on the Camino Francés route. He meant that you might find that the Camino turns into more than just a cheap and fun vacation. Walking for days or weeks gives you the time to sort life out—whether it’s to soothe a grief, exhaust a grudge, make an important decision, seek new insights, or to simply recharge your precious life spirit. You can rest your soul on the Camino. Yet the “fun” part is unavoidable: many will say that making new friends with pilgrims from all over the world was the best part of their journey. Most pilgrims also return home with a physical fitness perhaps not felt in years.

Many, including women of all ages, will set out alone on the Camino, knowing they’ll easily meet others on the way—especially at the most popular starting points. Others go with a partner, spouse, friend, group of friends, or a parent or child. You can always find someone not too far behind or ahead of you on the most-traveled French and Spanish routes.

It’s not very often that you’ll see a solo pilgrim on the most popular route in Spain, the Camino Francés.

Pilgrims rely on guidebooks for detailed trail directions and for options on where to eat and sleep (you don’t need to carry camping gear on the Camino). Guidebooks also tell you where you can find help, transportation, water, and shops, and will point out important historical sites.

It can take about five to seven weeks to walk an entire route through France to the Spanish border. It takes about the same amount of time to walk across Spain to Santiago de Compostela. Pilgrims with limited vacation time, however, will walk only part of a route. It’s your journey, and you can choose to start and finish it wherever you like.

Regardless of their faith or how long they’ve been walking, most pilgrims experience an extraordinary joy when they finally see the tall spires of the magnificent cathedral rising over the city of Santiago de Compostela. Weary feet are suddenly energized to walk only a few kilometers more to arrive at this historic pilgrimage destination. Surely that’s something all pilgrims have shared over the past one thousand years—and hopefully will continue to share over the next millennium.

Four of the historic pilgrimage routes where today’s pilgrim can find well-marked trails and places to stay—and where solo pilgrims are more likely to meet others.

The purpose of this book is not to dictate what exactly should be worn or carried, but rather to present options and to offer suggestions in every possible category. I have my biases and preferences, as do all experienced pilgrims, and you’ll have your own preferences as well. But when we follow the lightweight packing methods used by all types of experienced backpackers, not just pilgrims, we can create our own lightweight backpacks—regardless of the specific differences in what we take on a Camino pilgrimage.

These methods are best explained by looking at how to choose Camino gear in the first place, and by asking questions while assembling that gear. And there are a few other tips as well. Let’s begin with the best advice—and the toughest to follow—first:

As a general guideline, aim for your backpack’s total weight to be 10 percent of your body weight.

Then know it’s likely to turn out to be a bit more. This is because Camino pilgrims must also always carry water, and usually a picnic lunch and snack foods, all of which are particularly heavy. For example, one liter of water (about a quart) weighs 1 kilogram (about 2.2 pounds). Of course, the amount of water and food you carry depends on the route, the weather, and your needs.

On the Camino

Sometimes you’ll get lucky and get to eat lunch at a rural country inn, where you might try the day’s special, such as
rabo del toro
(bull’s tail). It’s delicious.

While you can’t really plan ahead of time for the food and water that you’ll need every day, you can estimate what you’ll likely carry on average (for more details see
Chapter 7: Food and Water
).

If you keep the filled pack weight to 10 percent of your body weight—not including food and water—you’ll likely end up carrying about 11 or 12 percent of your body weight after adding food and water. Again, that depends on how much food and water you need or want.

The good news: that weight decreases as you consume the water and food. By the afternoon, when you’re most fatigued, your pack will weigh less.

Packing Tips

Assemble all of your gear before getting a backpack. That way you can choose the best backpack size to hold the bulk of your gear. If you’re eager to buy something significant that strengthens your commitment to go on a Camino pilgrimage, it’s better to buy your footwear before anything else—and then start walking so you can break it in!

After using the 10 percent principle to determine the total weight of your backpack, keep the following points in mind when selecting what to wear and carry on the Camino.

Choose the Lightest

Mesh bag for clothes instead of a stuff sack. Crocs rather than Tevas. Pants, shirts, and jackets made with lighter fabrics and less features than the sporty alternatives. Vanity sometimes weighs too much. Choose the lightest option that provides the necessary benefits or function.

Choose the Smallest

Choose a travel-size toothbrush, deodorant, and dental floss instead of the regular sizes used at home. You can always buy more along the Camino. Use a small comb or brush, and consider the smaller pack towel. Write in a pocket memo book instead of a large journal. Always choose the smallest size available of the thing you need.

Choose the Simplest

A pullover fleece with no pockets or zipper. A backpack without hooks, compression straps, or daisy chains. Choose the most basic option that meets your needs.

Lightweight Notes

simple designs = fewer materials = less weight

Eliminate

Rip out guidebook pages you don’t need. Knowing about flora and fauna is interesting, not essential. Historical information weighs a lot. Carry route descriptions only.

Write notes in your route guides to consolidate and eliminate pages. Trim the margins to save weight and diminish volume.

Toss out or mail home guidebook pages after using them on the Camino.

Follow the same guidelines for maps. Write notes from the guidebook on your maps to eliminate even more pages.

Type addresses and phone numbers on one sheet of paper instead of carrying an address book.

Cut off all unneeded straps, daisy chains, and ice-pick loops on your backpack. Cut labels off clothing. Cut the plastic heads off stuff-sack drawcords and tie the cord end into a knot.

Scrutinize every item for ways to cut, trim, tear, or pare.

Put everything you eliminate into a pile to weigh later; you’ll be pleased to see how much weight you’ve saved. On my last Camino journey, I saved 494 grams (1 pound, 1 ounce) just by tearing out guidebook pages and cutting maps.

Find Multiple Uses

Look for a multiple personality in every item when assembling your gear. Socks serve as mittens. Shampoo works as laundry soap. A mobile phone with a camera satisfies simple photography needs.

A bandana is the ultimate multipurpose item: a placemat for a picnic, a pillow cover in a refuge, and bandit-style protection to keep your face warm in cold weather. Wet the bandana and it cools your face when it’s hot.

A pack towel becomes a neck scarf in unexpected cold weather. Two socks pinned together with safety pins provide ear cover. Fashion on the Camino? Forget about it. Vanity evaporates in freezing-cold air.

An iPod or mobile phone stores addresses, calendars, even documents, and the light emitted from the screen is a good-enough flashlight to find a toilet in the middle of the night—or you might be able to get a flashlight application installed on your mobile phone.

A mobile phone loaded with a translation app eliminates the need to carry a French or Spanish dictionary or phrase book. Apps for Camino guidebooks are also increasingly available.

Replenish

Everything can be bought in France and Spain. You could set out from home with
nothing,
arrive in France or Spain, and get everything you’d need for a pilgrimage on the Camino. Avoid stocking up on toiletries or other items. You’ll find plenty of opportunities to replenish supplies along the Camino. If you can’t find a small package of something, see if you can share the larger quantity with another pilgrim. Of course there are exceptions—you may not want to share a tube of toothpaste with someone you don’t know well, for example. But by the time you need to replenish something, it’s likely your backpack’s weight will have diminished because you’ve used other consumables (like liquid soap or sunscreen lotion), so a larger tube of toothpaste will probably not dramatically change the weight of your backpack.