Don’t know whether this is the right area, but I’ve got to start somewhere…
My wife and I have been pondering walking some or all of the Camino de Santiago in the foreseeable future. Both of us around sixty.
I’m willing and consider myself able (walked 10-mile mail routes daily for years). My wife, bless her, thinks the same.
She currently has her right foot up in an ice/ bandage (hurts from plantar fascitis). And bunions, which are of apparently no consequence. She’s had Jones fractures (since repaired) and a broken right ankle-- since repaired-- the screws still remain (they look like drywall screws in the X-rays).
Complaining about foot pain while planning any part of a 500km walk strikes me as a recipe for disappointment, to say the least, but must temporarily hold my judgement for the sake of marital bliss.
Prep work. Both of you should start prepping now, and see how she handles it.
Mrs Piper and I did the coast-to-coast walk across northern England a few years ago. Both of us in our forties.
We went to the Y half a year in advance and got a physical assessment from a trainer. She also gave us a work-out plan, which we did faithfully for six months in advance. We also started going on walks in our neighbourhood, gradually increasing the length of the walks until we were comfortably doing 5 km walks every other day.
“Less athletic” is not a problem necessarily; the notion that the Camino requires its pilgrims to be “athletic” is quite flawed, simply because most people’s notions of “athletic” are completely unrelated to the ability to walk for 6-8 hours every day. But plantar fascitis and bunions are bad news. How long can she walk? How far? Before you embark on a route that will take you through some of the worst upslopes of your life* and through stretches which are flat but where villages are 40km apart, she needs to be able to walk those 40km without a trip to the ER. I’m sure EMTs along the Camino will speak decent English, but you really don’t want to verify it.
Costa Rican roads were worse than the path between St Jean Pied de Port and Roncesvalles only in that they were unpaved. Those 27km are as close to vertical as the engineers could make the road; I live 30km from Roncesvalles and refuse to follow that path to France because it scares the bejesus out of me, the path via Irun and Hendaye is longer but doesn’t involve leaving my stomach behind. The Jaca branch isn’t much gentler.
Thanks to all for your thoughtful and helpful replies. We’re just beginning to collect information, so our questions are going to be the most obvious ones. First, regularly hike around locally. If that hurdle is cleared, then look at vacation time slots and budget. After, who can tell?
I hope it works out for you! I keep telling my father to pursue his desire to go but he worries that he won’t be able to do it all (and probably that he will cause trouble if he needs help).
The one people usually think of is not the only Camino, merely its French branches: the English Road from Ferrol to Santiago is just a few days. The Silver Road comes up from Seville (I do not recommend doing it between May and September unless you’re half demon or somesuch); it’s about as long as the Jaca branch of the French Road, a lot flatter, not as signposted but goes through many interesting locations (Astorga and Mérida for example, sorry but we seem to be out of budget for translators lately).
Most of the people who would help him if he needs it are either paid for it or culturally used to it. So long as he’s not doing anything suicidally stupid (and I hope he’s too grown up for most of the things which would qualify), he’ll be welcome.
ATM I’m thinking we might be best suited to try the last 100KM stretch of the Camino Frances. Unless time/budget/physical well-being all improve dramatically. Baby steps. Nava, we’re California natives and are accustomed to blistering hot afternoons preceded by cold drizzly mornings. We were looking (well I was) at the Portuges and the Plata as well.
Forgot to mention I’m historically an extremely light sleeper and have my doubts about adapting to overnighting in the albergues. Although exhaustion may cure that little problem.
One other things to mention - my husband and I did the first two stages of the Le Puy route in France last summer, and it was AMAZING. However, the thing we didn’t think to train for was walking all day, going to bed, and getting up and doing it again the next day. Your body needs time to figure out how to effectively recover, and no matter the shape you’re in, you will be sore in places and ways that surprise you. We were both shocked that my 73-year-old mother led the pack every single day of that trip; her secret was that she walks 5 miles a day, every day, no excuses, so her body was accustomed to that routine.
I’m assuming he’d go The French Way since it’s the most common, and he’d be with a tour group of some kind and have a safety net. He just has that old-man-ness of being afraid to put anyone out – he would feel guilty and hate himself for being a bother! I am going to keep encouraging him.
… I hope that would be a group of pilgrims and not a “tour group”. “Tours” involve hotels, not hostels; buses, not walking; staying in a herd, not mixing with the locals. Very different animal.
