The Origin of Our Adventure

Peggy and I first heard of the Camino de Santiago de Compostella after seeing the movie, “The Way” with Martin Sheen http://theway-themovie.com/film.php

We were fascinated with the idea of going on such a pilgrimage.  Rather than going into a long dissertation on what the Way is, go to this Wikipedia site for info.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_of_St._James OR just watch this short video http://vimeo.com/37713808

In a nutshell, this was a pilgrimage route that has existed for over a thousand years.  There are many routes, but the most famous is the Frances Camino, from St. Jean Pied du Port in France, over the Pyrenees and all the way to Santiago in far western Spain.  This route is over 500 miles.  We had originally planned to do the entire route.

However, a series of health problems arose with my legs.  Basically, the vascular system that I inherited has many structural deficiencies.  I pretty much lost the use of my legs and have had a series of operations on them between 2008 and the present.  This included the amputation of three of my toes in 2013.  Therefore, we have had to reassess our goals in making this pilgrimage.  By the way, we are both in our late 60s.

We wanted to see the entire route, but 500 miles would be too much of a physical challenge for me.  I can walk pretty good distances, but just not very fast.  If I extend beyond 2 miles per hour, my vascular system cannot supply enough blood to my legs and pain sets in.  So here is the alternative.  We found a group called Marly Camino on the web.  It appeared that the “Camino Plus” trek that they offered was the perfect compromise. http://marlycamino.com/caminos/camino-plus/  So now, it would be 154 miles in 14 days, or around 11 miles per day average.

Peggy rounded up a friend, Christine Harris, to do the walk with her.  Chris is a fellow hiker from the Mountain West Hiking Club. I had originally signed up for a shorter route but changed my mind when after a few months of training.  I felt I could complete the 154 miles so signed up to do the same walk as Peg and Chris.  However, I would walk alone since I did not want to subject anyone to my necessarily slow pace.  Since they were already paired for the same room, I booked a 'single' for myself.

And so, with all that in mind, we purchased our plane tickets using “air miles” from our AlaskaAir account and proceeded to book hotels.  We wanted to make the most of our air travel so booked an apartment in Paris for a week to start, then made arrangements for San Sebastian in Spain.  Peggy wants to do the arduous 16-mile uphill trek over the Pyrenees (4000 foot elevation change) but being realistic, I declined.  I would meet her in Pamplona with a glass of good Spanish wine and then start off together from Roncevalles.  When we finish, we booked another week in the small waterfront town of Muros so that we could relax before flying back to Paris and then to the US.

Yes, this is a ‘bucket list’ item for me!  At this writing, we are less than 3 weeks to our departure for Paris.  Before we get to the trip, I will talk about some of our prep for this trip in subsequent blogs.

For other Bucket List Items, go to my Bucket Blog at
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