Epic Hikes of the World ( PDFDrive )

the scallop shell is the symbol of the route
“For four weeks I travelled only by foot – no cars, buses or trains –
moving slowly allowed me to notice what was around me”
In the morning, over breakfast by the range cooker in her cluttered kitchen, Anya
told us that we were now a third of the way along the Camino. The first third, she
said, was physically challenging: dealing with blisters and getting used to walking
through varied landscapes.
I thought back to the Pyrenees, where I had set out on that first damp day in
thick fog, struggling to see the path ahead of me, accompanied by a chorus of
bells hanging from the necks of cows I could barely make out in the mist and my
pulsing anxiety at the thought of the vast distance that lay between me and
Santiago de Compostela. Shrouded with clouds, the forests took on an enchanted
air. In Navarra and Rioja, the landscape had changed to gentle hills and fields of
sunflowers, scattered with picturesque villages. In Puente la Reina, my arrival
coincided with a local fiesta, with street parties and bull running.
The next third of the walk, between the cathedral cities of Burgos and León
across a largely flat, arid landscape, was where the spiritual work would begin,
Anya explained. With fewer distractions, the monotony of walking every day would
become meditative. Now was the time to think about why we were walking the
Camino.