Walking the Camino in the Shadow of Belief

"The particular Camino that I chose to follow-colloquially known as the Camino Frances, or French Way, since it starts at the base of the Pyrenees, the border between France and Spain-is the most famous of all the Caminos. Walking, on average, six to seven hours and 30 kilometers a day, I passed from the south of France into the north of Spain, walking westward through cities that included Pamplona, Logroño, Burgos, and Ponferrada, along with numerous small towns and villages."

"My decision to walk the Camino was not rational. Days after I first saw the photo of it online, I had booked myself a plane ticket and bought a guidebook, my actions more the result of a of gut-level compulsion than an orchestrated plan. I spoke almost no Spanish. I was heartbroken, didn't have much money, and every editor in New York was passing on both a novel and a short story collection I had written. What I craved most was a blankness of the mind, a stripping away of myself and my identity, which would allow me to bypass the anxious spiraling that had left me frozen in place as I awaited the decisions of others."

A pilgrimage along the Camino Frances spanned roughly five weeks, beginning at the Pyrenees and proceeding west through Pamplona, Logroño, Burgos, and Ponferrada. The walker averaged six to seven hours and about 30 kilometers daily, traversing mountains, wet forests, and flat dusty plains. The decision to embark was impulsive after seeing a photograph, accompanied by booking a plane ticket and buying a guidebook. The traveler spoke little Spanish, was heartbroken, low on money, and facing repeated literary rejections. The primary aim was to achieve a blankness of mind and a form of transcendence through ceaseless, mindless walking and encounters with chance.

Read at The Nation