Day 12 – The “true” pilgrim.

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This is where I stayed last night, in the Municipal church albergue in Belorado. The price was by donation – I donated €10.

I left early this morning – by 6:30am, after having a wonderful breakfast of coffee and toast and marmalade, made by one of the hospitaleros who was helping run the place.

Truly wonderful people.

This morning was the coldest I’ve experienced so far. There was frost everywhere, and without gloves it was bitterly cold. Clear skies though, and soon the light was soft and golden.

The first section of the walk today was through green cultivated fields, and through a series of small villages. After about 2 hrs, and 8 kms, I stopped for my usual two coffees. There I met up with a young aspiring filmmaker from Austria – Emanuel – whom I’d met briefly yesterday.

We set off together and talked movies – he asked me what was my favourite film of all time, and I told him The Tenant, by Roman Polanski. He’d not heard of Polanski, and then I told him he should look at The Godfather Pts 1 & 2, 2001 A Space Odyssey and Paths of Glory, Blood Simple, Jean Luc Godard’s Breathless, Vertigo, Lawrence of Arabia, and anything that Billy Wilder has made.

I bought lunch today from a supermercado. Big mistake. Yesterday I was caught without anything to eat. I’d walked to a town expecting to either pick up a meal at a pub, or buy something from a store. But there was nothing. No stores – and the only restaurant refused entry to pilgrims. It’s the first negativity I’ve struck on the camino. The owner of the restaurant got quite aggressive when I walked in with my backpack and sticks.

I smiled, wished him Buen Camino, and left.

The reason it was a mistake buying the food for lunch was that I then had to haul it up a series of huge hills. One pear, one orange, one banana, one baguette, one packet of sliced ham, one quadrant of cheese, and a bottle of Gatorade. Doesn’t sound much, but when every gram counts, it was damn heavy.

It was then a long 12 km walk to the next town, and by this stage the sun was high but the wind still had a bite to it. My knee has now settled down – it’s still sore from time to time, but the swelling has reduced back almost to normal. The heel blister is still painful, but it’s on the mend. And the shin soreness has refused to let up. But the best thing for me to do was to walk – and on these long stretches that’s when your mind begins to really kick in on things that have been percolating on the Camino.

What I began to think about was a lovely elderly couple I’d met at the buffet breakfast in the hotel at Santo Domingo. They were doing the Camino in stages – meaning they’d done some of it last year, and they were doing some this year. They always stayed in the best available hotels – never the pilgrim albergues – and they got a transport service to carry their bags ahead.

The woman, when explaining this to me, looked up at me guiltily and said: “We’re not true pilgrims.”

And it got me thinking – what is a true pilgrim?

I noticed that someone had posted on a Camino forum a couple of days ago a comment about my progress, excoriating me for doing a couple of 30km+ days, and saying a “true” pilgrim does about 20-24kms a day.

That too got me thinking.

So I looked up the definition of a pilgrim. It’s a traveler from afar who is on a journey to a holy place. By that definition, the couple from Britain, at the buffet breakfast, were definitely pilgrims. I’m probably more of a pilgrim because I’ve come from Australia, which is further “afar.” Ha ha.

But it’s funny how we like to categorise and judge.

For instance, the bloke who had a go at me for doing a couple of long days – implicit in his criticism of me was that I was somehow less of a pilgrim for going so far each day, and perhaps missing spiritual meaning along the way.

As I did this long hard 12 km stretch, I started to muse –

  • What about the person who crawls on his knees carrying a heavy cross on his back, all the way from his front door in Brittany to Santiago – is he more or less a pilgrim than the person who gets off a bus in Sarria and walks with a tourist group the last 100 kms to the Cathedral?
  • What about the person who rides a mule, as against the person who rides a mountain bike?
  • Way about the person who carries his or her own backpack as against someone who gets it taxied ahead each day?
  • What about someone who walks the whole way listening to rap music on their iPod, as against someone who walks with a vow of silence? Or saying their rosary the whole way?
  • What about someone who takes a bus for some of the way?
  • What about someone who walks with an umbrella instead of a staff, which is what I saw today!

Which are the true pilgrims?

We’re very quick to judge, and to categorise. Making judgements about people, based on the external.

Judgement of others is at the heart of racism, hate crimes, discrimination of all kinds. Judgement makes us feel good, because implicit in judgement is that we’re better than the person we’re judging.

We’re better informed, we’re smarter, we’re more cultured or more sophisticated, we have perspectives or wealth or status that the person we’re judging doesn’t have.

But really, aren’t we all just soul energies swaddled in transient corporeal bodies that soon will decay and die?

What is a true pilgrim? Anyone who takes the pilgrim trail to Santiago. No matter how, or why. It’s what’s in their heart that defines them as a pilgrim, and who are we to know what that is, far less to judge it…

28 thoughts on “Day 12 – The “true” pilgrim.”

  1. Great thoughts on what is a “true”pilgrim. I just got back from doing my weekend training “camino” walks. I look a sight with all my gear on, backpack filled, and only missing my walking poles cause I have not bought them yet. Some people smile, some give me bewildered looks, and I’m sure some think I’m nuts as they walk on by. Well, they are doing exactly what I would have done before I learned about el camino, judge me from my appearance. Ashamed to admit it but I do it all the time without thinking. Now that I am more aware that when I judge others I do it out of ignorance I try to “see” the other person’s point of view. Maybe the spirit of what you are experiencing is working on me to hopefully make me a better person. Adelante y ánimo, peregrino. Buen camino.

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  2. Thank you so much for sharing the way as you go along. I am planning on doing this walk next year and find your blog very helpful, inspiring and beautiful!! Bless you and may you have travel mercies!!

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  3. Just read your blog so far and it has been great and also valuable. Friend advised me yesterday of it so I am now up to date with you. My wife and I are walking behind you, starting May 16th, so you have brought it all alive. The humanest of your writings and thoughts are great. Have you had to make any of your reservations ahead or are you just winging it, which would be my preference, but from a practical standpoint…….

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    • Hi HH, have only made reservation ahead in Leon, because my arrival will probably coincide with May Day, which is a big party time there.

      I am approaching this very intuitively, using my PGS, and trusting that the right place will present itself at the right time of each day. And so far it’s worked – I’ve only ever stayed in the best and most welcoming places! Bill

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    • Hi Wayfarer, yes, bought the Sellick – it’s worked on my left foot, however I believe I got the blister on my right foot when my right knee went bung, and I dramatically had to change my footfall. Bill

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  5. Ahhh yes I know it well – judgement! What a waste of time and energy! I love your thoughtfulness and measured thinking on these things Bill. I must admit that my own journey through life has thrown these questions up time & again. I am a devout atheist – but yet a pilgrim nonetheless in that I seek a spiritual place and the journey – like yours – seems to be the destination! I wonder when you reach Santiago will you be ‘there’? From what I’ve read of your thoughts up to now I doubt it – I think you will remember the journey for what you learnt, what you felt, what you experienced and all the other things you have written of – but not how quick or what way you did it or indeed whether you did it ‘right’. Every journey seems to be a destination and here’s the thing – it’s YOUR journey and nobody else’s – so how does anyone else know what you’re supposed to get from it or what the right way to do it is? You only have one way to do these things – your own. Walk on – and as the song says – Go Your Own Way…….

    Best, Tim xx

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    • You’re right Tim. I’m actually going to write on this later – your experiences and your mistakes are yours uniquely – and you learn as much from your mistakes, or more, than from your good times!

      I can never hope to replicate someone else’s good time on the Camino. Bill

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  6. Bill, another great post. Thanks!

    Judging other people really boils down to slapping a label on someone. When we’ve categorized them that way, we tend no longer to think of them as a ‘real’ person and instead view them purely by the label they wear. Thus we never get to know the ‘real’ person, and everything they do is colored by our skewed preconceptions. Man, I hate that… but I do it all the time.

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  7. … Then again, we also do a pretty good job of slapping labels on ourselves (like your lady said “We’re not true pilgrims.”), and end up pouring judgment & burdens on our own heads.

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  8. Bravo!!! Bill. What an amazing quest you have chosen to embark on. The Road to Santiago is on my bucket list. I send you the Light so that you may find everything you’re looking for, but more specifically, yourSELF.

    With Divine love, Anastasia

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  9. I am loving your blog. I hit the trail in August….which is coming up fast now….so Im enjoying hearing your thoughts and solutions to the barriers that have popped up in front of you.
    I must admit…I am loving the photos of all the other pilgrims…. I am taking notes of their footwear, their backpacks, socks (if I can see them), their gear.

    You are doing so well……Bill!!!!!
    You must be pinching yourself sometimes that you are there and doing it.

    Looking forward to tomorrows blog.

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  10. Hi Bill, envying you now because you are walking and I am not – but also re-living my own journeys on the camino so thanks for that. – Enjoy your experience, wishing you a light rucksack, hearty meals, company when you need it, and endless wonder at the newness of places and things as you discover them.

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  11. Very nice, Bill. Hope you are feeling better. I can’t believe the restaurant owner who refused to serve you. This is part if the camino, how ine deals with rejection. I think im pretty good at it. I always think that it was in my best interest to be rejected. Something better is in store for me.

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    • That’s very true. I couldn’t believe the guy’s nasty energy. The only way to deal with it is wish him the best and leave. He obviously has stuff he has to work through. Bill

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  12. Thank you so much Bill for taking the time each day to write this blog. I look forward to it and get great encouragement and inspiration for my upcoming planned trip next year.

    Enjoy your Camino!

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  13. Dear Bill, I did ‘only’ the last 300 km from Leon, exactly a year ago and was only recently told about your blog by one of my fellow pilgrims. I too spent a lot of time taking photos and ‘see’ that world in a very similar way to you, so looking at the earlier part of The Way through your camera and words are an amazing experience. Thank you so very much for sharing.

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  14. Bill, I am inspired by your photos, writing and openness of heart. You are certainly giving a very real insight into the Camino experience. I leave from Leon in late September, after the very long journey from NSW South Coast, so am following your blog with added personal interest.
    How did you manage the effects of long haul travel?

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  15. Hi, Bill, I’ve enjoyed reading your posts.You are too right about people making hasty judgments about others. It’s not as if there is any benefit to doing that (except to boost the ego?). My best friend and I will be on the camino in one and a half weeks – on bikes and staying in hotels and starting from Leon and stopping at Santiago. Does that make us less of a pilgrim? We could have picked anywhere else in the world to go (for the view, for the challenge, for bragging rights) but we opted for The Way, for the experience – spiritual, emotional, physical. Hoping to feel the solidarity of being part of the people who have gone before us and will go after us. Perhaps one day, we will go back and do it on foot.

    We’re rooting for you as you continue on your journey. Buen camino!

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