People go on pilgrimages for many different reasons:

Religious reasons

• An act of devotion to God in exchange for a miracle
• An act of penance for sins, a way of saying sorry
• In order to touch a holy relic which can bring good fortune or a miraculous cure
• To experience a feeling of spiritual connection and being closer to God

A personal spiritual journey

• An escape from daily life in order to reflect on and receive guidance
• Put everything back in perspective, bring back proper proportion to your life
• To reflect on your life and its direction
• A chance to create space to let your spirit stretch
• Just to take some time out
• Space and time to get back to the basic things, to show there is so little we need

Social reasons

• An adventure, to meet people, see places and stretch your legs
• Curiosity- why do people go and what happens to them at their destination
• Camaraderie of other travelers, sharing experiences and stories
• To experience local culture, enjoy small towns, sample history
• To learn/improve your Spanish
• Celebrate a life passage
• Be part of an ancient ritual
• To inspire your children and grandchildren

A healthy challenge

• A physical and mental challenge
• To go for a long distance walk
• Do something different and interesting
• Doing things is more important than watching
• Because you’ve got to do something
• Looking for a sense of accomplishment
• To live a journey not seek a destination

So why are we doing this?

We first became aware of the Camino about five years ago when Barbara was attracted by a newspaper story of a woman walking part of the way. Then last year we saw the documentary movie Walking the Camino: Six ways to Santiago. This reawakened our interest and we thought well why not? We have the means, the time and hopefully the energy. We then saw the movie The Way, read dozens of books and blogs, and watched a heap of You Tube videos.

We knew if we didn’t do it now then we would never do it so we took the plunge and made some bookings.

For us it is not a pilgrimage. We are not doing it for religious reasons, and probably not for spiritual reasons although who knows what effect the experience will have on the rest of our lives.

It is an adventure and a challenge. Something to take us out of our comfort zone.

An adventure to experience another culture and learn something of the history of that culture.

A physical challenge to attempt a long distance walk.

We also tend to like journeys where progress is made by your own physical effort. We have enjoyed long distance sea kayak and cycling trips and hikes of 3 or 4 days but this was the chance to experience what for us will be a really long walk.

Even if you don’t “find yourself” along the way you’ll definitely find something to tell your friends when you get back.