4. How long can you camino?
Will you have time to stop and smell the roses?
In a perfect world, we won’t have any other commitments to attend to and can start and finish walking the Camino whenever we’d like. But, for most, it’s not a perfect world. With life’s commitments competing for our attention, you’ll most likely need to determine your start and finish dates before you go.
I did meet some wonderful characters along the Camino who had walked for four months, from their door in Europe. How I envied them.
The time you take is something personal – this is your camino. Only you can decide what is best for you.
Some people run the camino and are proud to do it in a very short time. Personally, I don’t understand how they can connect with the Camino by racing through it, BUT, it is THEIR camino and they should do it as they wish.
Many walk long days and get it done in 28 days, but must miss out on siesta and a post-nap look around the town.
If you’re not obsessed with getting it done as quickly as possible, and have a good amount of annual leave up your sleeve, my advice is to take your time. You’ll not only avoid injuries, but really feel the magic, meet the people and take in the sights, sounds and smells. Give yourself time to take a detour off the path to find a castle or cross an ancient bridge, or spend a few days in a village to get to know the culture of the beautiful people and historical town. Importantly, you’ll need time up your sleeve to rest your body if it needs a little extra rest.
There is a handy guide showing the profile stages based on 34 days, so with a day in Santiago before you fly out that’s 5 weeks. However, if you can, plan for a day off walking at least once per week.
If possible, start off with shorter walks to ease your body into long-distance walking mode. My first day was 16.5km and a few weeks later I did 30km. I found the 30km too long, a tad boring, and I didn’t experience the ‘magic’ of the way.
I also took a detour to meet a family in Leon, and then caught up by catching a train from Leon to Burgos, so I missed the flat fields that are considered to be mind-numbingly boring by many pilgrims. Perhaps that is where we do our best thinking?
My perfect camino would be… 40 days from St Juan Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostela. Plenty of rest days and chances to explore.
Once you’ve done your Camino, tell me your thoughts on what worked best for you. How long did you take to do the Camino? If you were to do the camino again, what would you change?