Camino: no pain, all gain

This 800-plus kilometre trek has been wearily trudged by pilgrims across Spain’s north for more than 1000 years. Their destination is the cathedral in the city of Santiago de Compostela, where it is believed the remains of the apostle St James, patron saint of Spain, are buried.

It takes about a month to complete, providing you walk about 30km a day, and is said to challenge every fibre of your being.

Not me! There’s enough pain involved in reaching a milestone of 73 without adding to it!

But fortunately there’s another way to experience this truly amazing journey through history that has all the bells and whistles and none of the pain and suffering – well maybe just a little bit.

Last year 19 fun-loving Aussie seniors packed boots and bags and headed to Spain for what turned out to be a trip of a lifetime – The Best of the Camino.

Our journey was specifically designed for our group by AndaSpain, a Spanish-based travel company run by two enterprising young women who had spent many years working as Camino guides. Ten years ago they went out on their own to provide travellers with different types of Camino experiences.

Our 18-day journey started in the Spanish Pyrenees and finished on the rugged Atlantic coast at Finisterre, once thought to be the place where the world ended.

The intention was to walk about one quarter of the Camino, about 230km, and bus the less interesting parts. Our longest walking day was 24km; our shortest 11.

But we could walk as much or as little as we wanted because we had our own personal hop-on hop-off bus. Each day our “mother-ship” would be waiting for us at pre-arranged spots to pick up the weary, put down the rested or refill water bottles and replenish energy levels with cake, fruit and chocolate.

Modern, dedicated, Camino “pilgrims” carry their possessions on their backs and sleep in crowded hostel dormitories with snoring pilgrims – if they are lucky!

Not us. Our nightly accommodation would rate five stars every time on anyone’s scale. Our luggage was waiting for us in our hotel room when we arrived, and was whisked away again the next morning.

Then there was the food: thousands and thousands of calories of it. Delicious food, all generously tempered with the wines of Spain and many jugs of sangria!

The weather was perfect and the incredible and varied scenery we experienced was truly a feast for the senses.

We strode through thickets of oak, beech wood, birch, chestnut, maple, pine and eucalypt forests, enjoyed endless plains of corn fields bursting with scarlet poppies and azure cornflowers, and pretty pebble paths running through meadows overhung with hedgerows heavy with flowers.

For four days we left that well-worn track and headed north to enjoy the coast and visit the stunning Picos De Europa national park, hiking the dizzily steep and rugged Cares Gorge and ambling along emerald green grassy cliffs with panoramic views of wide sandy beaches and rolling surf pinned under brilliant blue skies – part of the Camino del Norte, another route pilgrims use to get to Santiago.

Back on the Compostela Trail we navigated fertile farmlands, neat medieval villages and larger towns. And our way was always clearly marked with scallop shells or distinctive yellow arrows.

Each of us walked at our own pace, comfortably spread along the trail.

Our walking was peppered with interesting side excursions such as a visit to an archaeological dig where the earliest evidence of humans in Western Europe has just been discovered.

We spent a fun evening with a traditional cider maker. We were invited to the oldest winery in the famous Rioja region and forced to sample their wines and eat in their Michelin star restaurant.

There were many great experiences, too many to list here, culminating in a nervously grabbed bird’s eye view of Santiago as we scrambled over the rooftops of the cathedral!

By no stretch of the imagination would you call our journey along The Way of St James a pilgrimage – but, hell, we had fun doing it. So much fun, in fact, we have unanimously rated The Best of the Camino a 12 out of 10.