Rev. Éric Hébert-Daly spent June and July 2024 walking the Camino del Norte, the Camino Lebaniego, the Camino Primitivo, the Camino Inglés and the Camino Muxia/Finistera as part of his sabbatical. He walked 1458kms carrying his backpack across mountains, fields and coasts while holding communities of faith and ministry personnel in prayer. Éric will share some insights of his journey over the coming months. Thank you to Judy Coffin, Communications staff in Conseil régional Nakonha:ka Regional Council for her work in posting these reflections. You will see below that I have linked to her blog posts and each post will open in a new tab so you won’t lose this page as you read through the reflections.
Camino Reflections
Alone – As many will have heard, my decision to walk the Camino was rooted in a need to strengthen my ‘solitude muscles’ and to find balance with my normal extraverted tendencies. During my process to becoming a minister, the psychologist who did my assessment qualified me as a ‘galloping extrovert’ beyond anyone he had met in his 40 years of service. He warned me of the importance to develop some resilience in times of solitude. The Camino seemed like the right place to hone these skills when it came time for my sabbatical. I even chose the lesser traveled paths in an effort to keep me focused on this goal.
I walked alone about 75% of the time, even had some days where I didn’t encounter a single other pilgrim as I walked. I never felt alone. Prayer and reflection time was ample and it was savoured. So while I don’t think I changed my essential nature, I learned that I didn’t mind my own company, and ultimately the accompaniment of the Spirit which was ever-present. Continue reading HERE.
Encounters – “Walk your own Camino” was a refrain I heard from many folks before I left for Spain. It didn’t take long for me to realize the importance of that. Some people naturally walked faster or slower than my natural pace. Sometimes I would adjust my speed in the interests of engaging with them, but walking at a pace that is not your own is uncomfortable, regardless of whether it is faster or slower.
On the first day, I encountered two people walking together – Hans from Germany and José from Peru. They wanted me to walk with them, which I did for a while. At one point Hans and José were going much faster than I was, and Hans would call back ‘Come on! Let’s go!’… but ultimately, I knew I couldn’t keep up with Hans – a marathon runner. I had to let myself be comfortable with letting them go on without me. I would later learn that José walked too fast to try and keep up with Hans and was having problems with his feet days later. Walk your own Camino. Continue reading HERE.
Hospitality – As a pilgrimage, the Camino has been around for about 1200 years. When people were walking it, either by choice or by requirement for penance, they were doing so at great peril. While the path I walked wasn’t an easy one, I can only imagine what the early years must have been like… finding food, protection from the elements, getting lost, having shelter for the night… these are things that modern pilgrims may find challenging, but they are well cared for and benefit from many guides, arrows and albergues (the pilgrim hostels).
There were sections of the Camino del Norte and particularly along the Camino Primitivo where services like water, food and accommodation were in rare supply. Stretches of 25kms without a single house or service when you needed to carry everything you would need for the day since you couldn’t rely on a coffee shop or grocery store.
The Camino Primitivo has a particular day called ‘Los Hospitales’ where you climb to the top of a series of mountains and walk along their peaks for an extended period of time. It is described as the most difficult and the most beautiful stage of any Camino. Along ridges of this walk, you find the ruins of old hospitals that were once a key stopping point for pilgrims. The hospitals were purposefully built far outside of towns so that the ill wouldn’t make the townsfolk sick as well. Walking along the ruins of these hospitals gave me a deep sense of walking on hallowed and sacred ground. One of these hospitals closed in the middle of the 20th century, so its ruins are far less ‘ruined’ than many of the others. But I spent quite a bit of time that day in this space, considering the incredible support and gift that these hospitals represented, and those who staffed them. Continue reading HERE.
Mud – There are times when walking the Camino that the conditions were less than ideal. Walking the Camino del Norte from the Spanish/French border meant that my first day of walking included 32kms and 1000m of climbing and another 1000m of descending. It was a bit of a baptism by fire, not having been able to spend a lot of time climbing mountains in my part of the world. But my most difficult day wasn’t as a result of the mountains, it was related to the rain and mud.
Climbing a muddy slope, I was grateful to have my walking poles with me. There were moments when I would take a step and slide back half way for hours at a time, and other times when my feet would just stick to the ground like a suction cup and I had to pry my foot out of the mud with each step. The only time I ever fell in 60 days of walking, was because of the mud. Thankfully, I fell into the bushes and not completely into the mud. Continue reading HERE.
Stinging Nettles – There is a lot of wisdom along the path. One particularly long day, about three weeks into my journey, I encountered a seasoned walker who had done many different paths, but doing the Camino del Norte for the first time. He was an avid gardener. In fact, he was the gardener of a local monastery in his home town in Germany. He would stop frequently to admire various flowers, both in and out of the many gardens you would encounter along the journey.
Many of the flowers in northern Spain were unfamiliar to me. Others were familiar to me but seemed to grow much bigger than the varieties I had seen back home. The intricate petals and the beautiful plants were that day’s learning for me.
At one point, he stopped to show me some stinging nettle. He explained that this is a ‘power plant’ for walkers since the flowers carried significant proportions of protein and had healing properties in them. Pulling a few flowers from these plants and consuming them would be a boost to your system as you walked. He did this, and pulled a few flowers off for me as well.
This was not a wildflower I was very familiar with, but I would discover that they were a frequent presence along the road. I listened and learned much from my new walking companion that day. Continue reading HERE.
Mobile Village – What is often described as the most beautiful Camino, and also one of the most challenging, is the Camino Primitivo. It starts in Oviedo, and cuts through the mountains between the Camino del Norte and the Camino Frances. For most people it is a 13 day walk to Santiago, with an extra two days if you start from the Camino del Norte at Villaviciosa.
There are many things that make this particular path an interesting walk. It is the oldest and the one that is described as the path of the very first pilgrim in the year 814. It is far less traveled than most caminos. It contains some ancient ruins of pilgrim hospitals. It also has far less services (cafés, bars, restaurants, water fountains and accommodations) than other paths, which means that everyone walking tends to stop in the same places, usually about 25 to 30kms apart.
This fact has an odd effect on the experience. It means that you end up in a cohort of pilgrims that you largely see each day for two weeks. While many walk alone or with one other companion, we all find one another at the village where we all stop to sleep that night. The cohort finds each other at a local bar or restaurant to reconnect after the day’s walk. I began to call it my mobile village. Continue reading HERE.