Discovering the Camino

I was at school when I first heard about the Camino, somewhere around 12 years old. I was doing a school project on Pilgrimmages and we had studied the Pilgrimage to Mecca in class. To get some more information I interviewed Becky about her time in Taize and Mum told me about Stuart at Church who had walked to Santiago in Spain.

I wasn't all that interested in finding out more, he was 60 or so and to me back then it seemed ancient, but I took along with he questions that I had asked Becky and did no more preparation than that, I knew nothing at all about the Camino and sat there listening to nightly rituals of washing clothes, seeing everyone sitting around and writing their diaries and miles walked each day.

I heard about a route so few walked that Stuart needed a letter from our vicar saying that he was walking the route as a Christian and of reaching Santiago and having an individual interview with one if Santiago's priests that lasted nearly an hour as Stuart was questioned about his walk and what he had done and experience d to check that he had actually walked as far as he said he had and to check that he had walked in the right spirit. Very different from today's queues and tick-box form, the impersonal process that resembles more a trip to the supermarket's till than what Stuart experienced.

I remember Stuart gave me some postcards of Santiago and a little guidebook before we went back to his living room where Dad and Stuart's wife were talking over a cup of tea. Me and Dad thanked Stuart and just before we left he said to me, 'Maybe one day you'll walk the Camino.' I wonder if he knew what his words would lead to!