June 1 – Dave and I had a great day walking around Elk/Beaver Lakes with Susanne today. We all had a taste of the Vegemite that fellow Camino For Good pilgrim, Annette Schaab, kindly sent to me. As instructed, we spread it very thinly on top of toasted/buttered sourdough bread. Wow! Vegemite does have a unique flavour unlike anything else. It reminds me of molasses and not just because it looks similar. Yup! I think it is possible to acquire…
April 24 – Janine, Dave, and I walked the “Camino For Good Virtual Camino,” leaving St. Jean Pied de Port on January 15th and arriving in Santiago de Compostela 87 days later on April 11th. We had such a good time doing it, that on April 22nd Janine and I hitched a ride back to St. Jean de Port (pressed the reset button) to begin the virtual journey again. Janine is in Australia and I am in Canada but we…
April 13 – As much as we love Santiago, we are glad to be heading to Finisterre – virtually, of course! Finisterre (Fisterra) is the westernmost point of the Iberian Peninsula. In Roman times it was believed to be the end of the known world. Dave and I went to Finisterre by bus in 2019 but this time Janine, David and I will walk. I actually got a head start this morning with a 7.8 km walk to and around Sidney…
St. Jean Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostela – 779.9 km (January 15 to April 11, 2021) As strange as this may sound, Dave and I arrived in Santiago de Compostela today. Virtually, of course! Since January 15, 2021 when the “Camino For Good Virtual Camino” kicked off, we have walked 779.9 km here on Vancouver Island. At the same time, we have logged our distances onto the map of the Camino Francés, enjoyed stunning scenery, visited lovely villages…
St. Jean Pied de Port to Leon, 466 km (January 15 – March 7) The “Camino For Good Virtual Camino” kicked off on January 15, 2021 when Dave and I (virtually) left St. Jean Pied de Port, France, on the ancient pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. As of March 7th, we have walked 466 km and arrived in Leon. We are more than half way to Santiago with just 313.9 km to go. At our current pace, we should…
St. Jean Pied de Port to Burgos, 284.6 km The “Camino for Good Virtual Camino” kicked off on January 15, 2021. It is a virtual 780 km walk along the ancient Camino Frances pilgrimage route from St. Jean Pied de Port, France, to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Details can be found HERE. Dave and I thought doing this Virtual Camino would be a great motivator to get us out walking on a regular basis, and it sure has been! Even…
Like many other pilgrims last year, our plans to walk the Camino came to a screeching halt when the pandemic came along. We were packed and ready to head to Spain at the end of March, so cancelling a cruise, flights, and reservations instead was a huge disappointment. This was eventually replaced with a concerted effort to “be kind, be calm, be safe” while staying put here in Western Canada. Dave and I got as far as Bilbao along the…
A couple of days ago (August 2, 2019) I wrote to say videos are now embedded in each blog post about our recent “Three Caminos in One.” That project led to doing the same thing with our 2015 Camino Frances blog. To see them, go to the “Home” page and click on “The Camino Frances, Fall 2015 blog.” The videos are at the bottom of every blog post. A four-year-old blog might be like “old news” compared with “breaking news,”…
Whew! Dave and I have been home for almost two months and can finally say we have come to the end of “Three Caminos in One.” Dave created 32 videos and they are now embedded in most blog posts. Because I took fewer photos on my solo walk along the Camino Frances for 16 days, they are collapsed into just three shows that appear at the end of blog posts on Day 5, 8, and 16. There is a video…
According to the Compostelas we received in Santiago, the official distance for the Camino Primitivo from Oviedo is 315 km. Our All Trails app shows our distance as 349.1 km. Maybe the difference accounts for such things as getting lost or looking for food or our albergue. We visited the Cathedral but took no photos because of restoration work taking place to the interior. (Photos of the interior of the cathedral on shown in our 2015 blog.) The restoration is…