Walking the Camino de Santiago

 First published in Options, The Edge, on July 4, 2022 @ https://www.optionstheedge.com/topic/travel/going-distance-walking-camino-de-santiago-spain-and-portugal

The scallop shell, symbolic of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, has a series of converging lines which fuse at the base of the shell. It’s been pointed out that this is representative of the many routes that lead to the cathedral at Santiago de Compostella.

Legend has it that the remains of St James the Greater, Jesus’ disciple, was brought and buried here by his followers after his beheading in Jerusalem.  What was once an unmarked grave has since grown into the great cathedral of today.

A First Timer's Practical Guide to walking the Camino de Santiago

 June, 2022

I wrote this simple guide for those interested in walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain.  It covers in a single place such practicalities as what to bring, accommodation, etc. It is not intended to be a comprehensive 'how-to' guide. There is plenty of information on the Internet on the details of various aspects of the walk. 

A brief note on Planning.

There are many Camino routes.  Do some research and select the one you want to walk, the distance and your starting point. There is no fixed starting point, although practically, people start from towns where they arrive by bus, train or plane. 

 Walking the Camino your way.

There are many ways to walk the Camino:

-          Complete self-sufficiency, carrying everything in a rucksack and deciding each day how far you want to walk.  Many who opt for this will seek out accommodation when they’ve walked far enough for the day.  Walkers can decide how long to walk, whether they want to stay an extra day to rest or go sightseeing in a stopover. There is the uncertainty of finding suitable accommodation at the destination town. During high season, all accommodation can be booked out. Some hotels charge more for walk-ins compared to pre-booking.  The logical stop points are in the larger towns with accommodation.

 -          Going with a company that pre-arranges accommodation. Specialist companies in the Camino can prebook accommodation for you before you leave.  It means a fixed itinerary with a determined distance to walk each day to the booked accommodation. This provides the assurance of accommodation at the end of the day, but also the relative inflexibility of a fixed walking schedule.

 -          Guided:  companies offer full guided services, with a guide familiar with the route who accompanies the walker.  A support vehicle can also be arranged.  The guide provides assurance and local knowledge as well as intimate knowledge of the route and what to look out for.

 

Accommodation

There is a wide range of accommodation on the Camino routes in the larger towns. These suit a variety of needs and budgets. Among them:

-          Albergues are part of the Camino history and tradition, set up to provide shelter to pilgrims. They are usually right on, or very near the actual Camino routes and so are very convenient in terms of location.  Albergues can be public or private, and are usually dormitory style with shared facilities. Typically, they cannot be reserved beforehand, so you turn up and check on availability.   Usually the most inexpensive accommodation on the Camino route.

-          Hotels in urban settings vary widely in terms of quality and price and offer the amenities of typical hotels.

-          Cottages.  These are set in rural areas, usually a little distance away from towns, and may need some extended walking or a taxi ride but they provide a taste of the rural farm life and can be very charming.

-          Apartments, etc through online channels such as AirBnB, Booking.com.

-          Paradors are luxury hotels, which are State run in Spain, usually located in a historic building such as a castle or ex-monastery. The best known of these is the Parador Santiago de Compostella, housed just beside the cathedral Santiago de Compostella. Now a 5-star hotel, it was historically a hospital and an alberque, and considered to be one of the oldest hotels in the world.

 Training

Much depends on the fitness of the individual, there are many online resources which go into detailed training plans and there is no intention to replicate them here. 

There is no fixed distance to walk every day. Generally, assuming a walking pace between 3km/hr and 5km/hr, as a rough guide, daily walks average between 20-30km a day. Camino walks can be tailored to the individual, so distances may be longer or shorter as preferred.  A natural constraint is the availability of accommodation at the end of the walking day.

 

Luggage

-          Carry your own luggage in a rucksack along the way with everything you need.

-          Some companies offer forwarding services: walkers carry a light rucksack with the essentials for that day. Bulky luggage is collected every morning and sent to the next destination for a fee. For this, travelers must have prebooked accommodation at their next destination.

Meals

Most prebooked accommodation can provide breakfast and dinner. If the accommodation is in a rural setting, such as a farm, this may be the only option. Travelers who stay in town can go to a local café or restaurant for their meals.  Meals in Spain are late, lunches start around 1.30pm and dinners start around 8pm or later, which is when restaurant kitchens open.

In the late afternoons, especially in the provincial towns, shops and restaurants close so getting a meal can be difficult.  In the larger towns, some cafes may stay open and offer informal meals such as cold tapas, tortillas and empanadas between meal times.

In the larger towns with a bus or train terminus, there is usually a café open at odd hours to cater to incoming trains and buses. Usually these serve quick, informal meals which do not require kitchen service.

For meals along the trail, there may be cafes to stop at for coffee and snacks. These can be few and far in between along rural stretches. Usually these provide informal easily prepared meals such as empanadas and sandwiches. Some cafes can be crowded with hikers if there are few other cafes along the route during meal times, or if it is raining. 

Travelers should also consider carrying snacks in their rucksacks in case there are no cafes or bars encountered for long stretches, eg, forested trails.

 

What to Bring

-          Walking shoes/boots. Many walkers wear hiking boots, although a good pair of walking shoes will suffice. Make sure that the shoes are broken in and comfortable as you don’t want to develop blisters wearing new shoes on the trail.

-          Sandals/informal shoes for after hiking each day.

-          Socks.  Woolen socks with good padding are recommended.

-          Raincoat/poncho

-          Sunglasses. The sun can be very harsh in the afternoons.

-          Water bottle

-          Trail food/snacks (optional)

-          Hiking pants should be light and well ventilated with pockets. Avoid wearing jeans.

-          Walking jersey/T shirt made from quick drying synthetic material.

-          Jacket/fleece for cold weather

-          Torchlight

-          Personal medication

-          Toiletries

-          Hat/cap

-          Sunscreen

-          Rucksack/Day bag

-          Camera

-          Chargers for camera/smartphone

-          Walking poles (optional, depending on preference)

-          Plastic bags for rubbish while walking.

 

Navigation

The route is well marked with milestones and other markers, so if you don’t see a marker after some time, there’s a good chance you’ve gone off route.  If there are locals around, they are usually very obliging in helping travelers.  There are also many smartphone navigation apps for the Camino, eg, Camino Ninja which can be downloaded and installed.

Markers feature a stylized scallop shell design and/or a yellow arrow.

It is easier to go off-route in towns with many buildings and streets.

 

Others

A local prepaid SIM card is recommended to avoid expensive roaming charges. These can be purchased at the airport or in towns. Useful for communicating with accommodation, for local navigation, eg, finding the way to your hotel in town, as well as browsing for information on stopovers or places to eat, etc.  

 

The Pilgrim’s Certificate

To be eligible for a Pilgrim’s certificate, or compostella, issued at the Pilgrim’s Office in Santiago de Compostella, travelers must walk the last 100km of the Camino, or complete 200km if riding a bicycle or a horse.

The Pilgrim’s certificate is written in Latin script. After a short interview, if the traveler is eligible, the certificate is issued with the traveler’s name and the date of certificate issue. There is no charge for the certificate.

A longer “distance” certificate with additional details is optionally available for a fee of 3 Euro at the time of writing.

 

The Pilgrim’s Credencial (“Passport”)

The credencial is a document carried by the traveler which is stamped along the Camino, like a passport. The credencial can be purchased for a nominal fee at the starting point at churches and pilgrim’s offices.

Businesses and churches on the Camino can stamp the credencial as proof that the traveler stopped at the said point along the way.  The traveler should collect a minimum of 2 stamps a day. Hotels, alberques, churches, tourist offices, restaurants, cafes and bars can stamp the credecial.

The credencial is presented at the Pilrim’s Office in Santiago de Compostella to prove that the traveler did cover the distance in order to be eligible for a Pilgrim’s Certificate.

 

 

Feedback and comments can be sent to me, Lee Yu Kit, at leeyuk9@gmail.com

 

Hiking Indonesia's Highest Volcano

First published in Options, The Edge Malaysia, May 22, 2017

Pain is so close to pleasure, terror a heartbeat away from sublime beauty

SB felt a draught on the back of his neck and turned around.  The back door of the van had worked itself loose.  It was now flapping freely, exposing the luggage compartment where our luggage was stored, and some of the luggage was missing, having tumbled out of the back. And we hadn’t even started our hike.

Our journey had begun some 8 hours earlier at Padang, the hot, bustling capital of West Sumatra province, best known for nasi padang, rice with often fiery condiments.  The journey had taken us to the highlands, dense with shaggy forests and extensive tea plantations, past the tranquil lake of Danau Atas, into the lowlands with quiet villages and through a heavy rainstorm that flooded the already rutted road in parts, and finally to the village of Kersik Tuo. 

At The Top of Java

First published in The Star, Adventure, October 5, 2015

Tumpang was a mere 90 minutes away by 4WD, yet it could have been a world removed, one of muggy, crowded lowlands, sclerotic traffic spewing poison from tailpipes, padi fields squeezed into unused chinks of land, and villages overgrown into each other in a single, incoherent mess.

But here, the sky was blue and uncluttered, vegetable farms climbed steep slopes on terraces, the air was cool and light. In the distance, emitting puffs of smoke on a regular basis, was the grey ash cone of Gunung Semeru. We passed by the epic caldera of Bromo, the earth blistered, its crust peeled back aeons ago, and healed in balmy grassland beneath a magically clear sky.

The village of Ranu Pane was nestled in a valley between terraced vegetable fields, lush with leek. It was a prosperous village of neat brick houses, tiled roofs and satellite dishes, in the highlands at 2100 masl. The 13 of us started our hike here, led by the amiable Agus, who had lost count of the number of times he had ascended Gunung Semeru.

The Javanese refer to the volcano as Mahameru, the heavenly mountain abode in Hindu mythology, an acknowledgment of the Majapahit-era religion, pockets of which cling tenaciously in small populations in the Tengger highlands, and for its status as the tallest volcano in Java.

The trail led through cool, dense forest at an easy amble, and by lunchtime we came across the valley where the forest yielded to grassland, the smooth curve of the valley widening into the bowl shaped receptacle which held the lake of Ranu Kumbolo. 

Climbing Number 5

An account of climbing Gunung Chamah, 2008

Hikers, lovers of things that are better left wild and undeveloped, know of the G-7, the seven mountains or “gunongs” in Peninsula Malaysia that are higher than 7000 feet.  At 7123 feet above sea level, Gunong Chamah is Number 5.  It is one of the more remote and less accessible mountains on the long mountainous spine of the country, but it happens to be the last one to climb on my list of the G-7.

For over 4 hours, I and my fellow climbers share the back of the Toyota 4WD pickup with rucksacks, dodging stray strands of rattan, bracing ourselves as we slide and wheelspin on muddy stretches, and inhaling through bandanas in the clouds of yellow dust thrown up by passing timber lorries. 

Around us is the blasted, damaged landscape of logged forest.  Occasionally we pass a timber camp, a blister of red and bleeding earth under scorching sun in what was once lush rainforest.  

Some 56 km later, we grind to a stop at a small orang asli settlement, on the fringe of dense, as yet unlogged, forest. This is Pos Rekom, comprising a few families. They are drying jungle produce in the sun - cut up portions of the fabulous Rafflesia.