What can you learn walking 1000km?

My Camino Frances to Santiago Journey

At the risk of being a little self-indulgent this month, I want to share with my network my recent adventure.  The stories, the lessons and the experience of my Camino Frances pilgrimage. The Camino de Santiago, or Way of St. James, is an ancient pilgrimage ending in Santiago de Compostela. There are several routes, but I decided on the original and the longest route called the Camino Frances.

I am a social being.  I am with people day after day training, speaking, coaching and attending events.   In my downtime, I am fortunate to have a wonderful network of family and friends. I do work alone from my home studio so it’s not like I don’t spend time by myself, and I travel for work by myself, but I have never been on a holiday or travelled extensively solo.

However, after learning about the Camino Frances trail a few years ago, I knew it was something I would attempt one day and I wanted to go and experience it all by myself.

My solo adventure began

On April 21st,  I boarded a plane to Paris with nothing but my backpack filled with everything I was going to need and carry for an 800km trek from France, over the Pyrenees Mountains and across Spain.

I was excited.  Woohoo, a 6 week break from my normal routine and an adventure like no other.

I was nervous. I had been training with my backpack but a foot injury the month before I left halted my training.  How on earth was I going to walk 25-30km every single day for 40 days in a row? I was 58 years old and not as fit as I would have liked before I left but there was no turning back now.

I was determined. I was going to finish, even if it took me 6 months and I was crawling.

I set out on April 24th from a quaint village called Saint Jean Pied de Port in France, the starting point of the Camino Frances route, without knowing a soul, I just took a breath, joined the trail and started walking. 38 days later I danced into Santiago de Compostela with my feet and body still in fine form and was welcomed by one of my beautiful Camino friends. The journey was amazing, brutal, challenging, empowering, peaceful and exhilarating. Sometimes all within the same hour.  The actual hike was just under 800km but with a few variation routes and wondering around villages, my Garmin tracker clocked a little over 1000km and more than 1,000,0000 steps.  38 days in a row, without a day off.

As I hugged my welcoming friend Jackie, who was on crutches, as sadly she was injured on the trail and couldn’t continue after walking 500km, I was filled with emotion. The tears fell and they wouldn’t stop. I looked around, others who had reached the Cathedral square at the same time were also looking up at this monstrous Cathedral in tears too,  bursting with both personal pride of what they had just accomplished and holding tight a bucket full of Camino memories.
There was relief and sadness as we knew our Camino journey was done!

What did I learn?

There were many lessons along ‘The Way’.  Some of my experience may provide some food for thought for you at work and in life, some lessons are just for me but I hope at least one or two lessons will inspire you to step out of your comfort zone and start your own adventure, whatever that may be.

1. There is never a perfect time to go. Put it in the diary and make your next adventure work. It all starts with a decision.
2. Could you go solo? Although I started off solo,  I never had a meal by myself, unless I chose to. A Camino family (as you call them) the kindred souls you collect along the way were integral to my end goal,  my joy and the need for human connection. Your Camino family is made up of a diverse group of people from all over the world,  who you bump into every second or third day in a cafe, in your accommodation or on the trail. And you hug them like you have known them forever. I learnt so much from every single person.
3. You are enough.  No-one expects anything from you, they don’t care what you do for a living or how you run your life or home, they don’t care how you dress (toe socks and sandals were considered cool though).  Kindness and compassion were the only currency.
4. Preparation is everything.  From learning to tie my shoelaces in a heel lock, to listening deeply to others who have trekked the trail before me. From trying out everything down to my undies before I left to strolling the Perth hills with my 8kg backpack on for hours on end.
5. It’s no-one else’s journey. I chose to carry my backpack every step of the way; others had their backpack sent forward.  Some winged their accommodation, I preferred to know where I was sleeping each day, even if it was only one day in advance. Some walked 10km per day,  others walked 32km per day.  My sweet spot for being blister and pain free was between 20-25km per day. Some liked rest days, I preferred to walk every day, even if it was a short day.  It was not a competition. If you listened closely to your body and trusted your instincts, you were more likely to make it to the end.
6. Enjoy your own company.  Although I walked with others often, I was an early starter. My favourite part of the day was my solo km just before sunrise. However, the rest of the day was filled with long chats, pilgrim dinners and making new friends. I also knew that a private room for sleeping after all that socialising is what I needed for my downtime, so I booked them often.
7. You are stronger than you think. Although I was very fortunate that my feet and body played nicely, I did get sick, the Camino flu.  I recovered quickly but I did walk for 28km in the rain that day with no voice over a mountain. I focused on one step at a time. I knew after tackling this day that I was going to make it all the way to Santiago!
8. Respect is everything.  Many times, you are sharing rooms with others. Everyone needed to sleep well,  people don’t always manage pain, blisters and mental exhaustion the same as everyone else,  and be generous but sensible with all your belongings. Sometimes people need something more than you.
9. Routine isn’t always boring.  Walk, eat, sleep and repeat (and do your laundry when you can) sounds boring but a routine on the trail was far from boring. I checked in and out of accommodation 38 times and experienced a different terrain every time I set out.
10. Be open every day to a new experience. One day I set a goal to be at my accommodation by 1pm.  However, I bumped into someone from Perth, and we spent the day strolling slowly, stealing and eating cherries off 100 cherry trees along the way (don’t judge me), and stopping at every cafe for cake. Arrived at 5pm but had an unexpected, wonderful day, and didn’t get arrested.
11. Let go of any ‘must or should do’s’.  My business survived, my family still loved me if I didn’t touch base every day, and if I didn’t feel like joining friends for dinner they still invited me the next night. For once it really was just all about me.
12. The Camino trail is all about the people. The scenery was stunning, the trail provided so many experiences and walking solo on days was so fulfilling but walking the Camino was about the people I got to meet, share stories with and spend time with.
13. Home is where my heart is.  I loooved the trail, the people and the experience.  In fact, I organised another hike within days of returning home, but it was so nice to be home with my husband, my dogs, my friends and family and in my own bed.

I didn’t blog on the trail but every day I posted my journey on Facebook for family and friends, if you are interested in the day by day read, head on over. Most were public posts.

So, what lessons from my Camino journey could we all apply to leadership and life? 

Thanks for allowing me to share – I took hundreds of pics. Below are a small handful.