The Way: film by Emilio Estevez being released in Australia in April 2012

Emilio Estevez’s film THE WAY starring his father Martin Sheen had its world premiere in 2010.  It is being released in Australian cinemas in April and May, 2012.  To summarize in one sentence, the film recounts the story of an American father heading to a small French Basque town to recover the body of his estranged son who died in the Pyrenees during a snow storm whilst on the Camino de Santiago and decides to walk the Camino accompanied by his son’s cremated ashes.

THE WAY is the English equivalent of EL CAMINO in Spanish.  Most people in the English speaking world would better recognize The Camino de Santiago than The Way or its longer title The Way of St James.

Emilio Estevez is Martin Sheen’s oldest of 4 children.  The three other children are Charlie Sheen, Renée Estevez (who in this film makes a cameo appearance as Tom Avery’s [Martin Sheen] medical secretary) and Ramon Estevez.

Martin Sheen’s parents emigrated to the USA: his father (Francisco Estévez 1898-1974) was a Galician from north-west Spain, where the Camino de Santiago’s end point is the city of Santiago de Compostela and his mother came from county Tipperary in Ireland.  Sheen was born (1940) Rámon Antonio Gerardo Estévez and raised in the USA but changed his name to ‘Martin Sheen’ when he left the family home and moved to New York to find work as an actor.

In 2010 Sheen tells a news conference in Santiago de Compostela: “I’ve always felt the balance between the two cultures, I’ve never felt more Spanish than I did Irish and I’ve never felt more Irish than I did Spanish.  I love both countries, and both cultures had a profound effect on me.“

It may be a surprise to some: Irish people and Galicians: people living in north-west Spain – having a distinct culture and language; much different from the rest of Spain, have something in common: they share having the same Celtic roots, they have a similar musical instrument (the bagpipe or gaita), the same sea – the Atlantic Ocean and domination by the Ancient Romans, Vikings and Saxons, but their native languages are different.  The Celts were the ones displaced and/or subjugated by the Roman invasions of Western Europe.  Generally speaking, Irish people and Galicians have fair or light skin, and sometimes light coloured eyes.

THE WAY sharply contrasts the main protagonist’s life (Tom Avery and played by Martin Sheen) in America with his life on the Camino track.  The film’s first scenes in Ventura, California are with a patient in his medical specialist practice and then playing recreational, social golf.  And whilst on a golf course he gets a call from the French Gendarmerie, in the French Pyrenees town of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port saying that his only son has been killed in a snow storm whilst crossing the Pyrenees on the Camino de Santiago.

The medieval style map graphics are often seen during the film’s narrative as the walkers make their way along the Camino from the French side of the Pyrenees all the way to the rugged and beautiful Spanish coastline in Galicia at Muxía.

In the opening credits there are close-ups of the various stamps in the pilgrim’s credencial.   And there is a forward up look of the names along the track, places such as Los Arcos, Logroño, Nájera, … Sto. Domingo de la Calzada… This is in fact the back of the  pilgrim’s pass (see photos below) from the (French) Friends of the Camino de Santiago Office at Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (SJPdP).

In the train from Bayonne to SJPdP, Tom Avery has his first of many flash backs with his dead son… The father collects his deceased son’s belongings (backpack, walking gear, guidebook and map) and after cremation decides to walk the pilgrimage route with “his son” (the cremated remains) and not return home to California.

The father, takes his son’s pilgrim pass on his Camino and in the film there is a flash back when Daniel Avery says “Merci” on getting his credencial stamped at Les Amis du Chemin de Saint-Jacques in the old part of St-Jean-Pied-de-Port.  The first stamp is the unique big green looking stamp (see photo).

At SJPdP Tom (Martin Sheen) symbolically, goes the wrong way twice after having stayed in the expensive Hotel Les Pyrénées.  The French gendarme (Capitaine Henri Sébastien) farewells him and gives him a small pebble saying that in a month’s time he will know what to do with it at Cruz de Ferro/Hierro (536 km from SJPdP and 224 km from Santiago de Compostela).

Tom Avery wears a bright blue jacket and the film viewer constantly sees the brand name THE NORTH FACE on the front and back – it is not a subtle sign – obviously aimed at promoting The North Face products (called product placement in movies).  In the film, Tom Avery’s son Daniel wears a Marmot jacket.  The writer prefers an Arc’teryx jacket (Canadian) for his trekking and hiking gear.  Everyone has their “favourites” and it is obvious some companies do better promoting their gear than others: there is much competition…

In the film, the father gets into Roncesvalles (signs in the Pyrenees read – Roncevaux in French) late and rings the bell at La Posada (in real life this small inn/hotel exists in Roncesvalles).  And immediately, Tom argues with the female owner because he is irritated that she denies the simple fact that he has finally got into Spain, and on her part she curtly corrects him for his cultural insensitivity by saying that he is in fact in Basque country.

After this clash of two cultures, Tom is suffering both hunger and insomnia.  Joost comes to the rescue and they go outside.  After eating the Dutch pilgrim’s food, Joost then offers him a sleeping tablet, if he’s not interested in smoking a joint.  In the morning, he awakens with blue earplugs in the pilgrim hostel.  There are screen shots of pilgrims getting ready to leave and there is a shot outside of the old Albergue Itzandegia in Roncesvalles.  Before leaving, the Dutchman (Joost) and Tom the American get their pilgrim passes stamped.

The relationship which the American and the Dutchman has at this stage is problematic and full of friction: Tom calls Joost from Amsterdam “fat man” and the latter, quicker still, retorts with “old man“.  Tom wants to be liberated from Joost that day and uses the excuse that his “feet are killing me” but not before admitting to Joost, that the ashes he is placing at regular intervals along the Camino way belong to his deceased son.

When they part company temporarily at this albergue/refugio/pilgrim hostel in the Spanish Pyrenees, a heated discussion soon arises around the outside dinner table between a French pilgrim and the Basque hospitalero/hostel warden when arguing about the French emperor Charlemagne (circa. 742 – 814) wanting to expand his empire by invading Spain…”… No Charlemagne had other ideas, to extend his Empire, he crossed the Pyrenees, but nothing worked out as intended… This is Spain… this is BASQUE Spain!!…He tortured the Basques of Pamplona…and allowed his men to have too much drink and relaxation with our women …and the Basque shepherds who lived around here…heard what happened in Pamplona…they slipped into the woods and we, WE BASQUES…killed them…“

Then a French pilgrim interrupts his version of history “Sorry monsieur… but what I have read here (pointing to a small book in his hand) that is complete crap, d’accord…” and adding insult by correcting the Basque Spaniard’s accent for the name: “Roland“.  The Spanish Basque hospitalero  continues: “The French, THE FRENCH don’t want to admit that the death of Roland was because  of Charlemagne and Christians.”

Another pilgrim around the table says: “I thought it was the Arabs who killed Roland…“

HISTORICAL NOTE: Charlemagne went into Muslim Spain 778 at first by invitation from the Muslim governor of Barcelona and then the agreement was unilaterally changed…

Subsequently, Charlemagne’s retreating army experienced its worst defeat at the hands of the Basques, at the Battle of Roncesvalles in 778 (memorialised and heavily fictionalised, in the Song of Roland).  In French: La Chanson de Roland is a heroic poem which has survived to this day as a written manuscript, with about 4000 lines of hand written text and based on the 778 battle in the Pyrenees, near Roncesvalles.  This text was written in the late 11th century and is considered the oldest surviving written text in French literature.

The third person in the group: an emotionally damaged Canadian called Sarah, whom we later find out, was in an abusive relationship and decided to have her unborn child aborted.  At first she says to our protagonist she is walking the Camino to stop her chain-smoking habits…Tom says: “You sound really angry...”  She says “Sure, I’m angry… the end of the Camino is the end of my addiction…” Tom: “Spoken like a true addict..“

In Pamplona, Joost sees Tom and calls him over at his outdoor table where he is eating a meal:

“…As long as I’m sitting here, I might just order some tapas…” says Tom,  but is corrected by the Dutchman “(Here), they’re called ‘pinchos’…“

Tom does not want to hear a word about ‘pinchos‘ when he retorts with hubris: “I beg your pardon Joost, here in Pamplona they are called tapas” …Here is Pamplona it’s tapas, I’ve  just read it … you see… unlike the Dutch guidebook which may be directing you to the nearest party .. the American guidebook is designed so you don’t look like a clown… if you’re ordering pinchos when you really mean tapas…”

Tom demands that Joost be quiet as he calls the waiter over to order in Spanish:  “Señor … tapas por favor. “

To which the waiter emphatically responds in Spanish: “¡Tapas! Aquí no hay tapas…no, no tapas es más Madrid, del sur … ¡eh! … aquí estamos en Navarra.  En Navarra son los pinchos ¡eh!…los pinchos y las tapas parecen mismo, pero no lo es, la tapa viene con un plato grande ¡eh!… y los pinchos vienen con un plato separados, mas pequeñitos,  más trabajados  … una presentación … convertido en una tradición…  ¿Quiere pinchos? and Tom Avery shakes his head to show he does not want to eat “pinchos“, whilst putting on his dark sunglasses to hide his shame and humiliation at having lost face in front of Joost.

Before Los Arcos on the track, the fourth person : Jack (James Nesbitt) from Ireland joins the three others who is suffering from his own crisis: writer’s block….

The longer Tom is on the Camino, the fewer pre-existing certainties he continues to hold onto and Jack from Ireland says of Tom: “finally an American without an opinion;” in the context of a deep philosophical discussion about the nature of being a true or authentic pilgrim now and in the past…. a deeply insightful discussion.

When they get to León, Tom shouts his three fellow pilgrims one night’s accommodation in the sumptuous, exquisite and very expensive Parador San Marcos, which in medieval times was a pilgrim hostel.  They each have their own private rooms and all the luxuries of a 5 star exquisite and exclusive hotel…Sarah has a pedicure, manicure, luxuriates in a bath whilst drinking champagne but they are deeply lonely, isolated and disoriented that night, so they spontaneously and unsolicitedly come to Tom’s room and replicate what they have been enjoying to the hilt for the last 4 weeks or so: the joy and happiness of being with other people, sharing a common aim of walking the Camino, a common space, all the while learning and growing.   True happiness is not luxury or material possessions.  This is a very special scene which resonates for all ex-pilgrims on the Camino.  The realisation that staying in luxurious accommodation is isolating, alienating, meaningless – true joy and happiness is connecting with people, having meaningful relationships and having a purpose or a goal – the writer well remembers staying in a modest, very centrally located hotel in Burgos for two nights because his wife was suffering from a heavy cold and by the second day, dearly wanting to ‘get back on track’ and into pilgrim hostels (albergues) as soon as possible.

The Way is therefore a profound film: it does successfully tackle a number of fundamental issues which go to the heart of the human condition and is quintessentially existential:

• loss,
• grieving,
• anger,
• problematic and dysfunctional relationships,
• change,
• identity,
• intercultural issues,
• values,
• belief and non-belief,
• choice,
• transformation by journeying.

Tom the American, who tells Joost from Amsterdam that they have tapas and not pinchos in Pamplona – takes the cake – (mixed metaphor intended), one of the best scenes in the film says everything about the dangers of being an ignoramus.  The film’s subtle message: get educated about the country you’re in: learn the language if possible, be sensitive and empathetic with other human beings.  After all: human beings have much, much more in common despite their many differences.

That is one of the salient messages from the film: when the four of them are lined up, looking out towards the Atlantic Ocean, Sarah will continue her chain-smoking habits, but has found inner peace; Joost will not lose the weight necessary to get back into his old suit, and will buy a new wedding suit for his brother’s wedding; Jack from Ireland is writing again, but his subject matter and style will now be vastly different from previous published texts and Tom will continue his journey into other cultures and will continue to walk – see the very last scene.

The writer thinks we should call this serendipity (the faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident).

Maybe, this is what doing the Camino de Santiago is all about.

The new Camino de Santiago Map – not a map for dummies – Part 2

The Camino de Santiago Map with the ISBN of  978-0-9872689-0-7 is a bold, innovative and accurate new map, visually depicting the 800 kilometres  in portrait orientation between the French/Spanish Pyrenees and Santiago de Compostela and onwards to Spain’s Land’s End – Finisterre.  This new map clearly shows its geographical context in relation to northern Spain and southwest France.  The map names the eight World Heritage sites located on the Camino track itself or very close to it.  This maps shows that the Camino de Santiago can be considered as the world’s longest “museum crawl”.

This new product is the thinking person’s map: science, data, and the very latest digital map making software are combined and shaped under the skillful cartographer’s (Tim Baigent from Geographx in Wellington, New Zealand) critical eye, plus the incredible passion for accuracy and fastidiousness with detail.  This is not a map for dummies.

This map neither simplifies the context, nor the topography, and at the same time, it is NOT a normal French style Michelin® map where roads, highways, byways and freeways are all included – we believe that the visibility of the Camino track can be better appreciated and understood by having fewer extraneous details: LESS BECOMES MORE.

It is an intelligent map primarily aimed for people who have an interest in the pilgrimage routes in northern Spain.  For some time now, the writer has identified a significant gap in resources pertaining to the pilgrimage routes of Spain.  Certainly, there is no lack of sufficient written information: ranging from opinions, forums, views, attitudes, recounts, blogs (like this one) and all  about the Camino de Santiago.  However, what is lacking are high quality published maps which are data dependent by not simply being graphic designers’ various impressions.

What one observes consistently in English-speaking websites and blogs are the constant recycling of hand and computer drawn maps, some Google® originating maps, etc. but no new maps, which in turn are GIS (geographic information systems) based data with other cartographical information: all derived mathematically and scientifically.  21st century mapmakers are creative artists who also wear the applied scientific and mathematical hats.

Yes this map is indeed aimed for the POST-PILGRIMAGE market – all those incredible people who have walked the walk through all sorts of challenging weather conditions, day in and day out and would be most captivated by this new product.  These post-pilgrim walkers would be most proud to have a framed map of this size hung on a wall in their home.  Get your index finger to go along the Camino track: each place mentioned and marked will bring back a flood of memories and associations, allowing the pilgrim to wax lyrical…

This product is a triumph: it will evoke much in the person who has walked the walk.

Camino Downunder will never discriminate against anyone; therefore, whether they have done the Camino or not, anyone can buy this new product.

In the next blog – a number of photos will show this large overview Camino de Santiago map.

The Camino de Santiago map: a post-pilgrimage product par excellence – Part 1

Which Camino de Santiago map are we talking about?

To be published and printed in March, 2012, the overview map commencing in southwest France, the western part of the Pyrenees to Spain’s Land’s End (Finisterre in Spanish) including the fabulously enticing Santiago de Compostela, in portrait format (i.e., in graphic design it is a format in which the height of an illustration or image is greater than the width).

In an earlier blog, Who attends the Camino de Santiago classes and workshops?  And why? the writer indicated that participants who attend the classes are an invaluable source in understanding what prospective pilgrims need; what they want; what are their motivations and feedback on what they wish to have in order to “celebrate” and “acknowledge” their truly great, personal achievement after arriving in Santiago de Compostela.

Credencial - the required pilgrim's pass

Then, what is the post pilgrim/walker seeking?  Are they satisfied with their A4 latin Compostela certificate?  Their precious credencial? – the verification of their actual walk day in and day out – their very own “Pilgrim’s Progress” in real-time?  Their beloved photos and films which they took during their long march?

Do they buy for themselves a meaningful piece of pilgrimage jewellery or a trinket/souvenir once they reach Santiago de Compostela, such as a representation of the cockle shell: now the quintessential modern symbol of the Camino de Santiago?  Yes: many do.  However, having a pilgrimage symbol doesn’t really communicate much about the actual walk – the hundreds of thousands of ‘hard yards walked, day in and day out’.

So what is a quintessential product which visually and coherently communicates all that hard work?  A map not for dummies, but a map allowing

The ubiquitous scallop shell

anyone to soar like a mountain bird, but always remaining close to the terrain.

What many post pilgrims continue to seek is a visually dominant, one piece graphic representation of their long walk through a varied landscape where culture, heritage, art, architecture and nature are ever-present, with its longest ‘museum crawl‘ measuring in the hundreds of kilometres.  They are seeking a product which can and does COMMUNICATE to their families,  friends and colleagues in such a way which makes it comprehensible to others what that real achievement means.

In response to this previously unmet need, CAMINO DOWNUNDER is producing and publishing a product which will soon be available for purchase on its website and which is being formally launched at Sydney’s 2012 Holiday & Travel Show expo in the second half of March.

During Camino Downunder classes, one of the resources used is a Basque map showing Northern Spain from the Pyrenees to Galicia: it is used as an effective training tool for class participants to help visualize the terrain and topography to figuratively “walk the walk” over a seven hour period and to familiarize them with the geography of where exactly the Camino Francés traverses this much varied Spanish territory.  This map is in landscape format (i.e. a format in which the width of an illustration is greater that the height).

In 2010 Camino Downunder published a practical “one stop-shop map-guide” incorporating a practical guide-book and consistent with the principle that less is more.  One page being a full length map featuring 28 kilometres of the Camino pilgrimage track and on the other page about accommodation, food, local festivities and strategic geographical information:  Camino de Santiago: 30 all-weather walking maps (subtitled: Walking the Camino Francés from St-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago de Compostela).  These maps are completely impervious and indestructible to any water, mud or slush if it is dropped or exposed to all-weather elements.

These maps were produced and published with the sole aim that the independent pilgrim can confidently take that only resource with him or her and be able to use it on a daily basis without needing to carry other resources.

And these 30 maps are all in «portrait format» and for very good reasons: when you walk, irrespective of what direction you are going (north, south, east or west), you are anatomically putting one foot forward and the other foot following closely behind on the heel of the first foot and repeating this walking act, for so long as it takes to get to your destination.  Even if you are walking in circles, you are nonetheless walking anatomically forward and in a forward up direction, albeit for a fraction of a second.  The terminology used by cartographers for specific walking maps with this portrait orientation is forward up.

The writer in the second half of 2011, contracted once again the bold and innovative digital mapping company from Wellington, New Zealand: Geographx (www.geographx.co.nz) and one of their creative and visionary mapmakers, Tim Baigent took on this project under his wing and nurtured it from conception to birth and beyond.

Tim Baigent, cartographer from Geographx, New Zealand

Beginning with a dialogue between Marc Grossman and himself, Tim conceptualized, visualized and converted his vision into what it would be like from a bird’s-eye perspective, close to the ground, whilst seeing the 800 km from the pilgrim’s viewpoint.  Once completed, critical comments on the various drafts and versions have unhesitatingly said it is mission accomplished.

When the bigger, longer map is first rolled out, it must be said that it is dramatic: this geographically accurate map allows the pilgrim-walker who has walked the Camino de Santiago (Camino Francés) to realistically recreate in their mind their walk.  In other words, the person who has actually walked the pilgrimage route by ‘experiencing‘ this map, will open a flood gate of memories and emotions: all accurately located.  This is the map maker’s triumph.

Looking at the Camino route with this map, the pilgrim will better understand the geographical context.  They will better understand why this route became the dominant route over the last thousand years and why it seems so straight when viewed from the Pyrenees all the way to the Atlantic Ocean and why it goes where it goes between  mountain chains and mountain passes.

It is important to understand that when the first pilgrims in the late 9th and early 10th centuries started arriving into Spain from France and elsewhere, the common route was ill-defined; it was constantly being changed for political, commercial and religious reasons; to support the huge numbers in the 11th and 12th centuries, merchants and settlers followed, establishing infrastructure all along the Camino route.  Cities, towns, villages and hamlets had been created or had grown bigger precisely because of the pilgrimage route.  However, predating the original pilgrimage routes were sections of the Roman road system (Calzada Romana) which in turn, were known as the Celtic tracks, long before the Roman Empire of 2,000 years ago made its presence felt in western Europe, including Spain.

In the next blog, Part 2 this map: THE CAMINO DE SANTIAGO and subtitled From the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela will be revealed and shown including its features and benefits.

Calzada Romana - the Roman Road as part of the Camino

Who attends the Camino de Santiago classes and workshops? And why?

Roncesvalles in the Pyrenees: just inside Spain after leaving France

The writer has been presenting practical workshops and classes in Australia and New Zealand since 2007 for people wanting to independently walk the pilgrimage tracks of France and Spain.  After seven intensive hours from 9.00 am until 5.00 pm (lunch excluding), participants have a very clear understanding what they need to do in their preparation and training to achieve a successful outcome: being able to walk 800 km which is the distance from the French Pyrenees to northwestern Spain without serious injuries for about 30 to 35 days whilst having the best time of their lives and being physically challenged each day.

For the first two years (2007/08)  the classes were being hosted by an adult education institution in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney.

Since 2007, Marc Grossman has been collecting and analysing data from the 200 participants plus who have attended his Camino classes.  The collected data is proving to be a treasure trove for understanding why people in first world countries wish to undertake such a long, challenging walk across mountainous northern Spain.

First observation to make is that there are no significant differences in gender, motive(s), age and multiple linguistic skills or lack of them between New Zealanders and Australians apart from the Kiwi ‘culture of walking’ as demonstrated in their identity and traditions – proving the adage that we have more in common than we have differences.  And it can be confidently stated that the majority of Australians are Kiwi lovers too: we may figuratively fight them on all sporting fields around the world, but once a Kiwi and an Australian meet outside their respective countries, then they act like being long-lost brothers and sisters.

If you are neither a Kiwi nor an Aussie, it is hard to discern any obvious cultural differences between these two nationalities – apart from their distinct and different accents.  Nearly every Kiwi and Aussie understand and appreciate the subtle differences in the other.  This blog will not be about exploring those differences in detail.  The blog writer is interested in understanding why the same demographic profiles from both countries have such a great attraction to walking the pilgrimage routes of France and Spain.

HOW OLD ARE THE PARTICIPANTS?

When people register online to attend a Camino Downunder class and workshop, they can choose to fill in a number of details such as their age group:

• 20s/30s;
• 40s;
• 50s;
• 60s;
• etc.

Fewer than 20 participants in more than 5 years of classes/workshops have indicated they were in their 20s and 30s.  Most indicate their age to be in their 40s, 50s or 60s.  The writer opines that their average age ranges from the mid 50s to the early 60s.  This is not to say that young Australians and New Zealanders do not walk the Camino de Santiago: they definitively do (but not in the same proportion as their European and North American peers).  It is simply that these young people generally speaking, think they know so much already, especially when it comes to walking and they believe that physical youthfulness is their insurance policy guaranteeing them success.  Empirical evidence on the Camino tracks, suggests the opposite.

It was observed time after time, that younger people because they started hard and fast, were the first to suffer calamitous injuries, had not done enough preparation, with too much or too little gear, including inappropriate gear and therefore, were the first to figuratively fall by the wayside.

And that is precisely why the famous Spanish saying carries so much weight in Spain:

Si quieres llegar a Santiago como un joven, empieza tu Camino como un viejo – If you wish to arrive in Santiago de Compostela like a young man, begin your pilgrimage like an old man

GENDER?

It is consistent: for each class in both countries between 60% to 70%  are females.    The rest, (naturally) are males.  The Archbishop’s Pilgrimage Office in Santiago de Compostela which issues the “Compostela” certificates  show with their statistics that 56% are men and 44% are women for the totality of all pilgrims on all the different Camino routes.  What is really interesting is to go to the Friends Office of the Camino de Santiago at Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port called Les Amis du Chemin de Saint-Jacques de Compostelle Pyrénées-Atlantiques who state from their statistics that the majority of pilgrims in the age ranges of 20-29, 40-49 and 50-59 are women, without an actual number; but that pilgrims over 60 years of age;  most are men.

The writer is not suggesting that if you extrapolate that gender breakdown to the 1,500 + or -  per year of all Australians undertaking the Camino de Santiago are actually in that same proportion as in his classes.  However, it does suggest that more females from both Australia and New Zealand than males walk these pilgrimage tracks.  Why?  In the section below on motivation, there is some evidence to suggest that women from the Antipodes (from the land Down Under) are much more attracted to these undertakings than their male counterparts who are in that same age group.  Briefly, middle class females once their job of raising children has finished, look to doing something significant in their lives; whereas their male counterparts look to winding down on their commitments and active participation in mainstream society.

In other words: women are cranking up and looking outside the home (because they now have more freedom and fewer responsibilities) whilst men are beginning to be more house bound and not wander that far away from home.  It maybe that a significant number of Australian/New Zealand males after a lifetime of work and child raising support as the main breadwinner, love more their adult toys such as 4 x wheel drives, SUVs (sport utility vehicles), motorbikes, caravans, boats and backyard sheds than their curiosity to discover other cultures and history by leaving their comfort zones.

This gender imbalance of males and female has existed for many decades in foreign language classrooms in the secondary, tertiary and adult education sectors.  When foreign languages are taught in Australia as an elective/optional subject the female Australian student dominates.

Married women attending Camino Downunder classes and workshops who do not have a willing male partner wishing to share their passion will go solo, or choose to go with their mothers, sisters, daughters, a close female friend or a female colleague.  In other words, women with male partners who are strongly focused on their pilgrimage are not distracted by their non-walking male partners.

WALKERS?

Majority of Australian attendees say they are not walkers, but all of them love walking.  When they indicate they are walkers, they say they frequently do ‘bush walks’ in the Australian bush which often includes camping out.  However, the majority of New Zealand attendees do indicate that they are walkers or using the Kiwi vernacular: ‘trampers‘.  This  IS one significant difference between Australians and New Zealanders.

HEAD OF THE TRACK/START?

Most Australians and New Zealanders begin in the small French Basque town of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (population of 1,500) and where the regional railway line begins and ends.  The next most popular place to start, is just inside Spain at Roncesvalles, thereby avoiding crossing the challenging Pyrenees.

MULTIPLE LINGUISTIC SKILLS?

Most participants begin (80% approximately) their preparation as monolingual native English speakers: however, as a result of their journey and their experiences they begin to understand and use other languages.  On the Camino de Santiago in Spain, many begin to finally appreciate and use their schoolboy or schoolgirl French.

TIME OF DEPARTURE?

95% from the Antipodes avoid undertaking their pilgrimage/walk in June, July and August to avoid a perception of excessive summer heat and competition for accommodation in pilgrim hostels.  It is very, very rare indeed to ever meet a class participant who expresses the wish to go in summer.  Overcrowding is never a real issue in summer and then only the last 100 km from Santiago de Compostela in Sarria (Galicia) because young Spanish people during their summer holidays arrive in large groups and then, only the last 100 km to obtain the original Latin certificate of completion, called the Compostela.  The data collected at the St-Jean-Pied-de-Port Friends’ office clearly indicates this yearly cycle: significantly more start their pilgrimage in the second half of April and into May, dropping down in June, July and August and rising to nearly the same numbers as in Spring.  Springtime is the most popular season, followed by autumn.

SOLO OR WITH SOMEONE?

Approximately 35% to 40%  of participants state they will go on their own.  Whether that actually happens is another matter.  As the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage track has a justifiable reputation for being very safe, including for women, pilgrim walkers may begin on their own and invariably start to walk with someone for some of the way and sometimes the whole way.  Even if you walk on your own, you are never lonely nor isolated.

And there is much to recommend people to walk on their own.  Paradoxically, you meet so many more people and you have so many more wonderful experiences by being solo or walking as a couple than being in a group of four or more.  Groups are exclusive whilst individuals and pairs are inclusive.  In the Camino Downunder classes, more women than men state they wish to walk on their own.

MOTIVATION?

Four categories|

• Religious and/or spiritual: non-material things; metaphysical; introspection; meditation and contemplation

• Existential:  personal growth; celebratory (i.e. celebrating a milestone or retirement or in between jobs or half a century); matters of the self;  freedom of choice; time away and time out; less is more, serendipity

• Physical challenge:  adventure, long distance walking on multi-day routes, journeying, socialization, character building – overcoming adversity; leaving one’s own comfort zones (culture, language, community, habits)

• Culture and history – traditions and heritage: witnessing a unique built and natural environment; walking in and through the major architectural styles created in Europe; moving between cultures

WHAT DO CAMINO DOWNUNDER PARTICIPANTS ACTUALLY WRITE AS THEIR MOTIVATION?  In their own words…

• Have friends who have done this walk and am inspired by the impact it has on them. We wish to challenge ourselves emotionally and physically and to see and visit a wonderful different culture at the same time.
• Encompassing spirituality along with plenty of walking. Both of which appeal to me.
• A retirement project to discover new meaning and purpose in life.
• Religious pilgrimage
• Religious reasons
• Walking and spiritual experience
• A challenge outside of anything we have ever done before. To experience a sense of history and culture (with my husband)
• Love of Spanish countryside and walking with my husband.
• History
• To get closer as a couple
• Freedom
• Getting my mind away from everyday matters
• It is there
• A challenge (also) the challenge
• Challenge, fitness, experience
• Not sure, possibly to find myself
• I don’t know. Just something I have to do.
• Journey of discovery
• Having read Paulo Coelho’s book: The Pilgrimage.  One of my dreams.
• To be a pilgrim on my own
• Using languages which I am familiar with
• Significant physical, mental and spiritual experience and to celebrate becoming half a century old.
• A personal challenge
• The adventure and challenge
• Walking is my hobby and love adventure
• I have no religious motives. I think the challenge of enjoying the walk, and life, and meeting people along that journey would be exceptional.
• Personal growth
• Personal fulfillment
• To escape from the day-to-day feeling of living each day determined by time, that is, the time to wake up,  time to have a break, time for this meeting or that meeting, time for lunch, time to finish work, time to catch the train, time to eat dinner, time to go to bed etc.
• Inspired by a walking holiday and its existence as a walking trail for more than a thousand years
• To take part in an ancient tradition and to explore my strengths.
• Challenge of completing it
• Walking the Camino has been a long-held dream of mine since reading Shirley MacLaine’s book The Camino in early 2000.
• It has taken my imagination – sounds a wonderful thing to do.
• The adventure and meeting new people
• For personal, physical, mental and spiritual grounding
• Desire for some time out to address health and fitness issues, a pleasure in walking and interest in the history of the region and the pilgrimage
• A mix of spiritual, adventure, personal renewal

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS

95% of all participants are interested or very interested in the foods of the regions where the Camino traverses.  If an army marches on its stomach, then every pilgrim-walker responds most positively to good quality food.  If you walk an average of 27km per day, the body demands good quality food and in sufficient quantities on a daily basis.

From non religious people to a Roman Catholic Archbishop have attended these Camino classes and workshops.

Satisfaction levels after attending a Camino Downunder class/workshop?  Very, very high and everyone is overwhelmed by the amount of information, knowledge, skills and insights gained and acquired.  Even for participants who have prepared independently for a number of years, always learn so much more.  No one ever leaves underwhelmed.

Whilst no guarantees can ever be given that if you attend such a course you are assured of a successful walking outcome: i.e. you will successfully walk into Santiago de Compostela after completing the 800 km on foot, you have nonetheless much diminished the odds against you in achieving that stated outcome.

¡BUEN CAMINO y BUEN VIAJE!

The Pilgrim Hostel at Santo Domingo de la Calzada: 208 km from St-Jean-Pied-de-Port and 574 km to Santiago de Compostela

St-Jean-Pied-de-Port in the French Pyrenees where most Aussies & Kiwis begin

On the Camino de Santiago the Tower of Babel is linear, not vertical

Language of and on the Camino de Santiago: signs, symbols & icons

The story of the Tower of Babel as recounted in the Old Testament (Genesis 11:1-9) is about one universal language, by a culturally homogeneous  group of ambitious ‘construction workers’ attempting to build a vertical tower all the way towards heaven.

As the narrative goes, God eventually pays a visit to these Tower of Babel construction workers and proceeds to both “empower” and “curse” them with multiple languages on their construction site; resulting in the fact that team members can no longer communicate with each other and scattering them upon the face of the Earth.

Fast forward to the last one thousand years with culturally disparate people coming from everywhere on the planet and speaking many languages on the Camino de Santiago.  Many differences including language, but united by a common track, sharing the same space and having the same goal: going west to Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain.  See CaminoDownunder’s map on its homepage: http://caminodownunder.com

In the Book of Genesis, God understood the workers’ motivation on the Tower of Babel in building this stairway to heaven and the threat posed to his omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence.  God acted unilaterally as he has always done, when he commanded multiple languages on earth.

As a result of God’s intervention, the genesis of languages in the plural saw the light of day.  You could argue that multilingualism, multiculturalism and globalisation was born as a result of God’s power to reassert his authority over monolingual mortals going up into the sky.

In hindsight, going vertical was going to get them nowhere: they should have gone horizontal and stayed close and parallel to their physical world.

How could a massive vertical skyscraper tower ever be successful with everyone speaking the same language?  It was, excuse the pun: a pie in the sky exercise in futility.  It had to come crashing down.  And so it did.  And consistent too with the scientific and physical laws of gravity.

In today’s 21st century world we have global villages, mass tourism and travel for transformation, intertwined with hundreds and hundreds of different languages around the globe, but diminishing with each year’s passing; just like the diminishing bio-diversity of the world’s fauna and flora.

In the 21st century, diversity is all aspects of life from cuisine to cultures, from languages to locations are valued and sought after.  Today, more than ever we appreciate and seek out differences and diversity especially when we travel and undertake different journeys.  Some of us may not be comfortable with great differences in our front or backyards: but we certainly want to experience that when we travel around the world.  We see it as an asset and not as a liability this rich diversity of humanity.

However, successfully moving between cultures, using languages and making linguistic connections also requires a very well-educated person with multilingual skills.  In this century especially, monolingualism does not have a brilliant future.

Which universal language is required when you are a pilgrim on the Camino de Santiago? 

Answer: the language of the Camino.  And what is this Camino language?  It is in fact made up of many languages, multifaceted and multilayered.

The Camino de Santiago is geographically long, culturally and linguistically complex  and deeply layered historically.  And it is also in the late 20th and 21st centuries democratic, pluralistic and no longer monocultural.

The Camino is the language of signs, symbols and waymarks and of course human verbal utterances of a multilingual variety.

Waymark with symbols and signs

Sometimes verbal utterances may not always  be universally comprehensible – but what is universally understood, and which connects everyone are the visible body signs and emotions which accompany these various verbal utterances and there you have precisely the LANGUAGE OF THE CAMINO.

You have also the language of introspection, meditation and silence: human verbal utterances are not important nor sought after.

The universal body language of smiling, waving, gesticulating: they are widely and often used with much success.

There is the language of listening to and hearing the various sounds of and on the Camino.

You have the language of  pointing and looking .

The language of signs, symbols and icons: such as your walking clothes, your backpack, your credencial, your cockle shell if it is exposed, the waymarks along the track.

And if you come from Brasil you will sometimes proudly show the Brazilian flag attached to your backpack and if you are Canadian: you will often have a small material badge on your person or on your backpack indicating the maple leaf thereby distinguishing yourself from other North Americans.

Lingua franca: the common adopted language between speakers whose native languages are different.

In the middle to late Middle Ages which language would be used along the Camino de Santiago?  The only then ‘universal‘ language would have been the language used by the Christian church: Latin.  But to use it successfully in the monasteries, churches and church controlled hospices  you needed to be formally educated, invariably by the Church.  Illiteracy (inability to read and write) was endemic and most people just spoke their local, regional language.  Literacy in the Middle Ages was not a priority.

In the 21st century on the Camino de Santiago which actual language is the lingua franca? 

It is Spanish.  And the Spanish language was just beginning to be codified and becoming more dominant in Iberia when the Camino came into existence in the 9th century.  And we also know that the Basque language was another language used on the Camino Francés, but only in Navarra (the Kingdom of Navarre in the Middle Ages).

Today, most of the well-known and used Camino tracks are in Spain and the dominant majority of pilgrims are from Spain.  Spanish is a global, international language and there are 21 sovereign nations around the world which have Spanish as its official language or first language.  In 2009, 79,000 pilgrims arriving in Santiago de Compostela were Spaniards out of a total of 145,878; that is, 54% of the total pilgrim population .  Source: http://peregrinossantiago.es

The next dominant language group are Germans, with nearly 15,000 and constituting 22%.  The majority of young and middle age Germans speak multiple languages: their number one foreign language is English – and they invariably speak English as a foreign language with consummate skills .

English is the other lingua franca on the Camino de Santiago, especially on the Camino Francés.  How does a Moroccan on the Camino (20 in 2006) communicate with the only recorded Mongolian (1 in 2006)?  They use English of course.

Many Germans also speak other languages because the European Union mandates a minimum of two foreign languages to be studied from primary school to tertiary studies.  And there are moves in Europe now to increase it to three foreign languages.   Italians follow Germans with 10,000 pilgrims (15% of pilgrims) and the French with 7,500  (11%) followed by the Portuguese  4,800 (7%).

The next country on the list of pilgrims, is the first English-speaking country: the USA with 2,500 in 2009 arriving in Santiago de Compostela as pilgrims.  In terms of numbers, the dominant Asian and Oceanic countries are South Koreans followed by Australians.  Both countries have over 1,000 pilgrims each arriving in Santiago de Compostela and being rewarded with their Compostela in the Latin language.

This blog is written in English for an English-speaking audience who may not all be English native speakers.  It is the writer’s considered opinion that any independent pilgrim undertaking the Camino de Santiago will be acting in their best interests if they take with them on the Camino a linguistic baggage.  The writer is not suggesting that you undertake advanced Spanish language lessons: it is wise to show locals the minimum of respect by using and understanding a modicum of Spanish.

The influential 2000 Nuffield Languages Inquiry: final report and recommendation from the UK said it all: monolingual native English speakers disempower themselves in perpetuity even though they speak the world’s dominant lingua franca.  English is not enough and the value of knowing only English diminishes each day as more and more non-native English speakers become better speakers of English.  In other words, as there is excessive supply of non-native English speakers around the world; then the value of that product/service becomes less and less rare and therefore less valuable – the classic supply and demand relationship.

Participants in Camino Downunder’s classes and workshops in Australia and New Zealand are all given a unique and comprehensive glossary of Spanish words and expressions, allowing them in turn to gain deep insights into the different cultural, geographical, historical and linguistic regions which the Camino traverses.  With each new class and workshop the writer continues to add to this never-ending list.  And that is precisely what modern languages are all about: they keep changing and evolving commensurate with the constant changes in their societies and communities whilst also reflecting the life cycle of some words and idiomatic verbal expressions.  Yes, change is constant but also stimulating.

Modern, multilingual, urban city signage in Navarra

How young is too old?

Image via Wikipedia

In 2011 along the Camino Francés there has been a travelling exhibition of photos and displays with the title Cultural and Language diversity on the route of Santiago de Compostela.  Many major and minor Western European languages are featured such as English, Spanish, German, Galician and Euskara (Basque).  The website: www.santiagolanguages.com

In July this year the exhibition was in Roncesvalles.  What captivated our interest about the written testimonies by two women was not so much their different cultural and linguistic backgrounds as to their age and their children’s and grandchildren’s reactions.

Toti Martínez de Lezea (Spanish writer and translator) wrote the following:

When I said to my sons I was going to go to Santiago de Compostela, the very first thing they asked me was whether the retired people’s club organise the journey and whether we would travel by plane to get there.  I looked at them amused and I communicated to them my intention was to do it alone, walking from Orreaga/Roncesvalles to Galicia.  I still laugh when remembering their surprised faces, or rather, stunned faces.

The second person’s testimony is Erika, a German national:

My name is Erika, I am from Kiel, in the north of Germany and I am sixty-five years old.  Two years ago I became a widow and I thought the world was finished for me.  After a full life with my husband, I had no choice but to wait my turn.  I have two sons, two daughters-in-law, five grandchildren who come every Sunday to have lunch and they tell me what they do.  I see the children grow up and I hear their parents.  They have many projects and many years ahead of them, they take care of me, but after all I am the grandmother and I have a feeling they think my time is over.  They are so wrong.

I like books and when I was reading a novel whose plot took place along the Way of St James I felt like learning more.  I already knew something about the French Way (el Camino Francés), or, “the Stars’ Way”, but it never interested me.  I surfed on the internet, I read diaries of travellers, I saw images of amazing landscapes, towns, churches, castles; pictures of pilgrims walking under the sun and the rain and many smiling faces.  I learnt that in old times, before Christianity, people set out on this journey towards the end of the world and today, so many centuries later, they keep on doing it.  I also learnt that nobody returns the same as he set out, since the experience is unique and I decided to have a try.  After all, what could I lose trying it?

I consulted tourist guides, I learnt by heart names of towns, I marked the most interesting places on a map, I calculated what would be my needs, what type of clothes I should take with me, how much money; I prepared the backpack dozens of times until leaving just the bare essentials and finally, I bought the train and bus tickets that would take me to Orreaga/Roncesvalles.  I know, I know that all ways of St James are infinite, that each of them begins where the pilgrim starts to walk, but I had to start somehow and I did not feel like having enough strength to walk from Kiel to Santiago.  Once everything was ready, I communicated my decision to my sons and their pleas were useless to make me give up the project, or at least, go accompanied.  I had to make the journey on my own, I did not need company and probably I would not find it, but I was wrong.

From the first moment I started to walk I have had someone alongside me.  Men and women, young and adult people have set foot on the same roads as me; we have stopped in the same fountains to quench our thirst, we have contemplated the dense woods, the golden cornfields, the towns where the storks nest in the bell towers, and we have sat down in eating rooms in the evening, with sore feet, to admire sunsets.  I only spoke German when I left Kiel and now it turns out that I speak all the languages of the world!  Well I might be exaggerating, but it is true when I say I understand people walking next to me, or walking ahead or behind me, since there is always, always a moment when we meet again.

I have reached the conclusion that words are just sounds expressing feelings and a greeting or a farewell, they all sound the same in any of the languages on the Camino.  I also have learnt to thank those who receive me or show me the right path to be followed.  They smile, and I am sure they think I am not in my right mind.  What!  An old woman, alone, carrying a backpack and leaning on a stick to make the walk lighter, she has to be a little bit crazy to do such a journey on foot.  Yes, I might be, in fact, I am.  I am crazy about life.

I still have a good way to walk, many kilometres ahead of me, as I am just in the beginning of my journey.  This afternoon I arrived in Estella-Lizarra and I remained a long time on the bridge that links the banks of the river thinking about the thousands of travellers who crossed over there, throughout history, each of them for a reason, an idea, a language, an origin, but with a common aim: to walk, to arrive to the end of the world on foot.

I have blisters, it seems the backpack has doubled in weight, the sky threatens to rain tomorrow, but I have never felt so alive, so young and I have decided to do the same route on the way back.  I will not take any train or plane as previously planned; I will come back the same way as I arrived on foot!  I will say hello to pilgrims and I will tell them it is worth the effort, that the pleasure overcomes the weariness.  In what language?  Bo, gut, mat, ongi, good, plan, bon, goed, bueno, buono, dobry, bra, bun… who cares?  Everybody will understand it.

Camino Downunder classes and workshops are held twice a year in Sydney (Australia) and in New Zealand and aimed to totally prepare and support the independent pilgrim walker.  What is fascinating with Erika’s testimony is that in the Antipodes (Australia and New Zealand) 65% to 70% of participants attending Camino Downunder classes over the last four years are women who are in their 40s, 50s and 60s.   The majority begin as monolinguals, but during their long committed and passionate preparation period, they take on board multiple languages and cultures.  The very best aspect of globalisation in the 21st century would be walking independently along the Camino de Santiago: moving between cultures; using languages and making linguistic connections.

Successfully moving between cultures on the Camino de Santiago

In Logroño, two tracks coming together: the pilgrimage and the gastronomic – Part 3

Once the pilgrim arrives into the city of Logroño, they can within minutes get onto another track.  In Spanish, it is called La Senda de los Elefantes.  In Spanish the word ‘path’, ‘track’, ‘route’ or ‘way’ can use either the word “camino” or “senda“.    In Calle del Laurel you can follow the embedded and shiny metal track, about 30 centimetres in width, which lurches from left to right and curves along this pedestrianised street.

What does La Senda de los Elefantes mean in English?  The Elephant track.   And what does it mean in this context?  Simply think of an elephant which has a trunk from where the animal can ‘imbibe’ water drinks at various ‘watering holes’.  Now extrapolate that idea to humans drinking and moving from one watering hole to another.  Transfer the imbibing to alcohol (vino tinto by the glass – the crianza) and contextualize it by going bar hopping in Calle del Laurel and Travesía del Laurel after you’ve consumed one small glass of wine and one or two pinchos and then go to the next one and so on.

Calle del Laurel is approximately 200 metres long and has about 40 to 50 bars and restaurants; many of them specialising in their one, two or three signature pincho dishes.

IMG_1250 La Calle del Laurel and la Senda de los Elefantes

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Logroño: city of pinchos and pilgrims – Part 2

Pinchos are like tapas.  In Spain, tapas is the name for a great variety of small savoury dishes which can now be found anywhere in the world.  It is not an exaggeration to say that “tapas” cuisine and tapas bars are endemic world-wide and fast catching up in number to sushi food bars.  In northern Spain, the word used is “pinchos” and in the Spanish Basque country, “pintxos“.

Pinchos

Pinchos derives its name from the fact that pincho means either a “spike or small wooden stick” used to pick up small pieces of food – see photo.  Another meaning, but culinary related is: un pincho de tortilla – here pincho meaning a “small portion of omelette”. 

Ración – a portion of food or a small plate of a particular food and raciones in the plural, are other ways to eat small quantities but allowing you to try many more other dishes and foods.   You may have on the menu una ración de albóndigas – a plate of meatballs.

Here below is a list of pinchos, tapas, raciones and other various finger food Spanish names which you can find in the various bars and taverns in the two dominant food zones in the old part of Logroño.  Often, these Logroño eating places specialise in one, two or three pinchos as indicated below.

• tostada de jamón con tomate – ham on a toasted piece of bread with tomatoes
• foie fresco a la plancha – fresh liver pâté grilled on bread
• navajas y Berberechos a la plancha – cockles (edible mollusc) cooked on a hot grill
• calabacín relleno de hongos y foie – zucchini/courgette filled with mushrooms and pâté
• setas en pincho – mushrooms with wooden sticks
• solomillo con salsa de roquefort o reducción de vino - small pieces of sirloin steak with Roquefort (soft blue ewes’ cheese) sauce or in a reduced wine sauce
• pulpo a la gallega - octopus in the Galician stlye; the octopus is boiled, garnished with red paprika, salt, olive oil and considered Galicia’s signature dish and found along the Camino Francés pilrimage route. When on the Camino Francés and you finally get to Melide; nearly two day’s out walking to Santiago de Compostela. There is a restaurant specialising in octopus.  The 30 all-weather walking maps of the Camino de Santiago details this invertebrate mollusc (octupus) eating house.
• bacalao desmigado y sardinilla con chili – salt cured Icelandic cod – presented as irregular strips, there are no bones, before serving it has been desalted; sometimes called ‘wetsalted cod strips’ and small sardines with chilli.  In Spain, sardines are highly regarded and respected as a regular food source from the sea.  The Spanish sardine (big or small) has a firm texture, a good sardine is never overly soft and always with a very shiny looking silvery skin.  Sardines sourced from Galicia are considered the best in Spain.
• bocatitas de ibéricos, raciones de ibéricos y quesos – small pieces (therefore little mouthfuls of ham) of the better quality and more pricey Iberian cured ham compared to jamón serrano (cheap and ubiquitous along the Camino track) and various Spanish cheeses (e.g. queso manchego)
• pincho moruno y embuchados a la plancha – Spanish style kebabs and stuffed pinchos with minced meat cooked on coals or grilled
• pincho de champiñón y brocheta de sepia – a mushroom pincho and a cuttlefish (a mollusc with soft white flesh; similar to an oyster or mussel) pierced with a skewer
• caparrones con caramelo de guindilla – this is one of Logroño’s signature dishes – here are some of the ingredients: caparrones – a Spanish stew made of caparrón, a variety of red kidney beans, and a spicy sausage chorizo, onions, oil, a Spanish spice called especias, chilli hot peppers, and black ‘caramelo’ like sauce made from guindilla (chilli hot peppers)
• tortilla de patata – the ubiquitous Spanish potato omelette found throughout Spain and the number one dish to choose when on the Camino de Santiago and very hard to tire of it
• patatas bravas y bocadillos – this dish is always present in bars serving pinchos or tapas: crispy spiced potatoes usually served in a flat round brown bowl with ketchup and mayonnaise; nearly always served warm in bars, sometimes chopped parsley and often accompanied with bread
• huevos de codorniz variados – a variety of quail eggs and reasonably expensive

Logroño: on the Camino Francés – Part 1

Calle San Juan is the other place to go for Rioja wine by the glass with pinchos (tapas)Following the Camino track through Logroño

Logroño is the capital city of the region: la Rioja, which is Spain’s smallest.

La Rioja is an “autonomous community” – a regional state, with a regional government and parliament in Logroño.  This capital city has a population of about 150,000.

The Camino de Santiago track (el Camino Francés) enters the city of Logroño from Navarra when it crosses the mighty Ebro river over the stone bridge: Puente de Piedra.  Logroño is actually in a corner of la Rioja adjoining Navarra and the other community and region called País Vasco (the Basque region and state).

The maps: Camino de Santiago: 30 all-weather walking maps – Walking the Camino Francés from St-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago de Compostela (ISBN 978 0 646 52975 2), clearly shows the city’s location and geographical position and when you walk over the bridge and into the city, turn right into Rua Vieja to get to the municipal albergue: Albergue de Peregrinos de Logroño is located on the Camino track, in the Casco Antiguo, in the old part of the city and not very far from Logroño’s famous eating places.

One of the most memorable things which you can do on the day you arrive into Logroño when walking the Camino Francés is to go out of the albergue, explore parts of the Casco Antiguo by ordering and eating pinchos or tapas in either Calle (del) Laurel or Calle San Juan.

Do not be afraid to go alone, take your camera, it is very safe and even if you have very limited Spanish or even no Spanish, just simply point to the food item you’re interested in and pay the going price at the bar and have a glass or two of the region’s crianza red wine – wine at least two years old with at least one year in an oak cask.

The locals often prefer to stand up whilst eating at small round elevated eating posts. Do not choose all your food from one place, this is the opportunity to explore and discover.  As is the tradition, most pilgrims stay only one night in a place and despite Logroño’s many attractions, you must make the most of your stay in just several hours.  Remember, if you are a pilgrim you cannot be a tourist or a traveller for more than a few hours per day.

The two streets: Calle del Laurel and Calle San Juan are always packed with people and ambience from early afternoon to very late in the evening.  It is very exciting just to be there whilst soaking in the atmosphere.

If you arrive early enough in the afternoon, you would do well to visit the Mercado de San Blas (San Blas fresh food markets) located very close to Calle del Laurel at number 1 Calle Sagasta.

Good walking gear gives you a better walking outcome: underpants – PART THREE

By way of introducing this sensitive topic, there is this true story about a New Zealand Prime Minister, Robert Muldoon (1975-1984) when asked to comment about the huge numbers of Kiwis moving to Australia, infamously stated that each time a New Zealander left his homeland to go to Australia, that emigrating Kiwi raised “the IQ of both countries“.

Why should an item of walking gear be “sensitive”?  For two reasons. Firstly, we are dealing with intimate underwear for both men and women around the genitalia area (and that is always sensitive and private) and what can sometimes happen to both male and female walkers (even slim ones) who are predisposed to catastrophic chafing between the legs.

In English, the verb is “to chafe”.  To chafe means that the object, here: the two legs joining together in the crotch rub abrasively against one another.  In French, the noun is: “frottement” and in Spanish “rozadura“.

What is the meaning of  “catastrophic chafing“?  The walker can no longer walk pain-free and every step constitutes for him or her agony with more and more consequential damage to the skin in the crotch area and thereby becoming so hyper sensitive and reddened that normal walking terminates forthwith.  To move forward slowly, the suffer opens up his legs in opposite directions – similar to horse riders all day in the saddle when dismounting.  To allow some form of walking, albeit slowly, whilst abnormally opening up one’s legs in an east-west direction, minimizing the excruciating pain.  This is a problem not very often talked about or indeed, solutions proffered.

The “crotch” being defined as the part of the human body between the legs, where they join the torso. Crotch in French is: “l’entrejambe” literally between the leg and in Spanish the same: “la entrepierna” – simple and descriptive.

Many heavy-duty long distance walkers are spared this cursed.  However, a significant minority seem to be cursed.

In his practical classes and workshops in Australia and New Zealand, the writer has a policy of bringing these matters into the open (pun intended) and all participants gain the necessary skills to manage this situation if it occurs whilst walking the Camino.

The writer has two solutions for those who suffer this significant problem on the track: firstly, their existing underpants is obviously causing this problem and those existing underpants must be gotten rid of and secondly, to repair the already damaged skin a special therapeutic cream must be applied.

One very fast and effective test to see if your existing underpants is causing your chafing is to touch the crotch area of your own underpants, when you pull them down whilst going to the toilet in either a sitting or crouching position.  If they feel wet or very moist, then you can be nearly 100% sure that, that item of clothing closest to you is doing the damage and could very possibly lead to serious chafing issues.

Cotton underpants are the invariable culprits.  When cotton becomes very moist to wet in the crotch area it means for the walker, that that wetness is there to stay for the duration and we know that once cotton is laden with moisture, it cannot wick out any moisture whilst the person is engaged in that physical activity.  And they start to act like sandpaper against the thin and sensitive skin in the crotch area: “ouch“.

Earth Sea Sky's mens 95% superfine merino wool stretch + 5% lycra boxer underpants

Readers of this Blog are reminded what was said in PART ONE of “Good walking gear gives you a better walking outcome” and cotton products must never be used by walkers.  Cotton underpants for suffers predispose them to chafing problems: in the writer’s opinion they are totally inappropriate to wear when doing heavy-duty walking over many days.  Included are some hi-tech non-merino woollen underpants (panty style) which are not “boxer” length in the crotch area.

When you are on the track and suffer “catastrophic chafing” it is imperative to get rid of the existing underpants and repair the skin in the crotch.  French and Spanish people use an anti-chafing product called NOK which has large amounts of (shea) butter and is very greasy.  Shea butter is very popular in Europe: it is a fatty substance made from the nuts of a West African tree (Vitellaria paradoxa).  The nuts collected from this tree contain large amounts of fat.

Despite what Europeans claim, the writer after testing this product on the Camino track, prefers a superior product, unknown in the Northern Hemisphere and called: Silic 15 Cream.  It is an Australian made product, cheaper than NOK and can be used both as a prophylactic (preventer) and as a remedy (repairer of damaged skin); not only for the crotch area, but also for the feet before putting on one’s socks and boots. Silic 15 is lanolin-free (non fatty substance), perfume-free, non-greasy, absorbed into the skin very quickly and with a pH of 7.  It has been successfully tested by heavy-duty walkers (men and women) who are predisposed to very bad chafing in the crotch area.

However, using Silic 15 cream combined with using Earth Sea Sky’s (ESS) boxer underpants (see the three photos) which are put together by flat lock seams gives the best protection, superior wicking properties of any 100% merino wool boxer underpants in the world.  Flat lock seams are used with this product because it means less bulk and less chance for abrasions to occur against the skin.  In addition, by using 5% lycra it holds its shape no matter what and the ESS boxer underpants never sag compared to other products on the market.

Robin Boustead, Australian author of The Great Himalaya Trail and heavy-duty trekker has proudly claimed wearing just one ESS boxer underpants in the Himalayas for more than 40 days and nights without ever changing.  And he was still socially acceptable.

The writer has critically tested this product for nearly ten years, not only on himself but on other people of both genders whilst matching it against similar products.  All users agree that once used for heavy-duty walking, there can be no going back to any other products on the market.  All predisposed “chafer testers” reported being chafe free wearing ESS boxer merino

The ESS superfine, stretch boxers for women with a low-rise, sitting just below the waist

underpants with the Silic 15 cream applied once in the morning and walking on average 28 kilometres per day over multi-day Camino tracks in both France and Spain.

Returning to the first sentence in this Blog: this extraordinary exported Kiwi product: the ESS merino underpants when it leaves its native shores and worn by any one, immeasurably improves their walking outcome and their walking experience.  Long live our “Kiwi friends”, for they are next to our skin and the family and crown jewels are protected!!

The Earth Sea Sky product for women: superfine stretch boxer underpants