“When you see me, do you remember the times when we traveled…?”
Yes. The answer is yes and the answer will always be yes.
May 19th marked the 6th anniversary of my first ever steps on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route in Spain. Those footsteps captured my heart. The pilgrims I walked with captured my heart. It was the end of a journey and it was the beginning of a journey. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
On this date six years ago, we walked from Cacabelos to Trabadelo. I was opening up to the Camino in ways I hadn’t imagined possible. I was also discovering it was the Wine & Food Tour of Spain. The rich mouth-watering salads and main dishes were made all the more glorious by the hunger created in us after a full day of walking across an unspeakably beautiful country. Each night we were met with delicious fare and extraordinary wine and café con leche. It made the walk easier…more hopeful.
I knew as I walked that I would write a story set on the Camino, and I knew what the story was that I wanted to write. Alas, as is often the case with me, I could not write it while I was there in that place. Being there…that was the time of percolation. I walked with my characters, I listened to their thoughts, formulated their personalities, envisioned their journeys.
Michael and I walked the Camino from Astorga to Santiago de Compostela in September of 2019. We did not stay in Trabadelo…but we walked through it and we stopped for a coke at the albergue our group of peregrinos slept at in 2014.
The picture on the left was snapped at the Trabadelo albergue in May of 2014. The picture on the right, in September of 2019. ❤
I hope I can always go back. It’s in my heart now. The Camino has made me a wanderer, a lifelong pilgrim. I hope my upcoming novel, THE CAMINO CLUB, does the sacred pilgrimage route justice. My true hope is that the story creates even ONE future PILGRIM. If it ignites one soul to put the Camino de Santiago in their bucket-list, I will feel as though I have done good. The Camino has to be experienced before one can really get a feel for how life-changing it is. And it’s not the scenery, or the people, or the food, or the wine…it’s all of those things and more.
There is something on the Camino that just grabs on to your soul and embraces it. There is a saying often heard all over the Camino, by pilgrims from every country the world over…THE CAMINO PROVIDES. When, on the Camino, you find yourself in need of something…it has a way of coming to you. The spirit of the Camino finds a way to fill the need.
Once you experience that spirit, it stays with you. It calls you back. Again and again.
Buen Camino!
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After getting in trouble with the law, six wayward teens are given an ultimatum: serve time in juvenile detention for their crimes, or walk the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route across Spain over the summer holidays with a pair of court-appointed counselor guides. When it becomes clear the long walk isn’t really all that much of an option, they set out on a journey that will either make or break who they are and who they are to become.
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KEVIN CRAIG 