We caught up with one of our adventurers after she completed the wonderful bucket-list trip, Pilgrim’s Way. Take a look at her journey.
The Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St. James, is the great pilgrimage route of the medieval Christians in Spain. On our wonderful journey with Wilderness Travel, Pilgrim’s Way, we followed the trail starting in Burgos, Spain.
We were fortunate to traverse sections of the Camino with the most scenic medieval towns, mountains, hills, and plains of northern Spain.
This trip provided an excellent blend of cultural sites along our route, including wonderful detailed tours of Burgos, Leon, and the gorgeous Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
Some of the magical towns on our path also included the cobblestone streets of quaint Castrillo de Los Polvazares, O’Cebreiro, and Portomarin, with it’s amazing stone church of St. Nicolas.
Our Trip Leaders were awesome and had extensive historical knowledge, which they shared continuously during our treks, answering all our numerous questions. They were so friendly and were always smiling, which added so much joy to this journey!
We enjoyed the company of other pilgrims sharing this endeavor, meeting folks from Rome, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Wales and England to name a few.
As we walked this sacred route we had the opportunity to reflect on the significance of the Camino’s history and our own exterior and interior journeys in life: to seek inner strength and wisdom, and just travel slowly through a fascinating landscape and culture.
At the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, we celebrated a pilgrims mass and experienced the botafumeiro ritual: incense is burned in a swinging metal container, or “censer” (the word “botafumeiro” actually means smoke expeller in Galician). Our memorable journey wrapped up in Finisterre (Land’s End) on the Atlantic Ocean, a beautiful spot with lovely beaches and clear sparkling water. The Camino trip was a unique experience as we not only experienced the journey with a special group from Wilderness Travel, but also with people from all over the world of all ages and beliefs.
—Text and photos by 12-time WT adventurer Mary Ellen Morris, Pilgrim’s Way.