Are they real? Camino Blues

[Tumbleweed]

I've only been home 20 days from my 34 day Camino and I miss it so much. I thought it would take me at least 6 months to decide if I would ever do another pilgrimage, boy, I was wrong. I not only miss the walking I miss the solitude, the simplicity and my long talks with the Lord. Luckily I have a nice treadmill at home, I attach my laptop (so I can watch TV), or listen to my MP3 (music I had with me on the Camino) set the incline to 8% then away I go, walking, yes walking. My body just wants to keep walking. Bring on the Camino Blues, yes folks, they are real.

 

[brawblether]

Best cure for the Camino blues....plan your next one!

 

[Sedona2012]

I agree, planning the next Camino helps! I should know. I'm planning my third Camino trip as it seems 6 months is as long as I can stay away! Did remember completing my first Camino and thinking it was the best thing I have ever done but did not think I would return for another Camino. So many great places to visit why walk another Camino? Wrong, within weeks of returning home I knew I had to return to the Camino.

 

[suekenney]

I have found that walking, outdoors if you can, is the best way to integrate your Camino into life at home. Everyday I focus on being a pilgrim in life and endeavour to integrate the values of being a pilgrim into everyday life. It's a constant discipline. Suseya!

 

[David]

Tumbleweed - photos like yours should be illegal! One glimpse and the pangs set in! Instant cabin fever!!

 

[Rose Bishop]

Love your name, Tumbleweed!! In September this year, I walked for only 14 days from SJPDP to Burgos . Never did I realise what a profound effect it would have on me. Ive been decluttering my life and home. What a fabulous feeling!! I can go into our garden and sit and think...or sometimes, I just sit!! No longer do I have to have a cuppa tea in my hand or a cellphone, just in case someone calls! I listen to the birds and the bees. I can hear the wind rustle through the trees. I love the network of my Camino amigos and we are in regular contact. I m returning next year and making much more time available to be able to get to Santiago and hopefully Finesterre. The Camino certainly provides what one needs. I understand what you mean by the Camino Blues...but to cope with them, planning your next walk really helps!! Buen Camino!

 

[HolleySue]

I too have been longing to return. I am so thankful that you shared , because I couldn't quite understand why I just couldn't settle back into my everyday hurried life. I just don't want to live that crazy rushed American life style since returning home. Now I know that I'm not alone in missing the Camino.
: )

 

[Pruden]

Just arrived from 6 days of walking from León to Sarria , and all ready in my head the thoughts of coming back for a few more days!
Even I'm planning to do a few journeys with my family next June i may go for few days at new year !
Buen Camino.

 

[jennysa]

View attachment 6760 I've only been home 20 days from my 34 day Camino and I miss it so much. I thought it would take me at least 6 months to decide if I would ever do another pilgrimage, boy, I was wrong. I not only miss the walking I miss the solitude, the simplicity and my long talks with the Lord. Luckily I have a nice treadmill at home, I attach my laptop (so I can watch TV), or listen to my MP3 (music I had with me on the Camino) set the incline to 8% then away I go, walking, yes walking. My body just wants to keep walking. Bring on the Camino Blues, yes folks, they are real.

Yes, the Camino Blues is very real but the good news is that it gets easier with each subsequent Camino you walk. I have explanation about it which I can send you if you PM me.

 

[SuGardner]

We finished our camino in late July 2013. We are still talking about it everyday and longing to go back. I just finished a 800 picture photo album -- can't stop looking at the beauty -- but I re-lived the camino for days as I was putting that together. It's all I wanted to do! Not sure when we will be back, but I know we will!

 

[wonzi]

And I thought I was the only one experiencing these feelings! It was only about 4 days after returning at the end of June that my thoughts were "I wish I was back walking". And, it continues each day and many nights I wake up after dreaming about walking all day along the wood paths, the streams and the highways. Last week I started my fund for my next Camino, God willing, and the envelope is now holding an extra $400. A good beginning and hope it will increase enough to go back in 2014!!

 

[David]

One way to help with the addiction is to watch The Way, with Martin Sheen - at the moment it is my virtual Camino as I can only get to Spain twice a year, this year only once (sob).
There is a problem with watching it after walking though ... jeans? they are wearing jeans? ... hang on, that isn't the entrance to the refuge, that is across the road! ... but, that cafe is two days back up the Camino! ... I do wish that Canadian woman would learn how to put her rucksack on properly! ... and so on - but it isn't a documentary, it is a film about four people with tremendous baggage being 'healed' by being on Camino with each other.

Buen virtual Camino! (cheap copies on Ebay)

 

[wayfarer]

Beautiful photo Tumbleweed, this one is from almost the same spot on 5th May 2012. Can't wait to get back.

 

[Jnlee99]

Yes, I want to go back! It's been 3 weeks since returning back home and the Camino is still strong in my psyche.

 

[lindseh]

Yeah, I call it my post-Camino existential crisis. Good luck.

 

[dustylee]

I miss the Camino (& am planning to go back this spring), but it had a profound influence on my life: I realized that I love walking & needed to be in a place where I could walk more easily (e.g. not have to drive in order to get to a place to walk) and one that was more inspiring. I ended up moving from Austin, Texas to Albuquerque where I can walk out my door & be walking in the state park or down by the Rio Grande. The Camino made me realize that walking is an essential part of my life & that is how I stay connected to the experience. Hope that helps.

 

[Tincatinker]

Me I was a hiker, went on walks. Then I went on a camino: now I go on camino whenever I can. And are the "camino blues" or I guess the post camino blues real? Oh yes. Gut wrenchingly so sometimes. As I squelch to work, clock in and strive for the funding for the next one... To skip the flippancy and self-pity. I found the transition from camino to home life really hard. The Beloved was glad to have me home, the dog was fairly pleased to see me, and I found re-employment fairly quickly. But actually I just wanted to be back at StJdP ready to roll again. Things have mellowed. The Beloved has come with me on a couple of camino since my return. I have this forum and I have the next camino, if not planned, in planning.

And I recall the guy who got to Santiago and couldn't stop walking. So he turned around and walked home, and when he got home .........

 

[wayfarer]

Off topic: I was just comparing the two photos in Photoshop, I can count 18 pilgrims on the trail in Tumbleweeds for September, but only 6 on the trail in mine for May.

 

[Tumbleweed]

Hey, wayfarer. Who's lurking down and around the bend in your photo? Hmmm probably another 10 pilgrims or so. Hahaha

I've come up with a brilliant idea. Once my slide show is complete, I will set my laptop to my treadmill, listen to my MP3 and walk the Camino again and again. It's going to be a while until I will beable to actually do another pilgrimage, so I have to get creative.

 

[wayfarer]

Hey, wayfarer. Who's lurking down and around the bend in your photo? Hmmm probably another 10 pilgrims or so. Hahaha

I've come up with a brilliant idea. Once my slide show is complete, I will set my laptop to my treadmill, listen to my MP3 and walk the Camino again and again. It's going to be a while until I will beable to actually do another pilgrimage, so I have to get creative.

Probably because of the weather, I'm not sure, but we had a very quiet Camino until Sarria. Some days we might only see one pilgrim off in the distance ahead or behind. As we got closer to Sarria it got busier.
PS. Great idea for the slideshow.

 

[David]

I never thought I would mix Camino with Country songs - but if you change the place names .....

West Virginia can just about be replaced with Camino de Frances ...

"to the place I belong" .. ahhh