A pretty good article. Here is a snippet.
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Of the 466,000 pilgrims recorded by the Santiago Pilgrim’s Reception Office as finishing it in 2023, only a third claimed to have walked it for religious reasons, according to one of the office volunteers, John Rafferty. “For some people there may be an epiphany. But for most people it is the alchemy of everything coming together,” he says. “The scenery, the friendship, the laughter, the pathos, the time just walking for hours on your own, mulling over things in your life, like where have I been? Where am I going? How long have I got left? These are big questions for people to ponder. So it’s not surprising that change occurs after walking a Camino. The trip can be transcendent and transformational.”
Better known by his nom de plume, Johnnie Walker, this Scotsman is widely regarded as the world’s leading authority on the Camino. The 71-year-old former executive turned church organist first walked the Camino in 2007. He’s since walked 54, written 19 books on them and now lives in Santiago, a few minutes walk from the cathedral where the majority end their pilgrimage, and where he hears the click-clack of walking poles on the footpath most mornings. At the end of the walk, even non-Catholics usually attend a pilgrims’ mass, if only to see the giant incense-filled religious vessel called the botafumeiro swing into action.
Walker considers trekking the Camino a form of modern-day medicine. A divorced man with children back in Scotland, between walking and writing he now plays the organ in churches all over Spain. “I wanted a bridge to a different way of life, rather than sitting at my desk calculating my pension fund for retirement. I started walking but never expected to end up living in Spain. I never expected any of this.”
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www.smh.com.au
