sillydoll
Veteran Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- 2002 CF: 2004 from Paris: 2006 VF: 2007 CF: 2009 Aragones, Ingles, Finisterre: 2011 X 2 on CF: 2013 'Caracoles': 2014 CF and Ingles 'Caracoles":2015 Logrono-Burgos (Hospitalero San Anton): 2016 La Douay to Aosta/San Gimignano to Rome:
I have always felt deeply soorry for people who walk 700km of the Camino and then stumble near the end and are refused a Compostela (like the girl from Brasil in the film 'Within the Way without')
In September I lead a group of 9 people over three sections of the Camino from St Jean to Santiago. One lovely peregrina managed the walk from St Jean to Orisson then on to Burguete the next day. She struggled each day and one day she walked for over 12 hours. Although we were in phone contact with her we were very concerned that she would only get into Los Arcos after dark.
She found the section from Rabanal to Molinaeseca very taxing as she had developed problems with the bones in her feet.
On the last section from Sarria she stayed behind one day with another member of our group to help a pilgrim who couldn't speak any English or Spanish. They left Casanova too late to reach Arzua so they got a taxi for the last 5km. "There goes my Compostela' she said when they arrived in Arzua. She resigned herself to a tourist certificate.
When she got to the Pilgrim's Office she told them that she would have to have the 'other' certificate. They looked at her credencial and asked her why. "I didn't walk the whole way" she said, "My friend and I had to take a taxi after helping a foreign pilgrim who needed medical treatment."
The person in the Pilgrim's Office told her that they weren't there to punish pilgrims, especially those who had walked as much as she had. She was given a Compostela.
I applaud the Pilgrims Office if there has been a softening on the strict application of that 100km rule, especially for pilgrims who have walked a long way.
In September I lead a group of 9 people over three sections of the Camino from St Jean to Santiago. One lovely peregrina managed the walk from St Jean to Orisson then on to Burguete the next day. She struggled each day and one day she walked for over 12 hours. Although we were in phone contact with her we were very concerned that she would only get into Los Arcos after dark.
She found the section from Rabanal to Molinaeseca very taxing as she had developed problems with the bones in her feet.
On the last section from Sarria she stayed behind one day with another member of our group to help a pilgrim who couldn't speak any English or Spanish. They left Casanova too late to reach Arzua so they got a taxi for the last 5km. "There goes my Compostela' she said when they arrived in Arzua. She resigned herself to a tourist certificate.
When she got to the Pilgrim's Office she told them that she would have to have the 'other' certificate. They looked at her credencial and asked her why. "I didn't walk the whole way" she said, "My friend and I had to take a taxi after helping a foreign pilgrim who needed medical treatment."
The person in the Pilgrim's Office told her that they weren't there to punish pilgrims, especially those who had walked as much as she had. She was given a Compostela.
I applaud the Pilgrims Office if there has been a softening on the strict application of that 100km rule, especially for pilgrims who have walked a long way.