Very fair question. For me it is a variety of things. I have walked the Francés and the other “main caminos” several times and they no longer fill my yearning for long stretches of solitude, focusing on the glory of the natural world, thinking through life’s big problems, and communicating with my inner self, so yes I do talk to myself! I admit I am one of those who is put off by the crowds, the commercialization, the disney-fication (the talking advertisements outside Arca-O Pino really did me in). “Cheap holiday adventure” is not something that comes to mind when discussing the Olvidado and Vadiniense. “Tour” suggests that there will be others, and on most of these caminos you will walk for days without seeing any other pilgrim. “Hike” vs.”pilgrimage” is probably the most appropriate conundrum to have about the annual walks I put together. And I hesitate to wade into that debate, because of all the baggage we all bring to it. It is true that I frequently post about ways to take coastal alternatives or mountain alternatives, suggesting more of the hiking mode, but for me there is nothing like kms of asphalt to suck the inner focus out of me.
I think I found part of an answer last year when I started in Almería on the Mozárabe and only had the time to make it to Salamanca. I was unprepared to find how it made the walk feel very incomplete, that I had deprived myself of that final unburdening that comes when I walk into Obradoiro. So this year, I am back at the planning, thinking Vasco/Olvidado/Invierno. Yes, it will involve a bus from the end of one to the beginning of the next and that is not my preference, and if I could add 9 more days to my walking, I would do it without the bus, but that is just one of the concessions I have to make. And yes it does piece together routes that will combine a lot of natural beauty with new untraveled paths, but that is an important part of the backdrop in which I let my mind loose.
Another part of what the camino does for me is test my physical limits, endurance, self-confidence. Is that spiritual or a hike? Whatever it is, it is an important psychic part of the package. For me, the challenge of going out of my comfort zone, walking more difficult paths and longer distances than I could have imagined ten years ago is a big part of the exhiliration I feel at being alive on the camino. I am always biting my tongue when I see how easily some people opt out of the physical challenge at the first opprtunity, but that’s just me. I think that if more pilgrims would really suck it up and get out of their comfort zone and push to their limits, they would be surprised to see what they can do. And the exhiliration that comes from that is so life-affirming I can’t even tell you. But I digress....
That may be a long and rambling answer, but it’s the best I can do. Buen camino, Laurie
). In Santo Domingo I will have to take a bus to Aguilar de Campoo where I will walk the second half of the Olvidado. Now that Ender and the association have marked two mountain variants, I’m itching to get back. Finishing the Olvidado, though it joins the Francés in Cacabelos, you can get to Ponferrada with one day of mainly road walking from Congosto. Then I will walk the Invierno to top it all off! 
