As I left Santiago and headed down the Camino Frances, I thought of the struggles I might face on the way. Walking backwards might not only pose a bit of a navigation problem, but as a fairly introverted person I feared it might get rather isolated with no way to make a Camino family. Turns out neither of those worries would be a problem because a) turns out tracking 1000’s of people is really easy, and b) it was really easy to struck up conversations with people knowing I would never see them again. What I wasn’t prepared for was the sheer number of pilgrims on the trail and the logistical problems that resulted. Even at it’s busiest after crossing the Portugal/Spain border, the number of pilgrims on the Camino Portuguese paled in comparison to what I would face on the Camino Frances, and as I headed against the crowds, the number of pilgrims seemed to multiply by the day as I was headed straight into one of the busiest months on the Camino, not to mention by year end 2016 would mark the most pilgrims on the Camino in recorded history (~278 000). The official number of pilgrims that arrived to Santiago via the Camino Frances the month I was walking was 21, 309, meaning that on average I was crossing paths with 710 pilgrims per day!

The number of pilgrims walking the trail had doubled in a short seven years, and as I began the Camino Frances I quickly learned that the number of albergues and beds were hard pressed to keep up with the hundreds of pilgrims on the Camino per day. This shortage (or perceived threat of shortage) created a rat race culture on the Camino; pilgrims would wake up at ungodly hours in the morning and rush to the next albergue to ensure they got a good bed, and after 3PM I was lucky if I was to come across a pilgrim on the trail. While the Camino Portuguese had more of a laid back atmosphere, we rarely booked beds in advance, were in bed by 10PM, or out of bed by 8AM, the Camino Frances had a somewhat militant structure. The accommodation created a culture on the Camino Frances that to me, was all to similar to the culture than many pilgrims were trying to and needed to get away from in their daily lives. At home, many have a fairly strict schedule leaving little room for the unknown, and on the Camino with morning wake up, departure, and arrival times strictly planned out, many pilgrims were allowed to continue on with their habitual routines, allowing the Camino to pass under their feet in a haze.

My first stay in an albergue on the Camino Frances, I would be irritatingly woken up at 4:30 AM by the “bag rustlers” shining their lights and packing up to head out for the day, falling back asleep I would be rudely awoken at 7:30AM by the receptionist and informed that all pilgrims must be out of the albergue by 8 AM! This I had most definitely not signed up for. I am not a morning person so I was pretty peeved to learn that on my vacation I would have start setting an alarm. As I made no move to get out of bed calculating I could sleep for another 20 minutes and make it out by 8, the clearly thought otherwise as she looked dubiously at my belongings that were strewn on top of my bag. What she didn’t know that my bag was similar to a children’s puzzle, and while it may look like it would take a bit of time to put together to someone who hadn’t seen the picture on the puzzle box,  I could put my bag together in about 5 minutes.

The number of pilgrims on the Camino France route and resultant culture was so overwhelming, that after a few days on the trail some pilgrims would hop a bus and start down a different route to Santiago such as the Camino del Norte or the Via de la Plata. If you’re looking for a quiet enjoyable hike that may be a fine thing to do, but if you are doing a pilgrimage it is important to trust that everything on the Camino is exactly as it should be for your journey. For myself although there would be some growing pains and grumpy early mornings as I got used to the Camino Frances, I knew that if I was mindful enough there were lessons one could learn that could only be taught through crossing paths with 100’s of pilgrims everyday on the path. As I worked to change my perspective of the number of pilgrims on the Camino from negative to positive, I realized that the growing number of pilgrims in recent years was a reflection of our modern lives. With internet we find ourselves interconnected with more and more people than ever before, with social media we may interact with 100’s or 1000’s of people a day when pre-internet we would be lucky to talk to 20 people a day. It was only fitting that the Camino had changed over the years to mirror this. Much like the Camino, in our lives we can choose to distance ourselves from others and try to hack it on our own, or we can use the increased interconnectedness to our advantage.

On the Camino Portuguese I had learned not to rush from point A to point B, and the Camino Frances tested this as I tried not to worry about arriving to albergues early enough to ensure a bed. It was a practice in releasing control and having faith that everything would work out, something easier said than done. Luckily, I had brought an air mattress, so I knew if worst came to worst I could sleep on a floor or outside, and with this backup I was able to step away from the bed races and hike the Camino on my time. As it would turn out, despite some late arrivals after 6PM, I always managed to find a bed! I would end up using my air mattress to camp out some nights, but that was a result of deciding I would camp when I set out that day, not due being turned away at albergues. It was amazing how having a little faith could reduce so much of the stress and worry that many pilgrims had on the trail. Once I stepped out of the Camino rat race, I had very little worries and my Camino experience would transform for the better in other ways as well.

While many pilgrims on the trail could be heard complaining about the sheer mass of people on a narrow trail (especially after Sarria, the 200 km point and last place to start the Camino to receive a compastella). As I was hiking in the reverse direction, if anyone was going to have a right to have an annoyance at the number of pilgrims on the trail it would be me but I was having a completely different experience! Though I had to leave most albergues by 8AM, I would usually only hike to the nearest cafe to get a tea, only really starting on the Camino by 9AM and being out of the bed races meant I could hike well into the afternoon, often stopping between 5 and 6PM. While I would pass many pilgrims in the morning, often getting weary of the pilgrim’s greeting on the trail when passing of “Buen Camino” as going in reverse I passed every single pilgrim, after 12PM pilgrims on the trail tapered off significantly. By 2PM I often found myself hiking in solitude for hours, enjoying the mild May temperatures and beautiful scenery in complete silence. One didn’t need to uproot and head to Santiago on a completely different route to find solitude, all one really needed to do was change their approach and one could find all the solitude in the world on the Camino Frances.

Potential pilgrims often find themselves turned off of doing the Camino Frances route because of the numbers and stories that circulate the internet. For myself, the Camino Frances was exactly as it needed to be for me to learn what I was supposed to learn on it. It is challenging to maintain mindfulness on the modern Camino Frances, more so than quieter routes such as the Camino Portuguese, but not in a bad way.  If one can learn to maintain mindfulness on the Camino Frances, they will be better prepared to maintain that mindfulness as they return to the hustle and bustle of their homes. For some it may be too overwhelming to start on the Camino Frances and like myself it may be better to start on a quieter route before heading down the Camino Frances, but I strongly recommend not to completely discount it based on the number of pilgrims walking it. Even if it is not clearly describable why, there is a reason it was in medieval times and still is the most traveled pilgrimage route and the Camino Frances will always be a special experience whether there are 1, 1000, or 100 000 pilgrims on the way.

Back to Camino de Santiago blogs