The Spanish say of the Camino de Santiago Camino Frances “Sin dolor no hay ganancia,” “no pain no gain.”
But is it true?
Here’s my most recent correspondence from my Camino de Santiago Camino Frances pilgrimage. Whether you’re a newbie or veteran pilgrim, you judge for yourself.
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“I came for a challenge,” frowns Kat, the petite twenty-something blonde from suburban London. “But now that I have it, I don’t want it,” she half-laughs. “I thought the challenge of the Camino would be that it tired me.
“I didn’t realize that the challenge would be actual pain,” confesses Kat.
The clear blue-eyed lass has been nursing a throbbing ankle for the past five days. She’s already walked 348 km on the Camino de Santiago Camino Frances. From St Jean Pied du Port in France up and over the Pyrenes Mountains into Spain, under scorching 90°F sun. Over Romanesque bridges, the wind whipping her long straw-colored hair.
During the past two and a half weeks, she’s slept in sizeable pilgrim accommodations like Maria y Jesus Albergue in Pamplona, famous for the running of the bulls. Or crashed on floor mats of small, intimate medieval churches like the one in Grañón, where pilgrims help prepare the meal and later break bread together after Mass.
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Must Camino de Santiago Camino Frances challenges include pain?
Then, before retiring to sleeping bags on the floor mats, they walk a winding stairway to the choir loft and sit in the tall wooden choir-stalls carved of dark wood in the 15th Century.
In the candlelit room above the golden retablo, when a candle passes, they say a prayer or thought in their own language about what the Camino has meant to them up to this point.
Or if they are shy or too moved, they can pass the candle without choking on their words.
Pain on the Camino de Santiago Camino Frances
I’m now sitting with Kat at a small, family-run coffee bar in Hontanas, Spain. She seems quite grown up since we first crossed paths on a Saturday night in Logrono. She was running with Miles, another Brit and three young French guys from Bayonne.
It was fin de semana, and the town was hopping. Thousands of people filled the streets of the medieval Old Town, crowding in and out of tapas and pintxos joints, eating and drinking. The merry pilgrim band of which Kat was a part, was quite lit and taking advantage of the local vibe.
Logrono, a city on the Camino de Santiago Camino Frances
One of the beautiful things about walking the Camino de Santiago Camino Frances is stumbling upon the same people over and over again. We’re all moving in the same direction—towards Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain, where the bones of St. James the Greater are laid to rest. In the Middle Ages, people walked from their homes all over Europe to Santiago to fulfill a vow, amend a crime, seek miraculous healing or simply deepen their faith.
Today, there is a resurgence in pilgrimage along these ancient ways. I am walking one of them, the Camino Frances, along with thousands of other modern pilgrims.
Since we each walk at individual paces and stop along the way at our choice of the many places established for pilgrim meals or lodging—called albergues or refugios—we are leapfrogging each other along the 500-mile way. I might not see a pilgrim for three or four days, and then suddenly, they are again in the bunk next to you at the albergue or, as in this case, at the adjacent bar stool sipping coffee or tea.
These serendipitous reunions can be like Old Home Week with high-fives and big smiles or more subdued like this one with Kat. Our bond is growing, and we share authentic concerns about each other’s welfare and plans.
“I’m taking a few days off from walking,” she confesses. “I’ve been watching YouTubes about stress fractures, tendonitis and other ankle problems. Today, I even had a bit of bruising on the top of my ankle.
“But it’s difficult to quit walking. I want to keep going,” Kat discloses.
“I know the feeling. Once you get into that rhythm, you feel like you can’t stop. It’s taken so long to get into that head space.” I agree. I, too, am forcing myself to slow down due to ligament and muscle problems on the outer front of my lower legs. This is my seventeenth Camino, and I’ve never had such a problem before.
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Why am I having pain on Camino de Santiago Camino Frances?
“What are you doing different?” my husband Dan asked during a phone conversation three days before.
That helped me diagnose the problem: what was I doing differently?
“The major thing I’ve changed up is shipping my backpack ahead during some of the longer stages,” I concluded. In the past, I’d only used the baggage transportation services at two points: when crossing the Pyrenes and later in the 30-day pilgrimage at O’Ceibreiro, another high pass in the western mountains.
But on this pilgrimage, I decided that at 69 years old, I was slower and could keep my younger pace if I shipped ahead.
However, that seems to be the cause of my lower leg problems.
Without my heavy pack, I was bounding down the steep declines in the manner taught to me by sherpas in Peru. They’d shown me their walking/jogging downhill technique to avoid knee joint injury.
Yes, using the Peruvian shuffle, I avoided the impact on my knees. But my lower legs were taking the pounding.
After four days of this, I was walking like an old, bent peasant woman.
“I stayed an extra day in Burgos to see a physiotherapist,” I share with Kat, taking another sip of my café con leche.
“Her treatment made me feel quite better. She put some gel on my lower legs and attached electrodes for about 25 minutes of electrotherapy.
“Then, deep tissue sports massage. I think you would get some relief for your ankle if you found a good physio in Leon.”
RELATED: The Ultimate Camino Packing List: What 20 Years and 17 Caminos (INCLUDING THIS ONE!) Have Taught Me
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Convento San Anton ruins on the Camino de Santiago Camino Frances
“It’s interesting that of the thousands of pilgrims who are on the way every day, most of them have to be in pain,” ascertains Jerry from Ireland the next day at Albergue San Anton.
“They struggle with leg, foot and ankle problems and sore backs from carrying too much.”
We’re sharing a meager breakfast at Convento San Anton, the rustic albergue inside the ruins of a 14th-century pilgrim hospitale.
The huge Gothic church was destroyed in the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755. Today, its Gothic arches straddle the Camino and the country road that it follows.
You can stay in the ruins as a pilgrim, a phenomenal experience, but there is no Wi-Fi, electricity or hot water. It’s for pilgrims seeking a challenge, but not for the faint of heart.
“The pilgrims feel the pain, but many return to do it all over again,” says Jerry, shaking his head.
I get it. I love travel and pilgrimage because of the edginess. There’s a bit of fear and a bit of pain, but that makes the experience real and authentic. That’s what Kat is learning. She came for the challenge. And she is learning to embrace the pain that is often part of an authentic undertaking.
RELATED: Just another day on Camino. I donated my kidney.
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Hi, I’m Stacey
UNSTOPPABLE Stacey Travel is a travel blog focused on immersive travel that highlights food, wine and the spirituality of place. I also occasionally write about life as a Camino de Santiago pilgrim. I hope you enjoy what I post here. Feel free to leave comments! Read more…
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6 thoughts on “The Challenge of the Camino de Santiago Camino Frances”
Bonjour Stacey,
I do not think pain as anything to do with authenticity. If someone does not feel pain, their experience or journey is not authentic ?
I believe that authenticity is when someone’s thoughts, words and actions are aligned.
Pain, as more to do with the present moment. What are you going to do with your pain ? ignore it ? hope it goes away ? take care of it ? continue or change your plans ? Admit that the challenge was to much, that you are trespassing you own limits ?
A different view on pain …
Thanks so much for your thoughtful words, MC. I’m glad the article got you thinking about pain. CAn anyone else respond to MC’s thought-provoking questions?
I think that there is pain, and that there is suffering. And the two do not have to go hand in hand together. Working with both the dying as a Hospice Volunteer / Death Doula and those in the throes of grief as a Grief Educator, I’ve noticed that pain and suffering often intertwine, and the struggle can be authentically excruciating, whether on a psychological, physical or deeper level. It depends on the types of pain we go through … no one in life is immune. But how we deal with it can make all the difference. And through it all, when we are able to examine that pain for what it is, authenticity definitely shines through. However, authenticity is not necessarily tied to the pain, I believe. Many people bury their pain only to have it pop up elsewhere. What really helps to make an authentic experience is the ability to share it, and that includes willing to unburden our pain and fears by sharing those with others … all of it. And it is this, I find, that helps to cement the Camino as a transformative pilgrimage. It’s the bonding of like-minded souls on a journey together through the thick of it all, weaving pathways across each other steps and hearts.
This is why I do the work that I do …. help to support and lift others up in their times of need, pain and suffering, holding space for it all.
Thank you for your thoughtful post and comments ….
Thanks for YOUR thoughtful comments, Sky!
PS As per MC’s thoughts, being present to pain is very much a huge part of facing it and transforming/growing from it.
As per ‘no pain, no gain’, I had a friend on my 2018 Camino who experienced no body pain and she walked from STPdP all the way to Finisterre and Muxia! It was incredible! But she had a hugely impactful experience.
And one thing I do know is not to judge another person’s experience. Rule#1 on the Camino 🙂
Yes, I totally agree, Sky!