Tag Camino

Top Ten Retirement Adventures: No. 2

Reg Spittle 4 Comments

Sue’s words transformed our lives.

It was 2012. We had just watched Martin Sheen’s movie The Way, in which the actor walks the 500-mile Camino de Santiago across Spain to honor his son’s memory. Played by real-life son Emilio Estevez, his son had died in a snowstorm during his first day on the trail. The movie was great, but I was blindsided by Sue’s delayed reaction.

“We should do it.”

I blurted out my response. “What? Walk 500 miles?” My head was spinning. I pictured sleeping and changing clothes in coed dorm rooms, showering in coed bathrooms, and carrying a backpack. My anxiety was in high gear.

“We can’t do that!” I thought my words would settle the issue.

I was wrong. So wrong. For months, Sue was a broken record.

“But what if we can?”

In spring 2013, our Merrell shoes carried us across Spain. My anxieties were quelled the first day when fellow pilgrims quickly became friends and I eventually put my fears where they belonged: in the rearview mirror. We made many newbie errors, but it didn’t matter much.

We have been walking distance trails ever since, building experiences and friendships that have formed powerful memories, leading me to again undertake the unexpected: I wrote my first book. It is Camino Sunrise: Walking With My Shadows. I have heard from readers in 10 countries and continue to feel honored every time someone orders a copy.

I am grateful that Sue never gave up on the Camino. She convinced me to take a huge risk. She showed me sometimes the best things in life come when we tread outside our comfort zone.

I hope I continue to find comfort in being uncomfortable the rest of my life.

Top Ten Retirement Adventures: No. 8

Reg Spittle Leave a comment

If the most satisfying times in life are hard, then my retirement adventures would have left me content. But within a few weeks, sometimes just days, of returning home, I want more. Sue is more patient, keeping me more grounded than my heart yearns to be. But, I’ll grudgingly admit, probably better off in the long run.

Our feet have carried us more than 2,000 miles over seven distance trails, six in Europe. Our latest backpacking trek began in August 2023 and continued into October. It fills the number eight spot on my top ten retirement adventures.

Its name? It has at least three. The French Camino, the Via Podiensis, or the Le Puy Route. We battled heat like we had not seen on any trek, but when it was done, we celebrated like conquerers.

It was our longest backpacking trip yet—more than 600 miles, including sidetrips—and it transported us through beautiful French countryside, ranches, and farmland along with more villages than we could count–or pronounce. The trail has been around for more than 1,000 years and is known for the thousands (millions?) of pilgrims who have walked to Santiago de Compestella in Spain.

Our steps began in Le Puy, France, a bustling tourist town with history around every corner and a grand cathedral that has welcomed pilgrims for centuries. More than six weeks later, we arrived in St. Jean Pied de Port, at the foot of the Pyrenees mountains. St. Jean also serves as the starting point of the most famous pilgrimage in the world: Spain’s Camino de Santiago. Some, including a few we met in France, walk from Le Puy, though St. Jean, all the way to Santiago, more than 1,000 miles. There are even pilgrims who begin the traditional way, from their front door.

At a trailside stand, above, we sipped refreshing drinks on one of the few flat sections of the Camino, which snaked through valleys and over hills and mountains that tested our resolve.

When we first glimpsed the Pyrenees peaks in the distance, our reaction was disbelief. Was it really nearly the end? Had we really walked that far?