Ermita – My Long Walk 2019

The Camino is, even in it’s modern format, a religious pilgrimage. Catholics have been making the trip to Santiago for thousands of years. More recently the Camino has been attracting pilgrims from all countries, faiths and backgrounds. Many, like me, do not follow any religious beliefs, however even the most fervent non-believers cannot be impressed by the monumental religious buildings that are seen as you walk along ‘The Way’.

From the humblest, tiny chapel and ermitage to large parochial churches to the ostentatious majesty of the great cathedrals. In addition there a a great many statues, memorials and even ‘graffiti’ that are religious.

Small chapels and ermitage also dot the Camino. Some are still used, others left for pilgrims to visit and often leave memorabilia (this is something I gave not been able to get my head round). Some are no bigger than a cupboard, others just isolated in nature so no regular worshippers.

Each town on the Camino seems to have a church (many have more than one) which is much larger than needed to fit it’s population in. All are incredibly ornate from outside and pretty spectacular inside. All welcome pilgrims and most have a sello for the credencial. Then of course there or the massive Cathedrals, so far I have passed four cathedrals and have photographed two of them – Logroño and Burgos.

Tomorrow I head for the town of Carrion de los Condes which has no less than four monasteries/convents, one of which I will be staying in.

Finally here are a small selection of the many fascinating churches I have passed so far.

As you will know if you have read my earlier post about Ironworks, I like a good drain cover. Of course this means that I often look down, as well as at all the beauty that surrounds us peregrinos on the Camino everyday. Obviously the ironwork is most often found in cities, larger towns as well as sometimes in smaller places and even villages. I have already seen a few nice examples and have only been away a week.

However today I walked alone for much of the day, it was nice and gave me lots of time to listen to nature and look down as I walked through the Navarra countryside. As a walked from the village of Cirauqui, I was totally blown-away with the astonishing ancient “cobblestone” camino beneath my feet. I tried in my head to think how to approximate the number of peregrinos that may have trodden before me … assuming

Sorry, had to stop writing as two Italians have just arrived, nothing unusual there, except they have walked from Varese, 1800km so far! They left at the start of May! Respect. My feet hurt less almost immediately!

OK, back to assuming a conservative estimate of 100 a day (averaged out over the year – no idea if this is realistic but it was the figure I went with. That is just under 40,000 per year. Today the Camino is hugely popular as it was in the middle ages but not so many years ago numbers were much less. Anyway just going back 1066 (a date that we all recall) – by my very rough calculations, this would make 35 million pilgrims. My mind was blown. This particular bit of Camino was, for me, sublimely beautiful.

Today’s walk, as I have mentioned, was a very peaceful one. All the hype about being so busy in July and August, I’d be surprised if I saw more than 30 fellow peregrinos all day, And when I arrived here at the albergue there was just a single person already here. Best of all the hospitalero offered a salt-water foot bath on arrival.

As well as the ancient highways, highlights of today were the Ermita San Miquel, the arch in Estella, Fuente del Vino at Irache and a, fortunately brief, reappearance of the fossilized reptile of the Camino!