By Rick McKay
Editor’s note: Rick McKay, Joe Masonick, and Jack Karolewski, have been annual travel companions for more than 50 years to a variety of sites with many goals. This week’s adventure is the 12th in the series.
The previous article is at thevoice.us/contemplation-of-1977-trip-ready-again
Over the previous 11 weeks some of you have read about my 50-year friendship with Joe Masonick and Jack Karolewski and some of the travel adventures that helped to bond us and create a relationship that would span five decades. The most important of these was the 10-week trans-Asia trip we took in 1977, which I described in detail in the last six installments. We have taken visits nearly every year. Close in importance was a 14-day hike across northern Spain which we took immediately after our retirement from our respective teaching assignments in 2005. Our journey followed an ancient pilgrimage route called the Camino de Santiago, known as The Way of St. James.
The origins of this route go back to pre-historic times, and though it had many starting points, it terminated at the Cape of Finisterra, a rock-bound peninsula on the west coast of Galicia (northwest Spain). To early humans, this marked the end of the world, because only a seemingly vast and endless ocean lay beyond. Walking to Finisterra and beholding the watery abyss to the west remained a sacred venture during the Roman era, as well.
After Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, the significance of the pilgrimage route was transformed. Christians believed that the bones of apostle St. James (Santiago) had been transported and buried in Galicia along the ancient pathway. The spot was considered holy, and in time a city grew up around the site. In 1075 A.D. the construction of a magnificent cathedral was begun to properly house the bones of the revered saint.
During the Middle Ages, early Christians were encouraged to deepen their faith by embarking on pilgrimages to sites of religious significance. Santiago was the third most important of these destinations, after only Rome and Jerusalem. Although there were many starting points for the journey, the most famous originated in Paris, crossed the Pyrenees, and traversed northern Spain, terminating at the spectacular Cathedral of Santiago de Compostella, which was finally completed in 1211 A.D..
Over the years, use of this pilgrimage route gradually diminished. But during the last several decades, it has been rediscovered and its vitality revived. The number of annual hikers began to grow during the 1990s and sky-rocketed after the release of the movie The Way, starring Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez in 2011. It was six years after our adventure.
Today people hike it for a variety of reasons. For some it is still a religious pilgrimage, as in times of old, while others seek the contemplative experience it can provide, with many hours to think and meditate while putting one foot after another toward the journey’s end. For others still, it is simply an exciting adventure.
Hiking the Camino is a unique experience. Some hike it alone, others with friends or family members. But it is much more than one individual day-hike after another. Because nearly everyone is headed in the same direction, one tends to end up meeting the same pilgrims over a mid-morning coffee break, at a lunch stop along the way, or dinner at day’s end. A kinship begins to develop.
As each day began, Jack, Joe, and I would generally begin hiking together, but as the day progressed, we would spread out, often joining up with others in our loosely knit group, getting to know them better: Where they were from, a little about their lives, what motivated them to take on this adventure. Everyone had a story to tell. Individuals started to look out for the welfare of the solo hikers. “Has anyone seen Chrissy this morning?” one might ask another. By journey’s end a bond of kinship had developed.
Many travelers of all ages have fallen under the Camino’s enchanting spell. Our group ran the gamut from youngsters in their teens and 20s to a recently-widowed Dutch woman in her mid-70s who had hiked solo all the way from Paris to where we met her on this last leg of the journey.
In 2005, Jack, Joe, and I retired from teaching and were embarking on a new phase in our lives. We thought this adventure would be the perfect opportunity to both reflect upon all that we had thus far experienced, and to look forward to what lay ahead. And so it began!
Over the course of the next few weeks, I will share illustrated journal entries of this grand adventure which I took with my two best friends in 2005. If it sparks an interest in the reader, I will be more than happy to answer questions, or if one has the bug, offer further information and/or advice, such that when COVID-19 is in our rearview mirror, you might choose to try it.
Continued at thevoice.us/cathedrals-compelling