COLUMN: 'Road allows you time to think about the question, but the answer is inside you'

I bought the hiking boots that I wore on the Camino in the last century.

I got them in 1999 to be precise, and since then they have carried me on walks throughout the world.

They gave me blisters when breaking them in on the Inca trail in Peru.

The front lace flaps melted when I left them to dry by a campfire in the Indian Himalayas.

Whenever I’m going for a walk, I always go back to my old trusty boots.

As I slide my feet into them, one after the other, I can feel the tingle of excitement knowing I’m ready for another adventure.

I remember looking down at my slightly dishevelled boots, pounding the gravel on the Camino, and thinking about all the walks they have been on, but why did this one feel so special to so many people?

I asked this simple question to many pilgrims during my Camino to try to find the answer. The word I keep hearing, and coming back to, is magical.

I walked with different guides from the four regions of Navarra, Rioja, Castilla Leon and Galicia. I would normally prefer to walk without a guide, but I would really recommend having a guide as they bring the Camino’s amazing history to life.

They show you places off the beaten track that you would never find by yourself.

My guide in Navarra, Francisco Contreras has written a bestselling book on the Camino and completed it many times. Whilst walking with him, I asked Fran what is that magic and he replied: “The Camino is not a transmission of faith but an exchange of ideas and a sharing of knowledge. The language of the Camino is love.”

I asked my next guide, Helder Cerejo, why so many people do it and he said: “You can be yourself. It can be for history.

“It can be just a sport or exercise thing or even a midlife crisis. It can be a religious pilgrimage or just another way to see the country.”

My walking companion, the journalist Catherine Murphy, has been on the Camino many times including sailing the northern route.

She shared with me why she keeps coming back. “I love Spain. I love hiking and going on the open road and having that freedom every day to just walk, meet people, sleep in a hostel, and do it again the next day. It’s complete freedom from your normal life. Your mobile phone gets switched off. But for me, the Camino is a sum of its parts.

“Everyone’s going through their own experience. It can be a religious pilgrimage if you want it to be. It can be a healing and transformative pilgrimage. But it can also be a trip to just immerse yourself in the fascinating history of this incredible landscape.”

I met the Irish school teacher Jarlath O’Madain in Burgos and talked to him again on the day he completed the Camino in Santiago.

“I didn’t realise how many people you would meet and how strong those bonds would become with people I’d never even heard of 31 days ago.

“When you are walking with fellow pilgrims you empty your heart to them. They get to know everything about you, you get to know everything about them. And that was something that I wasn’t really expecting. I would say it was the best thing I have ever done.”

The renowned writer, Mark O’Halloran, who wrote and starred in the classic Irish film Adam and Paul with Tom Murphy, told me about his Camino. “I did the Camino in 2007. I’d been going through a stressful time. I was about to go into the loss of Tom Murphy, who was a very important person in my life.

“He died five days after I got home actually. And his last text to me was the day before I arrived in Santiago de Compostela. I sent him a text saying: ‘Tomorrow I walk into the city,’ and he texted back saying ‘Keep going, brave pilgrim’.

“That was the last text I got as he went into a coma that afternoon.

“But I think I was able to deal with it a little bit better because I was in a stable place when I came back.

“The Camino allows you to step out of life for a while.

“And I think that that’s very healthy. I felt I had made some sort of peace with myself in lots of ways by doing the Camino.”

Most people are looking for an answer to something and my walking companion John Connell, the author of the excellent Cow and Running books, summed it up best when he said: “A lot of people say they’re on the Camino seeking a message or a sign.

But my understanding was that you bring the question, and you bring the answer with you.

“The road allows you the time to think about the question, but the answer is inside yourself.

“People are waiting for external signs but the epiphany moment for me is that it’s an internal journey that you’re on.

“And I think that that’s the real power of the Camino in that it gives you the rare chance to reflect in a very busy modern world.”

The magic of the Camino includes the stunning landscapes, beautiful and varied towns, and the fascinating history going all the way back to pre-Christian times. But the real magic is the people you meet along the way.

Fergal O’Keeffe is the host of the Travel Tales with Fergal Podcast and to hear his interviews on the Camino go to www.traveltaleswithfergal.ie