In October, 2026, I set off to walk the 70ish-mile English Camino. My friend Margo hiked with me this time, and we originally picked it because it was short and could fit in nicely before we attended a conference in London the following week.
So, what is the English Camino? As one can imagine, it was where the English pilgrims debarked from their ships 1,000 years ago and counting. These pilgrims traveled from their island to Spain to visit the tomb of St. James, one of Jesus Christ’s twelve apostles.
All Caminos are paths that pilgrims from all over Europe walk to visit his grave. Why? He is said to have preached the Gospel in Spain before returning to Jerusalem where he was martyred (killed). His remains were transported to Galicia and buried in a field. The tomb was later rediscovered by a hermit named Pelayo, guided by a star, giving the city its name: Santiago, or St. James, and Compostela, from the Latin “Campus Stellae” (Field of the Star). (This last paragraph and the next are borrowed from a website on the topic.)
According to legend, after the apostle St. James was beheaded in Jerusalem, his body was transported by boat to the northwestern coast of Spain. The site where his body was buried became a place of pilgrimage and devotion, and over time, a network of pilgrimage routes developed throughout Europe leading to Santiago de Compostela. The Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St. James, became a symbol of devotion and penance for Christian believers and has maintained this reputation to this day.
I don’t walk the Camino for religious reasons, but there are many who still do. This route is old, like 1,000 years old. I can’t conceptualize people walking these same paths over and over for 1,000 years, the depth of the human experience on these streets, visiting these cafes, sleeping in these hostels….and here I am, a piece of that collective humanity…And I was astonished to read that the English Camino is the fourth most traveled route of them all! Over 28,000 people walked this little trail last year, and those are just the self-reported finishers.
What was different this time around was I had just learned my cancer had come back after a year in remission. Unfortunately one of the new growths was in my right hip socket, but my doctors agreed that I should still go since we caught it early and wasn’t experiencing any new pain because of it. I would start chemo right after my trip ended.
In a way this trip was a way to go big. To go big before the next phase of my stage 4 cancer journey continued. And I went big, and it was a ton of fun.
