Camino Primitivo

Launch day is here

After months of preparation and a couple hundred miles of preparatory walking, launch day is here. SMAJ and I are launching from different airports and linking up in the Madrid airport tomorrow morning. We have a recovery day in Madrid, then we move to Oviedo. We have a tourist day in Oviedo and then we start walking on 29 April.

At the request of a couple of friends, I’m going to try to journal the trip here on Substack. This is a new effort for me. I have not done a public trip journal before. There will be a couple of differences from the Camino de Santiago journals that I’ve seen. Expect very few selfies and more pictures of the route. I’ll be posting on IG, X, and Substack. The lengthy text of the journal entries will be on Substack.

The Camino is, at least in part or maybe primarily, a religious pilgrimage. That part is important to me and I plan to honor the religious aspect.

The Camino Primitivo is an ancient Celtic route. It is the route that King Alfonso of Spain traveled to validate the bones of Saint James. That occurred around 800 AD (different sources have slightly different dates). One interesting thing, to me, about that journey is that the future of Spain was not clear at that point. Much of Spain was under the control of the Moors and so the journey had both religious and political significance. At that point, Oviedo was the capital of Spain. Madrid is now the capital.

Today, DNA testing is providing some questions about the relic of Saint James but I don’t plan to address those at all other than mentioning them this one time. The internet can provide more information on that if you are interested.

Mechanically, I’ll be journaling on an iPad and I don’t have access to all the editing tools that I normally use so the writing may be a bit rougher than normal.

Each day, I plan to have a prayer and today I’ll start with my personal prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you for what you have given us.

I look to you each day for guidance.

Please provide me the grace to understand it.

I pray for the courage and the perseverance to carry it out.

Our Camino is about 200 miles. We are walking from Oviedo to Lugo where we will link up with our larger group to walk the last 100 kilometers into Santiago de Compostela. This is the “shoulder season” for the Camino Primitivo and so we are not reserving albergue’s (hostels) in advance. I don’t expect the Camino to be crowded.

I’ve been to more than fifty countries and I have never (civilian nor military) traveled as light as we are traveling. My rucksack weighs 21 lbs dry. It is a little unnerving. Having always been a devotee of “two is one and one is none”, it is hard to take things out of your rucksack. The difference is that on the Camino de Santiago, you have ample opportunity to replace or supplement so you don’t need to carry very much.

The prevailing sentiment is to carry two sets of clothes. One set is for walking and one set is for the evenings. I have that plus one backup set. The albergue’s mostly have some way to wash clothes and that’s what you do at the end of the day. The end of the day pattern will most likely be 1) shower, 2) wash hiking clothes, 3) eat dinner, 4) sleep. Repeat each day until the end.

The journaling will start in earnest when we start walking. I may post a bit in Madrid if it is interesting (it should be).

Until then,

Buen Camino

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Don’t forget that I write about shooting and AR-15’s as well. “Understanding the AR-15 and AR-10” is available on Amazon.

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