The Story Behind WALK Book
What Is the Camino de Santiago?
The Camino de Santiago is a road that Roman Catholic pilgrims and others have walked for about 1, 200 years. The word camino means “trail,” “way,” “road,” “path,” or “street” in Spanish. Santiago means Saint James (one of the twelve disciples of Jesus) in Spanish. Thus in English, El Camino de Santiago is usually translated as The Way of St. James.
The destination of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage is a beautiful cathedral built on the legendary burial place of St. James. It is in the city of Santiago de Compostela, a city is in the mountainous province (or autonomous state) of Galicia in northern Spain, near the Atlantic Ocean.
The truth is that there are at least twelve major routes to Santiago de Compostela. For example, one comes north from Sevilla in southern Spain; another starts in Lisbon and goes through most of Portugal. One starts in Paris, weaving south through France.
However, the most famous route is the Camino Francés, which is about 500 miles long. It starts on the French side of Pyrenees, crosses those mountains, and then goes across most of northern Spain. It is the route I took three times, and the one on which the book WALK: Jamie Bacon’s Secret Mission on the Camino de Santiago is set.
In Chapter 2 of the book WALK, there’s a brief explanation of how it was that St. James’s body ended up in Spain, and why he’s been the patron saint of Spain for hundreds of years. Please understand that a lot of the information about the Camino de Santiago is based on legend and is not historically verifiable. Still, various places on the pilgrimage trail have been influential in European history, and knowing about them often makes the walking experience especially interesting to pilgrims.
Over the years since the legendary discovery of the grave of St James around 800 AD (or CE), millions of people have walked the Camino for many reasons. In medieval times it was primarily a Christian religious pilgrimage, and devout people walked it to receive indulgence (a reduction of punishment for sins) once they reached the cathedral. It was sometimes a trade route.
In the 21st century, many people walk the Camino for non-religious reasons, yet still to reflect on their lives.Over the centuries, participation in the Camino de Santiago has waxed and waned. Since about the 1980s, the number of walkers each year has increased steadily. In 2019, according to the records kept in the Santiago pilgrim office, 347, 578 pilgrims from many different countries completed the Camino.
Why I Wrote WALK
Have you ever decided to do something and when someone asked you why, you simply shrugged for you had no good, logical, sane, quick, socially acceptable answer? That happened to me with my first Camino experience.
Briefly, I learned about the Camino de Santiago in early 2000s from a co-worker who’d walked it. Just listening to her account, I found myself saying, “I want to do that!” And when she said she wanted to walk it again, we set a date to go a few years in the future.
As 2008 approached, I began reading Camino history. I studied websites and blogs. I ordered guide books. I bought an aluminum-framed pack, a lightweight sleeping bag, boots, first aid, a broad-rimmed fabric hat, and miscellaneous other things. I started walking around my town and hiking up hills. I found someone who wanted to stay in my house in southern California while I was away. And then I booked a flight to Europe.
In early September 2008, my friend and I found ourselves in St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port, a tiny town in the French Pyrenees, about to embark on an adventure that dramatically changed my life.
I won’t write trip details here. Bu in those weeks of walking, I found I loved the simplicity of the pilgrim life—you just get up in the morning, put on your pack, walk as many kilometers as you choose, find an albergue or inn, and go to bed exhausted. I was wowed by the beauty of northern Spain, the companionship of fellow pilgrims, the quaint villages, the hearty pilgrim meals. I learned about Catholicism, medieval art, Gothic architecture, European history. I suffered plenty with boots that didn’t fit well, a too-heavy pack, the end-of-summer heat, and sleep deprivation due to snore-noisy albergues. But I was hooked.
The experience was expanding, freeing, and gratifying. I wanted to introduce friends and relatives, especially my grandchildren, to the experience. I looked around for children’s books on the topic. I found very few. That led to thinking I should write a kid’s book about the Camino. How hard could that be? How long could that take? Oh, I was naive!
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