My Camino de Santiago: A Female’s Point of View.
My Camino de Santiago: A Female’s Point of View
Travel Writer Amy Wallis recalls her trek along the famous pilgrim trail, suggesting it is a safe and rewarding adventure from a female traveller’s perspective
Last September, a friend and I vowed to walk the last 114km of the Camino de Santiago, a famous pilgrim’s trail ending at the breathtaking Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. We wandered through fields, eucalyptus woods, hamlets and rivers for days, collecting stamps in our little Camino passport.
At first, I was anxious as a woman to be travelling through a country where I knew little of its language and where I would walk through different towns every day. Yet, to my surprise, I found the Camino was safe and simple. It was filled with kind strangers, lovely weather and a great sense of community.
As two females travelling alone, there was an element of fearing the unknown, since my only experience of solo travelling has been in Iceland, a notoriously safe country. Since a flight mishap leading to sleeping on the floor of the Barcelona airport, my faith in Spanish travel was severely diminished. Yet paired with a very sensible travel companion and copious research, our journey went very smoothly (despite a brief airport security drug test).
We pre-booked accommodation, which I would recommend as we always had a finishing point (yet some pilgrims do just wander until they find one of the many Albergues to rest at).
Preparation was key to this smooth-sailing Camino; we found the app ‘Buen Camino’ invaluable as it marked where we were along the trail, had detailed descriptions of each day’s walking as well as marking places to stay with ratings, contact information and more. Our preparation meant we always had a place to stay which felt safe and secure. There was always food along the way, with lots of aioli consumed!
