Ah, the route!

When I speak with others who already walked the Camino – Spanish for “the way” (to Santiago de Compostela) – the first question usually is: where do you start and what route will you follow? For most Belgian pilgrims, the answer is simple: they start from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (on the French side of the Pyrenees) and from there follow the “Camino Frances” – the French route. About 30 days of walking.

For me it was clear that I wanted to leave from home. But what route to follow? In these days of on-line route planners and GPS devices for cars, cyclists and walkers the answer should be simple:

• Directions via Google Maps: Ghent – Santiago de Compostela, 1948 km in 8 days and 4 hours. Sounds unrealistic, but you can easily check for yourself: walk from Ghent to Ostend, take the boat to England, in England walk to Portsmouth, book the ferry to Santander in northern Spain and then continue on foot to Santiago. And of course walk without stopping 24 hours a day. This route may seem weird but I read this week in the journal of the Flemish Compostela Society about a 16-century pilgrim who followed this route. It was apparently in the Middle Ages a common method: crossing the sea to England and then again by boat to Spain where, in the best case, one was put ashore less than five days walking away from Santiago. Yet not what I envisioned to do.
• Directions on the Garmin GPS that I use to bike: 1876 km. Go through a number of GR (long distance hiking tracks) to the French border but then via highways to Paris and from there to the Spanish border and to Santiago. Although I had indicated that I would go on foot. In defense of the manufacturer of my GPS, I have only good topographic maps of Flanders – for the rest of Europe, I have only a very general map. But again nothing I want to try.
• Directions on the TomTom GPS that I use in the car: 1810 km in 362 hours (walking day and night). My maps do not have routes for walkers and so the route is not more interesting than those proposed by the Garmin GPS. Again, no success.

So back to websites and printed guides – with thanks to the various Compostela Societies, walking clubs and organizations. Which of the many routes in Spain to take, which of the traditional starting points in France (Tours, Vézelay, Le Puy-en-Velay and Arles) to use and how to get to that starting point? And in France: use the GR network or what de Compostela Societies claim to be the only true historic roads to Compostela?

After much reading and listening, this is the plan (here shown on a map and here in tabular form):

• Via the GR 128 (that crosses Flanders West to East) from Ghent, via Dendermonde and Aalst, to Brussels. For my friends and former colleagues in Brussels, I hope to arrive in Brussels on Thursday 12 April (and leave the next morning).
• From Brussels via the GR12 (which connects Amsterdam with Paris) to Rocroi, in northern France and from there via the GR654 (“le Sentier vert Saint-Jacques de Compostella, via Vézelay”) to Vézelay and then to Périgueux. There leave the GR and switch to the “voie historique de Vézelay – via Lemovicensis” as proposed by the French Compostela Society to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port.
• Using a guidebook issued by a local club, walk from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Irun, at the sea and just across the Spanish border.
• From Irun, via the coast and the “Camino del Norte” to Oviedo and then via the ‘Camino Primitivo “to Santiago.
• If I still have the courage, walk three more days to Cape Finisterre.

In total just under 3000 km, divided in 120 days of walking and, depending on my mental and physical condition, some stops that still need to be decided. Starting on April 9, I hope to finish walking in the second half of August. I do not know yet how to come back – but certainly not on foot.

This route avoids the great empty plains in northern France (between the border of Flanders and Paris) by taking a detour via Burgundy. Given the historical ties between Flanders and Burgundy something that probably happened frequently in the old days – and which even now pilgrims leaving from Flanders or the Netherlands often do. And in Spain I avoid the masses of the Camino Frances (1000 pilgrims per day in August 2011 compared to 100 on the Camino del Norte and 50 on the Camino Primitivo) and the heat on the high plains in northern Spain.

The route gives me a good combination of natural beauty and culture/history, meeting people and walking alone. Until Vézelay it is going to be difficult: there are minimal facilities for pilgrims on the way but I hope, through a combination of available tourist infrastructure and with the help of the regional Compostela Socieites (that provide shelter to pilgrims, often in the members’ homes), never to be forced to spent a night in the open air. Once past Vézelay, there should be sufficient infrastructure and I will regularly encounter co-pilgrims.

During my trip I will try everyday to indicate on the map where I am – feel free to pass by. 😉