We read so many times about the Camino de Santiago … it was never too far from our thoughts. Somehow, it would always popped up again, whether it’s in magazines, on the internet or in casual conversations.

We love being out in nature and have done a couple of hiking trips in and around Cape Town, our home city.

Decision made in 2014:

In 2014 we decided it was time to take this trip in Spain…we were ready for an adventure – completely out of our comfort zone – and a four week hike in Spain sounded like the perfect opportunity exploring a new country while we can do what we love most – hiking!

Over the last few years we bought all the hiking equipment we could possibly use and one day in May 2014, after a hike on the famous Table Mountain, we made the decision to buy our tickets to Spain …

Death of a loved one – 2014:

But then Corna’s dad suddenly passed away. We had to deal with our grief and there were then other commitments that needed our attention. For now, our Camino was on hold … but somehow, we just knew we will get to that eventually.

Will 2017 be the year?

By the end of 2016 we were so trapped in our work commitments that we somehow needed to “break out” of this routine to stay sane. And this is how we finally bought our tickets to Spain, packed our backpacks and by the end of March 2017 we were ready for an adventure of a lifetime!

Get a guidebook:

We had to order our guidebook (the highly recommended John Brierley guidebook) from overseas, since we could not find it anywhere in South Africa. The Confraternity of St James here in South Africa supplied us with a “Spanish Survival Guide” … at least this will help us to order beer and wine in Spanish (oh, and maybe more importantly, how to ask for directions in Spanish if we get lost 😉).

Our pilgrim’s guidebook and a translation card for emergencies

A map in our guidebook of the Camino Frances – starting in St Jean Pied-de-Port in France and ending in Santiago de Compostela in Spain

We are not starting in France (unfortunately):

We would have loved to start walking from St Jean Pied-de-Port in France, but unfortunately we were time-restricted.

PAMPLONA → SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA

29 DAYS

729km (452 miles)

Our Camino would therefore start in Pamplona and end in Santiago … we hope to have the opportunity to go back one day to walk the full distance of the Camino Frances ☺️.

Click here to read about our arrival in Pamplona.