Spirituality
How I Accidentally Ended Up Walking the Camino de Santiago
I was in France for a wedding. Two weeks later I was crossing the Pyrenees with a borrowed backpack. Here's how it happened.
November 29, 2025 · 7 min read
I'd never planned to walk the Camino. I knew it existed in the way you know any famous trail exists — vaguely, somewhere on a list.
Then a friend's wedding in Bayonne fell through, my flight home wasn't for two weeks, and I had no plan. The hotel owner asked, in the casual French way: 'You're not walking the Camino?'
I bought a backpack at a Decathlon outside Bayonne. Borrowed a sleeping bag from the hotel's lost-and-found. Took the bus to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port the next morning.
Day one over the Pyrenees nearly broke me. I had no map, no idea about stages, and the wrong shoes. By the time I reached Roncesvalles, I'd decided to quit.
I didn't quit. I don't entirely know why. Something about the rhythm of the next morning — strangers becoming friends, the way the trail tells you what to do — kept me walking.
Thirty-one days later I walked into Santiago. I haven't been the same person since. I've walked two more Caminos and I think I'll walk many more.
If you're reading this and considering it: just go. The trail will take care of the rest.
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Next stops & related posts
Towns, stages, and stories connected to this article — your jumping-off points to plan the next stretch of the Camino.
Towns to visit
Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France
Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port
The traditional starting point — a fortified Basque town at the foot of the Pyrenees.
Navarra
Roncesvalles
A Romanesque monastery in a Pyrenean clearing — the official Spanish start of the Francés.
Galicia
Santiago de Compostela
The journey's end — and for many pilgrims, a new beginning.
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