By Cheryl Ryan
I’m getting ready to hike the Camino Francis: Stage 1, a portion of the popular Camino de Santiago. A friend of mine, an organizer extraordinaire, has planned a trip for seven of us to meet up this May. We’re all coming via different routes to start our journey in St. Jean Pied de Port.
The Camino Francis de Santiago is walked by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims (which is what they call us walkers) each year. Our portion starts in St. Jean Pied de Port and continues for approximately eighty-eight miles, ending in Logrono, Spain. People doing the entire route will walk 490 miles ending in Santiago de Compostela.
A Camino is simply a path or route. There are 281 known Caminos spread across 29 countries. The route we have chosen will take nine days. We’re using The Natural Adventure tour group, but many options exist. They’ve arranged all of our accommodations and will transport our luggage from one medieval town to another as we trek through Spain’s Basque country.