After he completed the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage journey in Spain for the first time in 2013, Rev. Stewart Miller of Estevan knew he was going to return.
And now that he has finished the journey a second time, he’s looking forward to returning yet again.
Miller walked the 800-kilometre Camino this summer, starting on Aug. 10 and finishing up on Sept. 10 at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain. He embarked on the trek with Don Bolen, a close friend who was recently appointed the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church in Regina, and a couple other individuals. And while they separated partway through, because of their differing schedules, it was still a magnificent experience for Miller, the expedition remained a magnificent experience.
“It is one of the most unique things that a person can do, in terms of putting yourself into the midst of life,” said Miller. “As I’ve said to most people, the least important thing I can tell you about the Camino de Santiago de Compostella is that you walk 800 kilometres. That is just a context.
“The walking and the path create a space for us – for the people that walk it – to go deep within ourselves, to go deep in our relationships with each other as we walk along, and, because I am who I am, a person of faith, to go deep with God.”
Regardless of a person’s beliefs, Miller said anyone who walks the Camino with an open mind, is going to have a conversation with a higher power.
Each time he walks the Camino, Miller finds himself with different people. He’s at a different place in his life, and so the conversations he has with God change.
“The path was the same, give or take the weather,” said Miller. “The hardships were the same. The physical exhaustion was the same. But the people I met and the conversations I had were new, and yet again amazing, and yet again a privilege.”
People can walk as far as they want, or as quickly as they want, as they walk the Camino. And they don’t have to be toting a backpack. Miller has seen a blind person navigate the Camino by walking between two sighted friends.
There were other differences for him this time, too, starting with the calendar. When he embarked on his pilgrimage three years ago, it was in May and June.
“The weather this time was outlandishly hot, more than 30 C most days, which caused us to have to do a couple things,” said Miller. “We, of course, had to be a lot more careful about water, and make sure that we were physically healthy when we walked when it was that hot out.”
When he embarked on the Camino three years ago, he was rarely awake before 6:30 or 7 a.m. But this time, he would be walking at about 5:30 a.m., when it was dark outside, in an effort to walk as far as he could before the heat of the day.
“I was very glad to have done it once before, because I would miss huge chunks of the trail because it was pitch black when I was walking the trail,” said Miller. “So I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this as a time for people to do it.”
Those who try the pilgrimage in late September would have a more comfortable experience, but would also have to cope with shorter days.
The upshot of walking in August and early September was that Miller encountered little rain.
He was also able to spend a day walking through the Pyrenees, an breathtakingly beautiful experience he missed out on last time due to a mid-spring snowstorm in the mountains.
Miller walked a similar pace to last time, stopped in many of the same towns, and, when it was possible, stayed in the same hostels. There were some places he visited last time that he didn’t get to this time, which shaved about 200 kilometres from his journey, but there were other experiences he added.
“There were some places I needed to go back to just because of the memories I had of them, or the coolness of the hostels themselves,” said Miller.
Within minutes or hours on the Camino, Miller said that people will find themselves walking alongside someone they have never met before, and he promised they would immediately start to share stories and life experiences in a way that wouldn’t be possible in another setting.
“There’s something about walking, and there’s something about being away, and there’s something about being exhausted that just strips you of false bravado,” said Miller.
He doesn’t know when he’ll go back, but he can’t wait to return to the Camino, and experience the addictive nature of life on the trail once again. After all, if someone wants to experience life, and open themselves a great inward experience, and speak with others and with God in a newfound way, then the Camino is the place to do it.
