The Via Podiensis in the Autumn

Originally published at Pilgrims on the Way

Ten years ago today, I posted here about my “nervousness, elation, and even fear” as I got ready to fly to Spain to walk our first Camino. To my great surprise, 137 days from today I will fly to Lyon, France for another adventure. From there, I’ll take light rail from the delightfully named Aéroport de Saint-Exupéry to the train station in the city center, and from there by rail to the town of Le Puy-en-Velay.

Wait, what?

Some explanation might be in order. Francine and I had been planning to walk the first bit of the Via Podiensis together next Spring, and then I’d push on to Santiago in something I called “the Long Camino“. Well, on Monday I fell victim to the tech industry layoffs, and the idea of waiting another year seemed silly. There would never be a better time to go… well, except that I do have some obligations on my calendar in April and May. And May is way too late into the Spring to be leaving – I wouldn’t be arriving in Santiago until the middle of July, and I have zero desire to walk the Meseta in the summer.

So Autumn it is. I fly out on our Catholic Anniversary, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on August 15th. I should be walking into Santiago on or about October 22nd, the Feast of Saint John Paul II¹

Francine has decided not to join me on this walk – though I suspect that she might very well do a stint as an hospitalero in Spain this year, so perhaps I’ll stay at her albergue if the timing works out.

I realize that I’m incredibly fortunate to be able to make this trip. For years now I’ve had a specific savings account just for travel and Camino, and I’ve been scrupulously careful in replenishing it after each previous trip. It’s not quite where I’d want it to be, but it will certainly cover the Via Podiensis for one person.

Whenever I’m on pilgrimage, it’s an opportunity to have some solid time chatting with the Lord – and I have a lot of things to take to the Camino this time. Solvitur ambulando.

Of course in the midst of this, I really do need to pick up a couple of contracts to help pay the bills, though my severance package was actually quite nice, so I’m not really in a panic over that. If I had half a brain, I’d be in a panic over the prospect of walking a thousand miles, give or take.

With the planning timeline incredibly compressed, I’ve had to start booking things now. The flights were no problem as we’re right in the middle of the sweet spot for purchasing discounted international tickets for that timeframe. I even managed to get British Airways for all my flights. Other than the obligatory layover at Heathrow, it’s quite my favourite way to get to Europe. I purchased my train ticket on Trainline, a site which I’d not even heard of a week ago.

And I’ve sent emails in bad, Google-Translated French in an attempt to book two nights at the Grand Séminaire Saint Georges in Le Puy and (ten days later) a night in the Abbaye de Sainte-Foy in Conques. There are a couple of other places I’ll want to book ahead – particularly the Auberge du Sauvage en Gévaudan, which is a farmstead in the middle of nowhere – but there’s time for that in the days and weeks ahead.

A quick once-over of my equipment and consumables (e.g. soap, toothpaste) revealed only a few deficiencies, the largest being the need for new hiking shoes. I’ll get those in the Summer, I think.

And training has begun in earnest, starting with 5km walks most every day with the full pack. That will step up (eventually) to a 3km hill walk in the mornings, and a 5 or 8km walk later in the day, with longer walks once a week, then twice a week.

A lot of things all at once, but life’s too short to not have adventures.

1. Or, it would be if it wasn’t a Sunday this year.