People travel along the Cami no every day of the year

Privately operated rooms are more expensive but don'thave the monastic conditions (lights out at 10pm, everyone out by7.30am) of the official accommodation. There are two types ofalbergues on the Camino. The first, more-common style has betweeneight and 30 people crammed in a room, typically a roof cavity.There is usually one window, but the Spanish seem to consider 25degrees at night to be chilly and have jammed it closed with abed. The second type is war-hospital style, with up to 150 or 0people sleeping in a converted basketball court or monastichall. It is not so much accommodation as a stadium for the worldsnoring championships. Earplugs and eye-masks are necessities, asis a few nights in private accommodation at the end. The Camino crosses five Spanish states and passes through hundreds of towns: from large centres such as Pamplona, Burgos and Leon, to crumbling ghost towns. The walking is divided into threemain sections: the lush foothills of the Pyrenees, with valleysfull of livestock and crops; through the desert flatness of theMeseta region; and finally limps into the mist of Galicia. Thetemperature fell below degrees and topped out at 47 during thesix weeks we walked, beginning in June. There is a 0-kilometre stretch in the desert where you riseonly 50 metres in elevation - and there are sections where fourkilometres means a 1600-metre climb. The longest distance betweenaccommodation is 19 kilometres, but most people walk between and30 kilometres a day, ending with tidy tans and rock-hardcalves. When you apply for a credencial, you must give a reason for yourpilgrimage - religious, spiritual, cultural, sporting or "other".The final option may be left for those choosing the Camino as achurch-blessed diet plan. Because no matter how much of the localpig you put away, downed with a six-pack Rosetta Stone German of beer and a bottle ofthe finest rioja, hiking long distances combined with sleeplessnessmeans that the "pork and walk" diet creates light pilgrims, comeSantiago. The Meseta section of the Camino is 0 kilometres betweenBurgos and Leon. Most pilgrims take the bus. All should. In the interests of balance, Shamus wrote it was "a trulybreathtaking environment which reminded me of my upbringing inrural northern Victoria, laid in the middle of this great walk toallow time for contemplation of the greater questions of life". Reality check. It was hot and flat, with the only verticalelements on the horizon being the frequent memorials to deadpilgrims. Much of the walk was parallel to a highway, making itfeel like a pedestrian tour of the Great Trucking Routes ofEurope. We walked 40 kilometres in a straight line, in the heat of theday, often without water. Then we would repeat it the next day. Myfriend thought that it was, "free from the distractions of beauty,towns, people and shade". My ancestors were right. The desert iscrap. At the end of the desert, we found what we have probably alwaysbeen looking for: an English copy of Shirley Mac Laine's The Camino.The actress, who walked the Camino in 00, makes some interestingobservations about journalists who hide behind their professionalveneer of objectivity to cynically mock the unknown world ofspirituality. Good point, Shirley. Then again, she manifests a spirit whotells her to walk the Camino without a bra; on her first daywalking she receives a blister and a visit from the angel Ariel;and John of Scots appears at the end of her bed to give advice. Every pilgrimage involves pain and at times every step was aconscious decision, weighed and considered for maximum benefit andminimum impact. Alone, with his friend taking taxis between towns, Shamus spenta night on a remote hilltop in a small lodging built from rubble bya man who may be the last of the Knights Templar, the famed groupwho secured the safe passage of Christian pilgrims.

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