Different types of pilgrims on El Camino

People aren’t only walking to Santiago

There are more types of pilgrims strolling on the way, and not only on foot like me. Different people have different motivations, equipment - even vehicles! The point is that we should complete the pilgrimage on our own. However, we don’t have to bring our bag on our back – it can be transported on a bike, donkey, horse or even a cart like this:

A cool old guy is pulling a cart...

...and I’m just walking towards the horizon

The Walkers

The most frequent type of pilgrim on The Way is my kind of walker. Most of them started the pilgrimage out of either spiritual reasons, or to exercise. I usually walked 20-40 kilometres a day, my average distance covered was about 25km. I mostly hit the road around 6-7am, and had a 10kg backpack on my back.

Ladies walking with strange things look like shopping trolley bags

Among the walking ones, there are some pretty smart people, who are carrying their stuff on some tricky vehicles, instead of putting everything in a backpack. My favourite ones were these ladies and the old guy in the photos, but I also met a French guy pushing a homemade, sporty wheelbarrow.

 They also cover around 25 kilometers/15,5 miles a day.

Religious Pilgrims

The barefooted German priest, a real pilgrim

There is a small number of religious people, who are also walking. They are the real pilgrims. I met many of them, but if we take into consideration that El Camino used to be a religious pilgrimage, the amount of religious pilgrims has become insignificant compared to the others. Still, I’ve seen nuns, monks, the barefooted German priest in the photo. I’ve also met sporty youngsters, who were continuously praying while walking, and a middle-aged group, who sometimes stopped to pray together.

Runners

Cross-country running pilgrims

The most hard-core sportsperson is the cross-country runner pilgrim. These people freaked me out, because it is difficult enough even to walk the trail with a backpack on. And there are these guys, who are running a half-marathon every day. There weren’t many of them, but I met some during my pilgrimage. They hike run about 20-25kms/12-15,5 miles a day.

Walking with a donkey

A pilgrim with a donkey is a rare sight nowadays

It happened to me twice in May that I met pilgrims who were walking with donkeys. The first time was still in Saint Jean. It was a couple walking next to a donkey that was carrying all their equipment. I was really sorry, because I saw them from a taxi, so I had no chance to take a photo of them. Fortunately though, I met this young guy along the way, who allowed me to take a photo of him and his donkey. He walked 20-30km a day. He said it was much easier for him to complete the pilgrimage this way, as he didn’t have to carry all the weight on himself. He was sleeping in a tent. He just had to find a place where he could tie up the donkey, and where there’s enough water and grass for the animal. It’s an easy task around here, because there are irrigation canals all around. Setting up your tent is more difficult, since the fields next to the roads tend to be private properties.

Pilgrims on horses

Doing the Camino with a horse is a traditional thing. I didn’t meet many of them, but I met a lot of ’marks’ left behind by the horses, so there must be some of them. I don’t know much about the distance covered by them, but it must be up to twice as much as a walking pilgrim. It must be an expensive way to do the Camino, as a horse needs to be cared for and fed, and it needs special papers, transportation, not to mention the occasional veterinary costs. And of course, it’s difficult to find horse-friendly accommodation. All in all, such a pilgrimage needs to be planned thoroughly.

Cyclists

Pilgrimage by bike

Cyclists are quite common on the Camino, it’s a popular way to do the pilgrimage. They’re biking about 65-80kms/40-50 miles per day. It must be fun on asphalt-covered roads, but I don’t envy them in the mountains and becuse of the flat tyres caused by the rocky roads. Accommodation-wise they also have to be careful, but more and more places are adapting to the requirements of bikers.

Most of the times they use the same roads as walking pilgrims, but sometimes they are diverted. They tend to ride mountain bikes, but I’ve seen a pilgrim on a Camping bicycle, and one lady rode a regular, old, grandma-style bike.

Walking with pets

At this point, the tiny dog is still walking

There are pilgrims with dogs and even cats(!).  I’ve seen some walking with dogs. They face problems in the villages, as the dogs there aren’t on a leash. They usually don’t mind people, but understandably don’t like competition. Not every albergue accepts dogs, so it’s better to gather information upfront, before we decide to take our dog on the Camino. I’ve seen Russin girls walking with a tiny westie, which had to be carried in the second half of the day, but there was also an English lady with a really cool German shepherd.
The girls told me about the pilgrim with the cat, I myself didn’t meet any. They said they’d seen someone taking a poor cat on top of his backpack. In my opinion it’s not only stupid, but also a cruel thing to do. Cats are attached to their territory, so it’s harmful for them to be dragged around, especially in the sun.

The Tourists

I wasnt really happy with them, because they turn the pilgrimage into some sort of an easy "walk in the park". From my perspective, pilgrims go the whole way from the start to the end carrying their own equipment (not only the last 100 kilometers, what is the minimal lenght required to walk to be able to get the credencial).  Well, these people did not do so.

The tourists of the Camino, who are transforming of the ancient pigrimage into business

They’re the kind of people (usually from Germany or the U.S.), who pay a pile of money (about 3.000-3.500 Euros/USD) to a travel agency, which carries theim around the Camino makes it easy for them and makes the way more crowded. Their stuff is transported by a courier usually in huge suitcases, and the travel agent is waiting for them in each village with refreshments in a van, in which they can even lie down, if they want to. And if they get tired, the van will bring them to their accommodation, or to the next village.

Resfreshment van for the tourists in the end of a village

What pissed me off the most was that they aren’t only old people, but there are a lot of strong young guys among them, in their twenties or thirties, too. And then, even though in most of the albergues there’s a sign that they don’t host tourists, the agency still make reservations in the albergues in advance, so when you get to an albergue, all beds are reserved, and you have to find another place to stay after a long walk with your backpack on. As I see they should book hotel rooms, because they aren’t pilgrims after all. You might recognize them by their lack of a backpack, which makes even the older fellows almost twice as fast as the real pilgrims who are carrying their own stuff.

E-bikers

This guy was riding his E-bike uphills so fast I couldn’t take a photo of him

I just don’t get it. They are literally riding a motorbike (since a bicycle powered by an engine is a motorbike) along the way, and they are even proud of it. And in the end, they take their Compostela in Santiago, as if they were cyclists. A celebrity was bragging in a tabloid the other day that she completed the Camino this was, on an E-bike, and it was a huge accomplishment. Congratulations!


Thanks for sharing!

Some useful things to read:

Choosing the right backpack
Choosing the best boots for the El Camino
Planning the trip to El Camino