Today is the day I begin the process of making sense of the abrupt, month-early cessation of my hike on the Camino de Santiago Frances: stress fracture of the tibia just below the left knee. 

The Plan

Our Camino was to cover the 500-mile trek from Saint Jean Pied de Port, France, crossing the Pyrenees Mountains and northern Spain to Santiago de Compestella. If time permitted, we’d go the extra 56 miles to the coastal town of Finisterra, Spain, “The End of the World.” 

The Preparation

We trained. We became frequent flyers to REI. I listened to podcasts, watched movies, downloaded apps, read the guidebooks, and interviewed people who had recently hiked The Way. We focused our weight training and completed a 15-mile practice hike with our packs exactly as they would be on the trail. I secured our first few nights’ lodging.

Go Time

Our Pilgrimage began Wednesday, September 17, 2025 after a two-night stay in St. Jean de Port where we registered with the Pilgrim office, secured our pilgrim passports, and selected a shell from a basket placed willy-nilly on the top of a filing cabinet. I could not stop smiling. I bought a set of hiking poles, which I wasn’t convinced I even needed.

Minus the first few overnights, our only solid commitment was a flight from Paris to Indy November 5th–not even sure when or how we would return to Paris for our return home.

The guidebooks refer to the hike from St. Jean to Roncesvalles as “the most physically challenging part of the entire Camino,” so we arranged to break that stretch up into two days, staying in Orisson. I worried we would be sorry we were only hiking the 4.7 miles that first day, even though they referred to it’s “steep climb.” I kept wondering what we’d do the rest of the day. Surely, it would only take a couple of hours.

I will never forget trudging, stopping for breath, trudging, stopping for breath, counting ten steps before I’d allow the next stop, until finally, the red umbrellas of the outdoor patio/bar in Orisson popped into sight. 

Those 4.75 miles actually took 3:21:04 hours with an elevation of 2.016 feet with an average pace of 36’47″/mile, Effort: “All Out.” And what we did with our afternoon was: devour a plate of food, shower, wash our clothes and hang them out to dry, rest a bit, journal, eat again, drink local red wine, make friends, repack, study the map for next day, and crash. This would become the rhythm.

Refuge Orisson houses 43 pilgrims per night and their bunks are always full. For me, there was a distinct church camp vibe as the young, hippie looking guy escorted us to our room for eight with one shared potty, and assigned us two bunks. As a true gentleman, Rick volunteered to take the top bunk.

The dining room was full of hungry pilgrims that evening and loud with the excitement of the shared experience of overcoming a major chunk of mountain. After the plates were cleared, folks from all around the globe stood, one by one, sharing in many languages their reason for hiking the Camino. Solo hikers, mother-daughter teams, couples, and friend groups shared. Some laughed; some cried. Many were searching for closure and/or a fresh beginning. Some walking the walk for their own personal development while others hiked for, or in memory of, loved ones.

At our turn, my partner said he was there to support me in my dream to hike the Camino as I had supported him two years earlier in his quest to bike across America. I said I was hiking the Camino from a decade-long desire inspired by the movie, The Way. My goal was to allow the Camino to guide me, not boss or limit her. I asked Rick to join me in reciting the mantra we had chosen for the trip:

In the spirit of surrender and adventure, without expectations or control, I ignite the miracles of The Universe within me.

We started every single day reciting this together as we hit the trail, and often shared it with others as we fell in together chatting as we walked.

The Walk

I loved starting our trek at daybreak when much of the crowd was still waking up and the farmers had yet to start their machinery. This provided me the space to experience the emotion attached to overwhelming gratitude for the opportunity to be on this pathway. Gratitude for my healthy body, my partner, for my “job” to simply walk to our next resting place, and to be present in the amazing landscape. 

Of the 200+ miles we walked, our second day was my favorite. We finished crossing the Pyrenees and stepped over the France/Spain border while passing horses and cows and sheep and so many of the new friends we made at dinner with the night before. It was all I had dreamed of. I just kept saying, “We’re here! We’re doing it!” At one point, we stopped and recorded ourselves singing, “The hills are alive, with the sound of music,” and sent it to our kids who shared our excitement.

Challenges

The first challenge is that walking this trail is effing hard. The guidebooks imply that anyone, at any age, who is relatively in shape can do it with some training. That is bullshit might be a little misleading. I consider myself in relatively good shape and I did train. And while I did it, it was difficult. Even the young’uns on the trail talked of how hard it was.

The second challenge was the language barrier. I could point and order second breakfast, but when I tried to bypass the booking.com fees and call to reserve our next nights’ lodging, it was impossible, and so very frustrating. Don’t even tell me to use Google translate. A shop owner in a small village with a que of customers, understandably has zero interest in listening to a translation read by a voice on an iPhone. In my next life, I will be multilingual. Most European pilgrims were, and we observed how this made life easier; enhanced their experience.

The third big challenge was the sudden and scary realization, at about Day Four, that neither one of us had brought a bank debit card and we had no way to replenish our shrinking supply of Euros. Okay, I know that sounds stupid, and it was, but we were absolutely dedicated to minimizing.

That afternoon, we checked into one of our favorite Airbnb’s where we were so looking forward to having a private room with a private bath. Owner/Manager Christine looked at Rick’s credit card and said, in perfectly clear English, “cash only!” 

Rick says her peeling that last 100 euro bill from my hand was like taking a bottle from a baby. I tried everything and she would not budge. I ended up with 40 euros left and we were a few days out from a town that might have a decent-sized bank. 

The low point was when we stopped for second breakfast and had to walk away without our mid-morning tortilla because it was a cash only establishment and I was holding on to those last 40 euros like they were my bottle.

I cried.

I Bet We Could Go Faster

I don’t know if it was the high from having over 30,000 steps and burning over 2,000 calories per day and the consistent kudos from my watch, the comments of amazement on my Instagram, or the desire to keep up with the prescribed stages, but I thought we could push a little harder. Make up for those two half days we took early on. Catch up with some of the faster hikers from our original group. Get to the bank faster.

I wrote in my journal that I thought we could ramp it up a bit now that we were in our groove. We were doing great. Never felt better. Why not?

But, why?

Within a day or so, the last couple of miles were riddled with pain. Each step I took with my left foot caused a shooting pain just below my knee. I Internet-diagnosed it as an overuse injury of the patella. I called our trainer back in Indiana. We bought analgesic creams, a brace, increased the Advil, iced faithfully, and continued to walk.

Due to the 6-8 euros one is required to include in the envelope she attaches to her backpack, our cashflow crises eliminated my option of sending my 13 lb. pack on to our next location by courier.

I took two rest days.

It did not help one iota.

It got worse.

Stay Tuned

Statistically speaking, I’ve gone past the word count where you will hang with me on a blogpost. So, I’ll let you go and continue later. If you’re interested in the rest of my story, and I hope you are, be sure to scroll down and Subscribe for Updates. You’ll be hearing from me soon.