121- Camino News Update August 2024 - Global Camino, Tasmanian and Norte Caminos, The Way, My Way Update, Tips for Santiago, Pilgrim House Turns 10, and more!

Global Camino 
https://www.waytostjames.com.au/
https://www.facebook.com/waytostjamescygnet/

Tasmanian Camino and Global Camion Website:
https://www.waytostjames.com.au/

Camino Cafe Podcast Interview with Ella, Denise, and Denis
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/119-the-neal-family-walking-the-camino-a/id1562037974?i=1000666935472

Follow the Neal Family on IG for their upcoming Camino walk starting September 1st
https://www.instagram.com/neals4fibro/

Video about their upcoming walk:
https://youtu.be/CtVm6sh3QVo?si=AjbyE3Yb4_6Pc0BB

Neal Family's Blog
https://thewaytoacure.wordpress.com/

To Support Fibro Fighters in finding a cure:
https://secure.givelively.org/donate/fibrofighters-foundation-inc/neals4fibro?ref=1c062159-e55f-4a1c-87cd-e570d2bfa17a


Cruisin’ with the Colemans
https://www.youtube.com/@CruisinwiththeColemans


Living to Be with Reino Gevers -  Interview with Johnnie Walker and Leigh Brennan
Video - https://youtu.be/zt6c4fq-gfQ?si=ENFvACo6aW5QRA5o
Audio - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-future-of-the-camino-overrated-and-overcrowded/id1555111254?i=1000666226176

Hotel Booking Service with PIlgrim Kiley Brennan 
kiley.brennan@fora.travel.com

https://www.foratravel.com

Thanks to our CNU Team this week, especially Patricia Rose for recording our show and Sven Kaven for special photography.

Transcript

Global Camino Pilgrimage Announcement

Speaker 1 0:00

Pilgrims. It's the Camino News update for August. I'm Lee Brennan and I'm here with Johnny Walker, santiago. We have a big announcement.

Speaker 2 0:07

Our friends in Tasmania a way down there in the Antipodes, invented a way of St James which hundreds of people walk every year At the pandemic. They invented also a global pilgrimage to engage pilgrims from every corner of the world. We'll give you details of how to register and on the 11th of January we all go out walking wherever we are and we share photographs and our experience and the fun of that with each other across the world.

Speaker 1 0:37

I'm going to be walking that day. John's going to be walking, yeah.

Speaker 2 0:40

I'll be in the south of Spain, on the Costa del Sol, but I guarantee I will start walking from the Church of Santiago in the south of Spain, on the Costa del Sol, but I guarantee I will start walking from the church of Santiago in the city of Malaga.

Speaker 1 0:49

Here is Leanne Pritchard. She lives in Tasmania and she is the main organizer, so she has a few more words to say about it.

Speaker 3 0:55

We're hosting an event on January 11th and 12th of 2025 and it's the fifth year we're actually running this global Camino. It's connected to our Tassie Camino that's run by the Waiter, st James in Signet and it started after COVID. So what we invite people to do is to join our Facebook event for that weekend and we invite pilgrims from all over the world to walk where they live in peace and solidarity together and we invite them to share their photos and their Camino walk on those two days on the Facebook event page in the discussion group so they can see and hear from pilgrims across the world and share the Camino spirit across the world. It's over the weekend in January and it's when we actually walk our Tasmanian Camino in person, so you'll get to see some posts. You actually get to join a live stream for our opening and closing event of our Tasmanian pilgrimage and we also get to see where you walk, wherever you are in the world.

Speaker 1 2:01

So John and I recently had a great time being on Reino Geber's podcast Living to Be. We talked about all things Camino. In particular, john, we talked about is the Camino too busy, so I just wonder if you'd say a few words about that.

Speaker 2 2:13

Well, I don't know if the Camino is too busy, but Santiago is certainly very busy. Here we are in the Plaza Obradoro, as you can see behind me, it's full of pilgrims. In fact, you have to reserve restaurants. There are queues outside the restaurants and pilgrims are piling into the city At the rate of 3,500 Compostelas being issued some days. We're almost at the very end of August, going into September, the busiest month of the year and already 345,000 Compostelas have been issued, and of course, that means many more pilgrims have been on the Camino routes during the year. But is it too busy? I haven't met anyone yet that wasn't able to find a bed and with a little bit of planning, decide what route you want to walk, decide what time of the year you want to walk you will be able to have a trouble-free and serene pilgrimage, and we all offer our warmest congratulations to the leadership team of Pilgrim House. Pilgrim House is a wonderful facility for pilgrims here in the city and they've been serving pilgrims for 10 years. So we say happy birthday, well done.

Speaker 1 3:23

How does it feel today to be celebrating 10 years?

Speaker 4 3:27

It's great. It's been really fun to have this time and it's a good moment to mark how long it's been. It's hard to imagine. I kind of have to blink and think it's been 10 years. It's pretty crazy. How about you?

Speaker 5 3:40

Well, we're definitely grateful for all of the teammates that have joined us in this work. You know, from 2014 to now, I think we counted when we've had like maybe 14 or 15 people come through and be long-term staff on the team and you can see their fingerprints in the space and the things that they've created and the ideas that they had. So we're just grateful for, you know, everyone who has joined in this work, supported it, the pilgrims who have come in and just been so encouraging and warm and kind themselves, and then the people who are here in Santiago right now, like you, Lee, who keep coming in, and just we're glad that we can mutually support each other in our work.

Speaker 1 4:18

What's been the big highlight in the last 10 years? One big highlight.

Speaker 4 4:23

I would just say there isn't one massive highlight, but it's just the joy of being here with Pilgrims. Right Faith mentioned gratefulness, a lot for team and I'm grateful for the chance we've had over these 10 years to receive and get to know and hear stories from Pilgrims. It really is fantastic.

Speaker 1 4:39

I know you'll have to take a guess, but how many Pilgrims do you think you've served in the 10 years?

Speaker 5 4:47

That's a wild guess that might be way high. I don't think it's that high, but I'm not sure 30 to 40 thousand.

Speaker 4 4:55

There's a wild guess. Visits, maybe visits, yeah, you know many pilgrims come back more than once.

Speaker 1 5:01

Yeah, gabriella, congratulations. We're standing here on the 10 year anniversary of the Pilgrim House. How?

Speaker 6 5:08

does it feel right now? Oh my gosh, it's a bit surreal. I have just finished three years of working here at Pilgrim House. I can only imagine how faith and need feel, having been through the last 10 years of Pilgrim House. It's been a lot of change in a short amount of time, but it's incredible to see the fruition and the fruit that's come over the last decade. What do you love about helping pilgrims? I love the incredible impact that it makes on the individuals that come through Pilgrim House, the various needs that they have when they walk through the door and how they come in in one way seeking or searching or need, and they and they leave having found something, having their spirits lifted, having direction, just feeling that they are better suited for the return home or for wherever they're going next. It is a beautiful thing to see a pilgrim enter and leave, just yeah, encouraged for what's beyond the Camino. So many more things to come.

Speaker 1 6:11

Cruising with the Coleman's Brian and Michelle from Ohio. Big shout out to my home state. They're here today to talk about the Norte, why you might walk it and a few tips.

Speaker 7 6:21

I would say do this route. If you are looking for epic views. This route has the best views of any Camino we've ever been on. Every day you get to look at the mountain and the sea.

Speaker 9 6:37

Because you're walking along the Cantabrian Mountains, so they're off to your left most of the time, and then you've got the ocean off to your right most of the time, so you're getting to see it all.

Speaker 7 6:45

It's the best of both worlds for a girl like me. Anyway, I want mountains and I want sea, and we got it.

Speaker 9 6:51

My big tip would be to be prepared for anything weather-wise, because the coastline is just really unpredictable. We had really cool temperatures the entire Camino and a lot of rain, and it was almost always cold in the morning, and a lot of days the temperature never really got up above 65 or even 70 degrees.

Speaker 7 7:13

Cooler temperatures were a welcome sight.

Speaker 9 7:17

Wow. I mean just the walking through those cliffs along the coast. It's just stunning. And you know this isn't a lot of beach walking. It's not like walking into Finisterre, where you're walking on the beach, although there were moments of that. Most of the time you're walking along the ocean, but you're 100 meters up from it, so you're looking over the edge and you hear the waves crashing. The one day that we were at the Buffonis, the water spouts was really quite cool. So there's just a lot of things like that. And then there's a lot of really pretty big towns.

Speaker 7 7:50

Yeah, there are a lot of tourist cities and and then there's a lot of really pretty big towns. Yeah, there are a lot of tourist cities and so it's a little bit more expensive, but the tourist cities are a great distraction.

Speaker 9 7:58

Nothing as big as León or Burgos, but Santander is a big city, san Sebastián, gijón, so a lot of bigger towns.

Speaker 1 8:07

This week on the Camino Cafe podcast, I have some special guests. It is Ella, neal and her parents, dennis and Denise. Ella was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of cancer called fibrolamellar, and fibrolamellar is a cancer that only affects one out of five million people. They are walking a Camino starting from Tui this Saturday and they're hoping to raise awareness to find a cure for this cancer. I'm Ella.

Speaker 4 8:35

And I'm Dennis.

Speaker 10 8:36

And I'm a fibrolamellar carcinoma survivor and fighter since 2021. I've been through multiple different interventional surgeries chemos, the whole lot and I can say with full certainty I would not be here and work for everybody at Fibro Fighters and the help that they've given me and my family. They've helped us not only to help for the future and to feel solid in balancing out my work and life and treatments and just being a young person in this time. They've also helped us to give back and to be inspired.

Speaker 1 9:11

We were so fortunate here in Santiago to see the Spanish premiere of the Way my Way. I was able to interview with Jennifer and Bill, the filmmakers. This is just a sneak peek of the feature I will be doing with them later this fall on the podcast. I was here the other night to walk into Santiago to premiere your movie in front of not only pilgrims but also folks that grew up in Santiago.

Speaker 11 9:35

Terrifying, Absolutely terrifying. It occurred to me that it's the most critical audience in the world. I mean, the audience is full of pilgrims and pilgrims that have walked Camino multiple, multiple times, and so there would be no more critical audience than the one that watched the film the other night and like, if they didn't like it, they'd tell me. Indeed, they would.

Speaker 1 10:02

But what did you hear instead? They liked it.

Speaker 11 10:05

They loved it. It was very pleasing.

Speaker 1 10:09

How is the Bill the person and Bill the filmmaker different than the man who started that Camino 11 years ago?

Speaker 11 10:21

I'm going to flick past that one too. Oh, you sound different.

Speaker 1 10:24

To the boss how so I'm so different.

Speaker 8 10:26

Well, he would never do washing before, and now he loves to do the washing he loves to. Every time we travel he does his washing in the sink and he spreads it out all over the room. I mean that I find an annoying thing. But there are lots of extraordinary things that have brought change. Humility, I suppose, is one of them.

Speaker 11 10:53

I'm really humble now. He's very, very humble now. I've got no idea how humble I am. I one of them. I'm really humble now. He's very, very humble now. I've got no idea how humble I am. I like ace humility.

Speaker 8 11:00

I ace it. He's not difficult. No, I'm not difficult, he's not difficult anymore.

Speaker 11 11:07

He's very calm.

Speaker 8 11:11

He's not afraid anymore. I'm not afraid.

Speaker 11 11:14

I'm scared of you. You're still scared of Panzer.

Speaker 8 11:16

Good, but so many things, so many things. Anybody who's walked a Camino knows the change that they've undergone, yes, and they know that they've gone through huge change. So why should Bill be any different? He went through huge change as well.

Speaker 1 11:30

Yes, now, I know people are so hungry to see this movie. So if you live in the rest of Europe, the United States, when will they get to see it? It's coming, it's coming.

Speaker 11 11:41

We had a meeting with our foreign sales agent this morning who's come here to Santiago to attend the screening the other night, and we're working it out, but it's coming very soon.

Speaker 1 11:52

And what's next for you two?

Speaker 11 11:55

We're doing a sequel.

Speaker 7 11:56

A sequel.

Speaker 11 11:57

Tell us more. It's called the Way, her Way, and it's going to be a story about a woman walking the Camino, because there have been so many stories about men walking the Camino.

Speaker 8 12:10

Yeah, why is that?

Speaker 11 12:11

Yeah, so we thought it would be good to.

Speaker 8 12:14

Well, it's about time the woman's story is told, because it's so much more difficult for a woman to walk a Camino than it is for a man.

Speaker 1 12:21

Why would you say that? Jennifer, I agree, but what's your reasoning?

Speaker 8 12:24

Well, I just think they're Just toileting is just one very very simple thing, Is it not right?

Speaker 8 12:33

Exactly. And also I think the Camino for women sometimes is a wonderful opportunity to meet other women and exchange stories. I know that it happens that way for men as well, but I think there is a wonderful bonding that women have. That's a little bit different than man to man or man to woman. Woman to woman is quite a different bonding. Yes, and I don't know how to put that into words, but that's what the film will be exploring All the little details that go into being a woman on the Camino, the day you decide to stop putting on lipstick, I mean, for heaven's sake, all those little things you know, the strength you gain by walking, knowing you can walk 35km if you need to, that's so empowering. Couldn't agree more. Yeah, it's fabulous, it's all those things.

Speaker 8 13:32

Oh well.

Speaker 1 13:33

I can't wait to see that.

Speaker 11 13:34

Jennifer has been a co-writer in the screenplay, which is the first time, no, second time. We've co-written, second time, yeah so her influence on the script has been profound.

Speaker 1 13:48

Fantastic. Well, I cannot wait for that movie. I know the other night we all felt like we were walking right alongside you, with the wonderful pilgrims that walked with you, and I can't wait till the next movie. As a woman, yeah.

Speaker 8 14:02

I can't wait to be very funny and laugh and cry, same thing.

Speaker 11 14:06

And we'll have a mixture of pilgrims and non-pilgrims as well exactly so a mixture of actors non-actors. We're basically taking the template of the way my way and making a female version of it. Wonderful, well, you have a winning. So a mixture of actors and non-actors. We're basically taking the template of the Way my Way and making a female version of it Wonderful.

Speaker 1 14:19

Well, you have a winning formula, that is for sure, and I can't wait for that to come out. I can't wait for the rest of the world to see this film. Okay, I love giving recommendations on places to visit when you're here in Santiago, and I just have to give a shout-out to the restaurant San Clemente, san Clemente. San Clemente is owned by Mari and Miguel Miguel is also the chef. Mari's running the front of the house Been there countless times and I have had amazing meals every single time and the memories that I've enjoyed there are gonna last a lifetime. So be sure to check out San Clemente when you are here in Santiago.

Luxury Accommodations Through Kylie's Travel

Speaker 1 14:52

Also, I had a special surprise for my daughter. She bought a gift card for me to go to La Quinta de Agua. It is a magnificent hotel in Santiago. Now I got to tell you it's posh, very nice. But if you want a posh and pampered time after your Camino, kylie can help you make arrangements. She got this for me because she's running of a travel business and she is sponsoring us today. So shout out to Kylie and thank you for that wonderful gift. Kylie's also a pilgrim, so she knows how much you want to be pampered, if you can, after a Camino. Well, that's it for this week's Camino News Update. We will be back in September and until then, Bye everybody.

Speaker 1 15:33

Ciao.