Bill Austin has hiked four caminos:
- 2014 – Frances
- 2017 – Norte
- 2017 – Primitivo
- 2019 – Via Francigena
Hear from Bill about his Camino de Santiago experiences and his hopes for Camino for Good
The Camino,
How do you explain it?
Some relate to the Camino by the people they met on the Camino that greatly influenced their lives. Others connect through its religious side. The Camino is sometimes social-based, but it doesn’t have to be. At times it’s completely nature-based, which you might not think is your thing, but it might be. I never thought I was a nature person, until I walked the Camino de Santiago for the first time.
I think that’s what the Camino does, It shows you parts of yourself that might have been missing and you needed to find. It reveals the good parts of humanity that you needed to see again. Above all, it uncovers deeper strength that you might have doubted you had, but that the Camino shows you, you actually do.
The Camino seems to give your life just what you need at just the time you need it the most. I really don’t know how to do that virtually, but we are going to try. Because if somehow we can, it might just make all the difference.
The Camino is a connection to something that I never knew was there to connect to. Something that in the end helps you realize things will be okay. Might not be how you thought it would be, but still okay.
This site, this virtual walk, is somehow trying to help everyone connect to that. For some small moment, in some small way, connect to something bigger than themselves, the Camino. It’s ambitious but why not, maybe you just might.
The Camino saved each of us in some way and now we hope we can save it in return. Not that it needs us. Its been there for 1000 years and will be there for another 1000, for sure. But for now, it could use a little of what it gave us, hope and help. In return, it will always be there to give so much more. If in some small way this helps to ensure that, then we will all be the better for it.
So start here, end up there. Some day from now you just might find yourself on a path, somewhere on the Camino where you stop for a short time and just say to yourself “Wow, I’m really here” and feel an immense sense of gratitude for it.
You’ll have all you need on your back and you’ll realize, for maybe the first time in your life, that is all you really needed anyhow. If we can be any part of that for you and help any part of the Camino continue to be that for others, then we’ve accomplished our goal.
We are exactly where we want to be, which in the end seems always to be back on the Camino.
This is your start.
Connect however you might through our site. Until one day, you wake up, head down stairs, grab a cup of coffee and breakfast with some strangers that just might turn into life long friends, strap on your pack and head to Santiago on the adventure of a life time.
Thanks for checking us out.
