Chimneys, Xenophobia, the Angel of Chivalry and an English conundrum

The GoCamino Forum, generated by the American Pilgrims on the Camino (membership numbers unknown), has been in a deep slumber these past few weeks with nothing much to report on here.

The Saint James forum, going since 1999, has 281 members. Of these, only a dozen or so ever post – usually in reply to a query or comment. This group is based in the Caminho de Santiago de Compostela - O Portal Peregrino . The last few months show total posts of 47 March, 52 April and 10 in May.

Ultreya with 312 members, also in the Christianity category, has low volume posts with 42, 32, and 30 for the past three months: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ultreya/ -

The Way of St James Forum in Jacobeo.net has 182 members with no new messages since ‘The Santiago Enigma’ super-sleuth posted 4 convoluted posts in April - which seem to have stopped all the other posters in their tracks. Perhaps they are still trying to decode the Dan-Brownesque clues in the 4 posts?

(Did you know that there is a Camino Refugio Support Group? No? Neither did anyone else – outside the 8 members who have joined since 2005 but haven’t posted since 2006.)

This week the Caminosantiago-Way of St James Forum has been plagued by SPAM posts with links to Lesbian Sex Videos - Mature Naked females and Gang banging adulteresses. Repugnante!!

Grant Spangler’s forum at http://groups.msn.com/ElCaminoSantiago was quiet for a month or so but is up and running again – mostly with queries on transport. Grant is the supremo-go-guru and knows all there is about planes, trains and automobiles on the caminos.

An interesting question was about symbols on the maps:

“Can sombody have a mind to my what's difference at they symbols for herberg at these maps. Colors at symbols am different , has it a few importance?

(I think the maps have been copied from the Mundicamino website but you can see them here)

http://groups.msn.com/ElCaminoSantiago/CaminoMaps3.msnw

And the reply:
“The only difference is the building WITH the chimney has Pilgrim-specific lodging, the building WITHOUT the chimney may have a hostal, hotel, or nothing, but without Pilgrim-specific lodging. The colors of the buildings are of no particular significance.”

So, if you plan on using these maps for your walk and want a pilgrim bed for the night, remember to look out for the chimneys on the buildings.

Santiagobis (owned by Dutchman Michel) grew out of the ashes of a previous Santiago forum that closed about eight years ago – hence the ‘bis’ in Santiago-bis meaning 'twice or double.
Conundrum: My high school Latin taught me that 'bis' is a prefix, so the 'bis' should come at the beginning of the word not at the end. I wonder what others think about this? (Quite frankly my dears, I don't think anyone gives a damn!)
Boasting 1742 members and based in the Religion category of the Yahoo.Groups it appears to have relaxed its moderator stronghold with – shock and horror!! - discussions on religion being allowed to take their course and now Xenophobia has reared its ugly head. This week some peregrinos slated the inamical French pellerins, others berated the boorish Germans and a few Americanos have been whining about being singled out as polecat, war-mongering George Bush supporters!

This guy posted his opinion :

"The French and Germans are just people and should not be judged as a whole. Groups of both nationalities have made my stays in a few albergues a trial. Both groups hog the kitchen and get the whole barn up at 0530 by talking quite loudly and making an ungodly racket. As individuals and in very small groups they are as anyone else. It just seems they turn up in large groups more frequently."

And was promptly smote down with a hefty smite of the pen (er... keyboard) by one of the moderators in the form of fire and brimstone from the Archangel Michael, who Wiki describes as the Angel of God and the patron saint of chivalry!

"McGurk's remarks, which I have printed below, are insulting, demeaning and a disgrace. McGurk should be ashamed of himself. How patronising to say that individual Germans and French can be house-trained! Especially after saying that they "should not be judged as a whole. I think it's about time that anybody who wants to 'bash the French' or 'kick the German' or 'malign the Pom' should be honest enough to state their own nationality first. Then all the rest of us, who are (or should be) getting rather tired of this whole nonsense, can trot out our diatribe about the writer's nationals, their failings, foibles and irritations. So, I'm an Australian. One of those convict-descended, loud, noisy, beer-swilling, folk with no cultural background. The next time I read a post that begins with: "As an American....." I will rise up and smite the writer with a great and mighty smite.
It should not matter (nor does it make the slightest difference) to the strength of any pilgrim's argument, suggestion or advice as to what nationality they happen to be."

Power-to-the-pilgrims!! Great, tolerant, pilgrim terminology: insulting, demeaning, patronising, disgrace, bash, kick, malign, failings, foibles, irritations, smite.... all in one post!!

The Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela forum – started in October 2004 - seems to have taken up the slack of all the other forums. The forum lists a total posts 22 172 which equates to 6 335 posts per month. Total topics 3 782 and total members 2 723

This week the posts were varied and there was no long thread on any one subject. A new(?) member asked about self-guided tour groups that carry your baggage and make reservations for accommodation and got a big fat slap on the wrist:

My wife and I are hoping to use one of three different self guided tour companies (they carry your bags from town to town and book your rooms). We will be walking from Leon to Santiago in September. Any suggestions? Horror stories? Recommendations? We aren't getting much help from their websites.

A reasonable enough query one might think? Not when it comes to our pellerins.
The first reply was a somewhat snotty comment about ‘these groups’ hogging all the accommodation, from some poor bugger who is obviously still smarting about not being able to get a bed in Mansilla!

To a large extent I believe that it is these groups that are causing so much of the crowding being experienced at this time. When you have a dozen or two of these folks that are pre-booked far ahead into the hotel(s) in a small town it becomes very difficult to find a place. Three days ago I called three places in Sahagun before I found a room. From Sahagun I called everyplace in Mansilla and found nothing so I ended up coming to Leon. (Sniff, sniff..)

A veteran poster responded:

I think its a bit simplistic to assume that one couple who prefer to stay in hotels and have their luggage carried are to blame for the overcrowding. The overcrowding starts in the albergues and spills over into other accommodation along the route. The camino has taken on such a life of its own that I don't think anyone could have foretold how big it would grow.

And another:

Older pilgrims, particularly, often enough have bone or muscle problems which make it impossible to carry a full load on their backpacks-- it is difficult for the outsider to distinguish between these pilgrims and those who are practising a decaff pilgrimage. Mind you, the only time I ever had accommodation trouble was on the National Day weekend, when all of Spain travels and visits.

And from a local...

I agree, (that groups are overcrowding the camino) but only when these groups begin walking three km. before the albergue and are the first pilgrims to take bed. If they sleep in a hostal there's no problem in my opinion.

On the Via Francigena site things are going at a steady canter. They now have 200 members who posted 35 new messages in a week - a sign that more and more camino-peregrinos are searching for less crowded pastures on the other side of the Pyrenees.

The majority of posts were about backpacks and guide books:

Interesting post on the new Lightfoot Guide books by Babette Gallard and Paul Chinn. I googled the books and found that there are 11 used and new from Amazon.co.uk for £22.46 or – hey Tesco!! from Tesco for £22.79 each (both cheaper than from Pilgrimage Publications)

The LightFoot Guide to the via Francigena consists of two books that together cover the entire length of the via Francigena from Canterbury to Rome. The route given is as historically accurate as possible (passing through each of Sigeric's listed towns), but the Via Francigena as we know it today is the cohesion of many routes chosen by pilgrims over the centuries and in this the LightFoot guide is no different. The recommended route is fundamentally true to the general direction - historical and geographical - but where it led the guide writers into undue danger (as with the SS22 in Italy) or unnecessary discomfort (disused tracks requiring a machete) alternatives are offered. The entire distance is divided into manageable sections of approximately 25 km. In most cases this distance amounts to a comfortable walk for the majority of people, though of course it will also depend on the terrain. For the cyclist, 2, 3 or maybe even 4 stages will represent a day's travel and for the horse rider a great deal will depend on fitness and the route itself, but accommodation is listed along the length of the route and it is entirely up to you and your body where you decide to stop.