MAY MADNESS and DEATH ON THE CAMINO

OVERCROWDING!! 350 - 400 PEOPLE IN RONCESVALLES!!

These are the most talked about posts on the forums this week.

From http://www.pilgrimage-to-santiago.com/

On April 30th nearly 300 pilgrims crossed the Pyrenees into Roncesvalles. . .so you can imagine what it was like on May 1st. too, they were overwhelmed.

3rd May:
Don't start your walk on a long weekend! Three days ago there was a post on another forum that Roncesvalles was totally overbooked with between 350 and 400 pilgrims. I read this post an a peregrina's blog: This weekend was a holiday weekend for Spain so there were a ton of Spaniards who had taken four days or so to do a chunk of the trail, which is what lots of people do. I continue to be impressed and amazed by the amount of older people and the distances they do each day. Got to an albergue a couple days ago and it was full, which I couldn´t believe, as it was only 3 in the afternoon. Got the last beds in a private one, and others who came later had to sleep on the floor or walk on to the next town.

But it got worse:

My daughter started from Pamplona on Tuesday 29th and by Thursday 1st May everywhere was absolutely packed - they had to work 14 km further than they intended before finding an overflow sports hall with mats on the floor and they have been wrecked ever since . . .

I seem to be in the middle of some kind of bubble of pilgrams and it has been very difficult to find room in the refugios. I had to rent a house in Los Arcos with some other pilgrams and a hotel in Logroño. I know of four people that have left the camino due to the stress of trying to find a bed.

I´m now in Astorga, a long way ahead of where I would have been if Id stuck tó the vague schedule i´d planned. this is partly because i have the flu, had very sore feet but a large part due to not wanting to rush for beds each day. its a bit like an episode of the Amazing Race - if you are not at your destination by about midday-1pm and have you pack in the line outside the albergue you will likely find trouble getting a bed, well at least an inexpensive one, or you may have to walk a lot further.I´ve decided to cut my camino short, laugh about it all and walk only 10-15km a day till i finish on 28 May, that way I can stay in smaller and perhaps less crowded places.

From what I experienced in my starting group, there were many Germans, some French, Italians, English , South Koreans, several Scandanavians,and only a few Americans. There seemed to be a race each morning at 4:30 to see who could get out the door and on the road, to be the first at the refuge at the end of the day. I was a bit surprised and disappointed at some of the rudeness displayed, but in any group ofpeople there will always be a few...

And, on Santiagobis:

Today Tuesday, May 6, a dead pilgrim was found outside Puente La Reina, on the steep slope climbing towards Mañeru. The Navarrese police had cordoned off the area and covered the corpse with a blanket, but itseemed to be a man. I could only see his hiking boots sticking out and his staff nearby. That made me sad. It will be hard to get over that sight for a while. I am reporting from Ciraqui.

News coverage in Diario de Navarra.
French Pilgrim Dies of Heart Attack in Mañeru
Early this morning other pilgrims saw the victim collapse and called SOS Navarra.- The victim was 60 yrs old and lived in the locality of Limoges.A french pilgrim of around 60 years who was walking the Camino de Santiago died this morning as he passed Mañeru due to a possible heart attack as reported by the government. At 8:20 other foreign pilgrims who were walking behind saw how A. G., from Limoges, collapsed as the crossed the rest area near that locality.After calling 112 of Navarra, the first to reach the area were police agents from Estella who were patroling the vicinity. They practiced resuscitation techniques but the pilgrim did not respond. A doctor in Puente de la Reina could only certify his death. His body is currenttly at the Navarra Institute of Legal Medicine where an autopsy will be performed.

REMIND ME NEVER TO WALK A CAMINO IN MARCH OR APRIL

More posts on bad weather in high places: Teenagers trapped in Pyrenees snowstorm rescued after making SOS phone call home.

From: http://www.caminosantiago.com/

Date: April 24, 2008 08:53AM
Two British teenagers on a religious pilgrimage to the Pyrenees were rescued from a dangerous mountain path after making an SOS phone call home to their parents. The pair, both 19, came close to succumbing to hypothermia during a snowstorm on the French-Spanish border, close to a spot where another Englishman died. Edward Broad and a friend who has not been named were forced to huddle shivering in sleeping bags after being caught out by the suddenness of the storm. But they raised the alarm by phoning their parents in Wimbledon, South-West London, from the isolated area on the French-Spanish border. Emergency services from France and Spain fought through the treacherous conditions to find them on Tuesday. The young men had to spend a night in hospital but were released yesterday to continue their bicycling pilgrimage to the northern Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela. The route, known as the Camino, has been travelled by Christians since medieval times. A spokesman for the clinic in St Jean Pied de Port, in France, where they were treated, said: "When they arrived here they were in a very bad way, but both are young and they were treated swiftly and efficiently." The teenagers, who are Christians, were on a three-week trip. Edward's mother Margaret said her son had called her from the mountainside and told her not to worry. "He told me everything was fine but I was obviously extremely concerned," she said. "My son's friend had called his parents who had called the police. I knew the emergency services were doing their best to reach them but I was still really worried, as any mother would be. "There is a certain feeling of helplessness when you're stuck in Wimbledon." The area where the pair got into trouble, at 4,000ft, is close to the spot where City banker Chris Phillips, 50, was caught in a blizzard a year ago. He died later in hospital.

Another forum member posted this reply:

I was in SJPDP on the 23rd of April and the weather was warm and sunny at noon time. The refugio does not open till 3:00 or 4:00 PM but there was a notice on the door in English very clearly advising against taking the Napolean route and instead heading toward Valcarlos due to severly inclement weather in the mountains. No idea whether these two young people saw that notice or not. The real point I want to emphasize is that the weather in town was perfect in every way and it would be so understandable to ignore the notice on the refugio door and head for the Napolean route. All first time pilgrims should seriously seek out local information regarding conditions on the mountain before making independent decisions on their own. Not doing so could turn out to be a fatal mistake.

And this from the trail:

22nd April:
O Cebreiro 151 km to go (altitude 1300m)Another high point on the Camino and it is snowing again - 6 inches of snow along the road. Absolutely stunning! The most beautiful time of the year thru this section - steep valleys, gushing rivers and streams, bright green trees, fruit tress in full blossom! Today's long, hard 32km non-stop uphill in the rain and snow was well worth it!Triacastela 130 km to go (altitude 665m) 12 inches of snow overnight, it is still snowing and I am walking!!

Comment: Remind me never to walk el camino in March or April.

Snow and mud and Holy Communion

Snow storms, snow photographs and a debate on whether Protestant pilgrims should take Holy Communion whilst on the camino dominated the forums this week.
There were photographs posted of 1.2m deep snow outside the Paderbon Albergue in Pamplona and of an Italian trying to shovel his car out of the snow. Check out the CaminoSantiago.com forum: http://www.caminosantiago.com/way_of_saint_james/pilgrims_forum.htm
A few pilgrims posted updates on the pilgrimage-to-santiago.com forum and one the 27th March a pilgrim said:

**Disappointed ... unable to start walk at Roncesvalles .. knee deep snow, and passover Pyrenees closed ... 17km, non-stop rain, sucking, slippery mud, rocky, wet paths, icy wind off snow slopes 400m away, mist, 2 degrees and less at times. .. What did i learn? keep a positive attitude, keep going in planned direction, team work is essential, value each others strengths, God is wonderful!! a smooth path is only good in fair weather, rocky paths are better in the long run.

On the :http://www.pilgrimage-to-santiago.com/ Forum:
**I just arrived in Cizur Menor a few hours ago. The weather is beautiful, about 65 degrees or so and blue, blue skies. I arrived in Spain on the 26th and stayed overnight in Pamplona. The next day I took the bus to Roncesvalles and attended the Mass there. It was wonderful! There was a lot of snow and the camino path was not passable. You had to follow the main rode to Zubiri and then you could get on the path there. Although there was a lot of mud, it was awesome.

**During my easter holidays in Asturias (Camino del Norte) was snowing during 40 hours!! Beautiful sights from my hotel.

On the Caminosantiago.com forum:

**Hi everybody! I´m now in Portomarín.It´s still wet and muddy.Going to wash all the things I´ve got ánd hope to get them dry. Greatest problem; my boots which were once waterproof are soaking wet.It´s very hard to dry them.

On the Santiagobis Forum there has been an on-going discussion about Holy Communion for Protestants on the Camino. One member posted advice from a priest that ruffled a few feathers!

**By all means go to communion if you are a regular communicant in your own church and can say ‘yes’ to this being the Body and Blood of Christ. After all, when you are walking the Camino, you are probably a long way off from receiving the sacrament from your own church! And surely everyone on pilgrimage has the proper disposition!

Before the moderator stepped in and asked members to take the debate off the forum there were some interesting replies:

**I think that this is very bad advice... I would not be so free in inviting non-Catholics to the Catholic communion rail.

**Non-Catholics may go to Mass, but mustn't receive the Communion. Receiving the Communion is reserved for Catholics.

**When it comes to Protestants who come to his days of retreat, a priest friend says that receiving the Eucharist is not a right, it is an invitation...

**If one church thinks it has a monopoly on God how are we ever going to re-unite the churches. The camino is inclusive and so is Christ. Those who stick to such rigid interpretation of the rules only risk further splits. If you go to Mass/Eucharist believing in Christ who has a right to
refuse you?

**My question is why would non-Catholics even want to take communion? Is it to feel part of the group? Is it to find out how dry the host is? Is it to mock the belief? Is it because without it you
won't have had a "full" Camino experience?

**It is important to remember that communion not exculsive to the Catholic church but is one of the two most important Christian sacraments. Perhaps what all Christian pilgrims are seeking is to be in Holy Communion with Christ whilst on their pilgrimage and, as there are practically no Protestant Churches in Spain, they seek out the obvious places - the houses of God. For them this is not a meaningless ritual but a very Holy liturgy.

**These parameters are not set up to create an exclusive society of people who have the right to receive. Rather, it is so that the Eucharist itself is properly respected and revered as well as we are able in this imperfect world.

**Following the parameters you give, no one, I mean no Roman Catholic person, would receive the Eucharist today. No one would ever be worthy of it. A question being, does one need to be worthy to receive the Eucharist, or does receiving the Eucharist make us worthy?

Eish! So many opinions - all because some Italian men in the 4th C decided to complicate matters by including tradtions and laws into the sacraments. Perhaps the best advice comes from the 12th C in a Latin Hymn called the La Pretiosa:

Its doors are open to the sick and well
to Catholics as well as to pagans,
Jews, Heretics, beggars and the indigent,
and it embraces all like brothers.