Sue Lindsay is a petite 68-year-old who has just walked more than 1,000km of the Camino Trail on her own, over the Pyrenees in France and into the heart of Spain.
When she left New Zealand for the seven-week walk, she carried just a small backpack as hand luggage on the plane, and even with two bottles of water never had more than 7.5kg on her back.
The Camino Trail, or Camino de Santiago, is a renowned pilgrimage of medieval origin that follows a number of trails to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in the northwest of Spain.
For the past 30 years, walking one of the trails has been on Sue’s wish list and in May she set off, with every night’s accommodation booked for the walk beginning at Le Puy-en-Velay in southeast France.
She has long been an adventurer and keen walker, with previous cycling trips in Europe and multi-day tramps in New Zealand, but this was the longest solo walk and followed her retirement in October as a landscape designer.
The trail she chose follows the GR65 route, with family homes accommodating walkers along the way. From the first day in Le Puy-en-Velay, she felt the spirituality and history of the pilgrimage that has been in place for centuries.
“You’re considered a pilgrim and it’s very moving when you start at the cathedral at Le Puy and they have a blessing for all those starting the Camino. It was very sincere and the most amazing thing happens as the whole aisle opens up and the pilgrims go down a special pilgrim step in the cathedral and emerge at a door to start the pilgrimage.”
Over the next seven weeks, she averaged 25km a day and up to 34km on her longest day to get to her pre-booked accommodation where she would meet up with sometimes 10 to 20 walkers. Every night she was treated to four-course meals of regional food and wines.
“The meal is served to you by the family and then they sit with you, so it is incredibly social. It was the most social seven weeks of my entire life.”
Sue had conversational French from school days and university, then took further lessons before heading to France. Once there, she was immersed in the French language and by the end of the trip was able to joke with her hosts and other walkers.
“The French were fabulous. They really went out of their way to look after me. I was someone on my own – a small woman with grey hair and not threatening to anyone – and they were lovely and welcoming.”
On her rest days, her French hosts included her with their family for lunch or took her with them to the market. When she got to Spain, men often saw her as “their granny or mum” and looked after her.
Much of the route through France was up and down plateaus on rocky terrain, which was something she had not anticipated. It was hard on her feet and, though she had never had a problem with blisters tramping in New Zealand, there were a couple of days when she took a bus to her next night’s accommodation to give her feet a break.
Her biggest day was when she walked over the Pyrenees by herself in the middle of a storm.
“I went over the Pyrenees in one day which is up to 1,400m altitude and that day took me eight-and-a-half hours. The first five hours were fine, but then there was thunder and lightning in this massive storm as I was going over the top and I was soaked through.”
While walking in France, she took an alternative route up to the clifftop village and religious sanctuary of Rocamadour, where she only passed a few people on the trail during six days.
As she got closer to Spain, the feeling on the trail changed and it became more of a tourist destination without the same sincerity she had felt in France.
What she did not expect to find in Spain was her own ancestry. She knew she had Spanish ties because DNA tests in the family had shown that, but had not given it much thought until she began walking through Spanish towns among the local people.
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“I had these spooky things happen to me. People would think they knew me and I went through one village where all these people looked like my brothers and sisters. For nearly 300km walking in Spain I felt without a doubt that this is where my ancestry is. It was like it was in my face every day.”
The plan was to walk all the way to Santiago where all the Camino trails converge, but when she got to Burgos after a “cold, miserable night in an old stone building”, she realised she was exhausted and decided it was time to stop.
“It suddenly hit me that I didn’t need to go on. I’d achieved everything I wanted to do.”
Her next walks are planned closer to home, with several multi-day tramps on the calendar this summer, including the The Old Ghost Rd with family and friends.
