Kilometers per day?

[Carlos Mentley]

Need to be careful with those generalizations!  Perhaps pilgrims without time constraints can
manage the leisurely pace of 20 km per day.  (What would that be, about 40 days to walk from St
Jean to Santiago?)  Many, however, are simply not so fortunate.  Last January, my group averaged 28
km per day for 27 days in order to arrive in Santiago in the time we had.  Were we tired at the end
of the day?  Yes.  Was it madness?  Of course not; nor was it a race nor an endurance challenge.

And what, walking at anything more than a stroll makes it not a pilgrimage?  C'mon, let's get
beyond those arbitrary ideas of what a "real" pilgrimage is.  Just because *your* experience does
not coincide with *mine* does not invalidate either one!

Carlos

Richard Ferguson wrote:

> My other note is that most pilgrims are making closer to 20 km/day.  I know that at the end of
> my pilgrimage I made two days back to back a little over 25km/day, and I was exhausted at
> the end of the second day, despite "on the job" training.  I suggest that pilgrims plan for 20
> km/day average, which I think is realistic for most people.  The refugios generally are spaced
> to support 20 km/day.  Obviously some people can and do go faster than 20 km/day, but 30
> km/day seems like madness for all but the most fit, it becomes a race or an endurance
> challenge rather than a pilgrimage.
>
> Richard