[Gocamino] Crowds on the Camino

[Wilna Wilkinson]

I must say I find this whole discussion strange. The last thing that should
worry a pilgrim is the weather, surely? Perhaps this is the time -- *were it
possible* --  to look at the motivation for people to walk the pilgrimage.
Bit unfortunately it is not.
I would suggest that the people who are on the camino right now are the true
pilgrims. The people who turn away and go home are the ones who do it for
all the many other reasons people are on the Way. The people who do not come
are probably simply diverted by the many other things going on in the world
right now. We know that most people who walk the Way plan long in advance to
do so -- there are many things to organise and plan and if the weather turn
foul, most of these people are not going to be in a position to postpone the
walk to another time. So -- unless they are true pilgrims, they will still
go and then, finding it too hard, may go back home.
So no, I doubt very much that the falling numbers are due to bad weather. If
anything, the talk of the crowds expected would far rather be a deterrent.

On 24 June 2010 19:04, Johnnie Walker <johnniewalker-santiago at hotmail.com>wrote:

> It is interesting that numbers from distant departure points are down on
> last year. I agree it must be the weather. However farther along the Camino
> Frances nearer Santiago numbers are up considerably with double the usual
> number of pilgrims arriving at the Pilgrims' Office. Totals there will soon
> be 2000 per day at weekends.
> Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ralph Alcorn <rbalcorn at gmail.com>
> Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:50:38
> To: <rebrites at yahoo.com>
> Cc: <gocamino at oakapple.net>
> Subject: Re: [Gocamino] Crowds on the Camino
>
> I think weather may have something to do with it. The most people we saw in
> one refugio was at Somport, where I think there were ten. The next day had
> a
> number of hours of heavy rain, and we never saw anyone from that group
> after
> that day. Later we met several separate sets of people that had started in
> Jaca, and they all cancelled their trip after two or three days because of
> weather. We were fairly well prepared for rain, and the plus was that most
> days had several hours where the skies were absolutely glorious with the
> big
> black billowing clouds and bright patches of sunlight.
>
> --
> Ralph Alcorn
> http://www.backpack45.com/camino2.html
> http://timecheck00.blogspot.com
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A walk of 800km down a medieval footpath under the stars of the milky way in
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