Pilgrim Priest Shares Camino Memories

On Radio 4’s ‘Ramblings’, airing on 26 June, the Revd Nick Bowry, Rector of St James the Less, Penicuik and St Mungo’s, West Linton, shares his experiences of walking the Camino de Santiago – seven times! We caught up with Nick before the programme was broadcast to find out more about his experience of pilgrimage and of the Camino.

What first attracted you to pilgrimage, and to the Camino de Santiago?

I wasn’t really aware of the Camino until Michael Patterson, who was curate at Christ Church Morningside at the time, offered to lead a group walking the last 230km of El Camino Francés. I had always liked walking and thought it would be good to do.

Ten days away, in the company of friends and people who would become friends, was just what I needed. I needed some time away to think through some issues, and also I had started to seriously consider a growing sense of a call to ordination. I was one of a group of seven from three different denominations. So, I was willing to experience something very different from anything I had done before, to literally step out into a new experience.

What has made you return so many times?

I found that first time on Camino a real time of blessing. It was time for being in company and building deeper relationships of trust, and sharing life stories and the trials and tribulations of life as well as the high points. It was also a time to walk alone as I wished, to reflect on my life, to process where I was in my life and its future directions, the choices I could make rather than be passive and let life carry me on. It was a time of wonderful prayer and spiritual growth, of walking with God. It was a time of good walking with lovely scenery, good food, a real mix of accommodation. I had always found sitting still on retreats to be difficult for me, whereas the cadence of walking, breathing, and meditating and praying suited my personality type and was so much more beneficial for me.

So, after that first time, I did start thinking about going back on Camino at some point. In 2012 I felt the need to walk again, to help process some decisions I needed to make and reflect on, and coincidentally (if you believe in coincidences) a friend reached out to me saying he would like to experience the Camino. We walked the same route I walked in 2007, but in mostly dreadful weather (blizzards and lots of rain). It was a physical and mental challenge, but the bad weather actually helped give the walk some extra ‘grit’.

In July 2016, I resigned from my job, and after nearly 38 years in HR I started my pre-ordination retreat by walking a section of El Camino del Norte from Santander to Santiago and then on to the two Atlantic coast finishing points of Finisterre and Muxia, over five weeks. This gave me the time and space I needed to slough off my HR life and contemplate, pray and prepare for ordained life. It was an integral part of my formation process, away from the pressures of working whilst also studying.

In 2018 I walked with a group from the cathedral in Bury St Edmunds from Santiago to Finisterre and Muxia, accompanying a friend from St Eds and bringing with me two friends from Aberdeen who wanted to experience walking a short section of El Camino (111km) with a support vehicle and excellent accommodation.

In 2019 as my curacy drew to a close, I walked El Camino Ingles (117km) with two friends, as part of my preparation for starting in my current charge as Rector of St James the Less, Penicuik and St Mungo’s, West Linton. In 2022, as part of the disrupted ‘season of pilgrimage’, I led a group of twelve on El Camino Ingles. It was a somewhat different experience as I felt responsible for the welfare of the group even though they were all adults.

In 2024, accompanied by my friend who walked with me in 2012 and 2019, I walked from Irun on the French/Spanish border on the Basque coast to Santander, completing El Camino del Norte. A stunning coastal walk, beautiful countryside and lovely people, although I never got to grips with the Basque language Euskara. 

Can you tell us about a significant moment on the trail?

There have been many significant moments. On that first Camino in 2007, I spent time at El Cruz de Ferro (The Iron Cross) which marks the highest point on El Camino Francés. You can bring a stone from your home, and leave it at El Cruz to be symbolic of what weighty baggage of life you wish to leave behind, and offer up your prayers. It was a very cold day, with a strong westerly wind, but as I stood at the cross, on a large weathered wooden pole, and offered my prayers, plus a pebble from the beach on Iona, it was as if a silence had enveloped me and I felt a real sense of peace amongst many other swirling emotions. It was a deeply spiritual place, knowing many thousands of pilgrims have stood there and offered up their prayers and left their stone. You stand there on a pile of stones that is many metres across and metres high.

In 2012 a friend asked me to take her St Cuthbert’s Cross and leave it at El Cruz de Ferro – she was one of the pilgrims I walked with in 2007, and she was terminally ill with cancer. Wedging her cross into a crack in the weathered wooden pole and offering prayers for her felt a real privilege, despite the blizzard raging around me, and it was a deeply profound moment.

On each walk there have been significant moments: some of a personal spiritual nature, others when connecting with fellow pilgrims, of shared confidences and moments of celebration, of coincidences and startling connections which shrink the world. The beauty of the landscapes, the sunrises and sunsets, the Camino angels that seem to pop up at times of need, shared meals, sharing water, blister plasters and sun cream, cooking meals for each other – so many moments of connection and sharing that make the Camino one big continuously moving community. On my first Camino, when we reached Santiago you could enter through the west door, and by tradition you place your hand on a marble pillar and offer a prayer of thanks for a safe arrival. When I did this, I was profoundly struck that the hands of countless thousands of pilgrims had worn a hand-shaped indent into the hard marble. 

What advice would you give to anyone thinking of walking all or part of the Camino?

Do it! You won’t regret it. Do prepare well, though. Speak to someone who has done it and can offer advice (I do tend to get a fair number of people asking me every year). The Confraternity of St James (www.csj.org.uk) has excellent resources and organises days for people to meet those who have walked and can offer practical advice.

Also, on a first Camino it is understandable that there is quite a focus and anticipation on the destination, but in reality it is about the journey you take.

If you go with a group, make sure you spend some time walking alone and make sure others know you want some time alone. Also in a group, don’t always walk together – you won’t then meet and walk with other pilgrims from other places. Some of my richest moments have been the random connections and conversations.

Please learn a little Spanish – it goes a long way to say ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’, and be able to order a few things in a cafe in Spanish.

Good footwear is essential. You will probably take too much with you: remember you are carrying every kilo with you, unless you choose to use a daily courier service – the Spanish Post Office provides a good one that is cheap.   

Keep a journal – writing about each day and my personal reflections has been a marvellous resource for me.

What has remained with you from your pilgrimage?

So much has remained with me:

A deep sense of appreciation for being able to step away from the world and enter a different and healthy rhythm of living for a while, where it is much easier for me to process and reflect on aspects of my life, to walk with God and be guided by the Holy Spirit.

A love for the countryside of Spain, much of their style of living and values, a love of simple and tasty Spanish food.

The randomness of the people you meet, the varied conversations, the moments of real honesty that only comes from conversing with a stranger you are never likely to meet again.

The deepening of existing friendships.

The wonderful physical exhaustion at the end of a day that leads to a real deep sleep despite the snoring going on in the bunk next to you…

My journal of my trips, which reminds me of the detail, rather than the more superficial warm feelings that recollections can give you.

And a taste for hake and chips and a bottle of Estrella Galicia (so much nicer than Estrella Damm).

Will you be undertaking any more pilgrimages, and if so, where are you planning to go?

I may manage a walk next year, but definitely in the planning is to walk the entirety of El Camino Francés from St Jean Pied de Port in the Pyrenees to Santiago (800km) after I retire in 2027, so long as I remain fit.

I am trying to persuade my daughters to join me and walk for a section (not convinced that will happen) and to definitely join me for a slap-up meal and a bit of a party when I finish, maybe in Santiago or possibly in Finisterre or Muxia. I will also extend an invitation to other friends to join me along the way, or just meet me in one of the bigger cities like Pamplona, Leon or Burgos for a meal if they don’t fancy walking. It will be a nice segue into retirement after working for the best part of 49 years! I may then offer to help the Anglican pilgrim hostel in Santiago who provide a chaplaincy service as well as accommodation.

This is a poem Nick wrote as he sat on a beach in Muxia, contemplating the previous five weeks of walking.

Come, it’s been a while,
And walk, talk, sing, and pray,
My way, your way, our way,
In silence, in company, together, apart, each day,
Never lonely, I’m pleased to say,
One foot in front of the other.

Consciously clearing clutter from my mind,
Allowing time to forgive, seventy times seven and once again,
Making friends with myself and letting go what drains,
I feel my load lighten, less and less remains,
New days dawn and the true self gains, 
One foot in front of the other.

Conversations words and gestures,
All allow acquaintances to grow,
Many mark a mile, some many more – going with the flow,
Intimate confessions and burdens off loaded, I know,
Now I have time and patience to listen, to help the speaker let go,
One foot in front of the other.

Calmed and caught in the cadence of walking,
Applied compeed, insect repellent and sun cream,
Mass at noon – seeing it swing – has it been a dream,
Indisputably not, my calf muscles know where they have been,
Now with great anticipation, mi amigo is seen,
One foot in front of the other.

Companions on the way, four between us,
And now we start our one at last,
Minding all that has gone on, the past,
In perspective, in sorrow and joy our minds cast,
New beginnings both, carpe diem, life goes so fast,
One foot in front of the other.

‘Ramblings’ will be aired on 26 June at 3pm, and will then be available on iPlayer. More information on the BBC website.