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Are some Caminos better-suited to meeting particular pilgrim needs than others? Any Camino can be transformative, of course, but it seems reasonable to offer, for example, that a pilgrim hungry for social connection would be better served following the Francés or the Portugués than the Camino de Levante. What about processing grief? For Chad Estes, a pilgrim from Boise, Idaho, the Via de la Plata was a perfect fit to reflect upon the loss of his father, to write and share stories of their relationship, and to arrive at gratitude for the time they had. In the conversation that follows, Chad discusses exactly what made the Via de la Plata such an accommodating route for this internal journey, the insights he has formulated about navigating grief, and the process he has developed for writing on the Camino. Available on Apple, Spotify, and Youtube. For more information on The Camino Podcast: www.davewhitson.com www.facebook.com/CaminoPodcast

This spring, Dave returned to Spain (along with a brief pass-through of France) to perform the annual work of updating and expanding the guidebooks. Over five weeks, he touched down on the Voie Littorale, the Camino del Norte, the Camino Lebaniego, the Camino de San Salvador (in both directions!), the Camino del Mar, and the Camino Inglés. Was it gorgeous? Absolutely! Was this kind of itinerary advisable? Almost certainly not! But, he gleaned a bunch of new insights from these outings, and in this episode he's joined by guidebook co-author Laura Perazzoli to debrief some of the major takeaways. Available on Apple, Spotify, and Youtube. For more information on The Camino Podcast: www.davewhitson.com www.facebook.com/CaminoPodcast

The Camino del Norte offers some of the most spectacular scenery of any pilgrimage, combining rugged coastal hills, sandy beaches, spectacular cities and small fishing villages. In this series, we will virtually walk the Norte together, bringing together experienced pilgrims and relevant experts in each episode. In this ninth part of the series, we're tackling four traditional guidebook stages, from Luarca to Gontán/Abadín. This leads us from northwestern Asturias into northeastern Galicia, leaving the coastal portion of the Norte behind and beginning the march into more mountainous terrain. John Morrison (www.walkwithustravelco.com) of Brisbane, Australia, shares stories from a winter Camino through those four stages, featuring torrential rain, strep throat, and a memorable ascent into the Galician hills. He's followed by Kenny Stevens of Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA, who offers a completely different way of approaching this section, by following the historic route inland through Vegadeo, bypassing Ribadeo completely. Available on Apple, Spotify, and Youtube. For more information on The Camino Podcast: www.davewhitson.com www.facebook.com/CaminoPodcast www.patreon.com/davewhitson

We don't know exactly how many non-religious people make the Camino annually, but it's unquestionably a sizable percentage. What inspires or compels atheists and agnostics to go on pilgrimage? To explore that question, this episode brings together Leonard Vance of Tucson, Arizona and Rhian Sasseen of Brooklyn, New York. Leonard is the author of An Atheist on Pilgrimage: Tales of Humanity from the Camino de Santiago, while Rhian (www.rhiansasseen.com) recently had an essay published in The Nation titled "Walking the Camino in the Shadow of Belief." Together, they discuss the value of losing yourself on pilgrimage, the calming of the mind that can occur over the course of a long walk, and the ways that the Camino did--and didn't--reshape their beliefs. Available on Apple, Spotify, and Youtube. For more information on The Camino Podcast: www.davewhitson.com www.facebook.com/CaminoPodcast www.patreon.com/davewhitson

You'll often hear the walk from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago de Compostela described as "the full Camino." If that's the case, what would you call a 5500km route that begins in Ireland, makes a complete loop in France, and eventually winds up in the Italian Apennines? For Johannes Schwarz (www.4kmh.com), a Catholic priest from Austria, it's just another year. Schwarz completed the Via Columbani, as this route is known, in 2022, and his book--Following Columban: A Pilgrim’s 4000 Mile Quest for Monks, Meaning and the Meaning of Monks--offers a detailed account of his journey. In the conversation that follows, Johannes discusses how he got started as both a priest and a pilgrim, the larger vision behind his pilgrimages, some lessons we can take from Columban and his fellow monks, and why he determined that he fell short on this journey.

Sure, you might have heard of the Camino Inglés, which has two possible starting points, in Ferrol and A Coruña. Ask an Irish pilgrim about that walk from A Coruña, though, and you're likely to hear a different name for it: the Celtic Camino. And there's a lot more to it than just those 75 kilometers. Back on the island, Irish pilgrims are hard at work developing and recovering a booming network of short pilgrimages that feed into A Coruña, allowing walkers to hit that 100km requirement to earn their Compostela in Santiago, while also tapping into Ireland's own rich pilgrimage history. In this episode, Michael Walsh of the Camino Society Ireland (www.caminosociety.ie) discusses the nine routes currently available in Ireland as part of the Celtic Camino initiative, while Ingrid Boyle takes us deeper into one of those--the Kerry Camino (www.kerrycamino.com) on the Dingle Peninsula. Available on Apple, Spotify, and Youtube. For more information on The Camino Podcast: www.davewhitson.com www.facebook.com/CaminoPodcast www.patreon.com/davewhitson

The tour of under-walked Italian cammini continues in this episode with a close look at two emerging routes: the Cammino di San Benedetto (www.camminodibenedetto.it) in Umbria and Lazio, and the Cammino di Sant'Antonio (www.ilcamminodisantantonio.org), which mostly spans Emilia-Romagna, the Veneto, and Friuli-Venezia-Giulia in the northeast. Paul Granville (paulscamino.com) of Brisbane, Australia discusses his experience on Benedict's Way, tracing the saint's life from his birthplace in Norcia to his tomb in Montecassino. Then, Ellen and Mike Leland of Larkspur, Colorado, USA share stories from their time as trailblazers on the northern leg of Anthony's Way, walking from Gemona del Friuli to Padua. While both routes are quite young, they are steeped in history, and hungry for more pilgrims. Available on Apple, Spotify, & Youtube. Come see Dave & Sandy in California (and Dave in Medford, OR!) https://davewhitson.com/sandy-dave-in-california/ For more information on The Camino Podcast: www.davewhitson.com www.facebook.com/CaminoPodcast www.patreon.com/davewhitson

The Camino del Norte offers some of the most spectacular scenery of any pilgrimage, combining rugged coastal hills, sandy beaches, spectacular cities and small fishing villages. In this series, we will virtually walk the Norte together, bringing together experienced pilgrims and relevant experts in each episode. In this eighth part of the series, we push onward from Avilés to Luarca, through a series of small towns, over the Nalón River, and beneath some massive expressway bridges. Richard DeMerchant of Victoria, BC, Canada, guides us through this section, with fond memories of a donativo albergue and time well spent with his son. All that walking will make a person hungry, so it's important to know how to refuel well, and that's where Jon Tillman, the creator of Eating Asturias (www.eatingasturias.com) comes in. Drawing upon years of culinary experience, Jon has written nearly four hundred articles on Asturian cuisine and culture, and he puts that expertise on full display in this wide-ranging conversation. For more information on The Camino Podcast: www.davewhitson.com www.facebook.com/CaminoPodcast www.patreon.com/davewhitson

Before everything that followed--the 30+ years associated with and 4,000 miles walked on the Camino, the seed-planting for what would later become the American Pilgrims on the Camino, the founding of the world's only institute for pilgrimage studies at William & Mary, the countless research articles and presentations, and even literal knighthood--it all started with a moment of embarrassment. In this episode, George Greenia shares stories from his decades of pilgrimage and insights into the state of pilgrimage research, and along the way he explains why he has no interest in writing a book about any of it For more on George Greenia: https://www.wm.edu/sites/pilgrimage/leadership/greenia_gx.php For more information on The Camino Podcast: www.davewhitson.com www.facebook.com/CaminoPodcast www.patreon.com/davewhitson

What if you could go on the Camino without leaving your home? Well, as it turns out, you can--and you can do it soon! Global Camino 2026 is coming up on January 10 and 11 (and if you're listening to this episode later, the annual event is always right around those dates), and it provides pilgrims around the world with an opportunity to walk together, from a distance, and then to share highlights of this collective experience online. Leanne Prichard, from Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, is the visionary behind this event, which grew out of Tasmania's annual Way to St James Cygnet. In this episode, she discusses the idea behind Global Camino, all of the positives that pilgrims derive from the experience, and the way that we can all get involved. She also describes the Tasmanian Camino--a fantastic annual event in its own right. Available on Apple, Spotify, and Youtube. To sign up for Global Camino 2026: https://www.facebook.com/events/1274566273763679 For more information on The Camino Podcast: www.davewhitson.com www.facebook.com/CaminoPodcast www.patreon.com/davewhitson

800 years ago, not-yet-Saint Francis was approaching the end of his 45 years, his body ragged from a life marked by illness and heavy usage, his eyesight all but gone. Those years, though, had been put to exceptionally good use, spurring the establishment of a Catholic order and ethical worldview that would profoundly influence both the Church and generations of exceptional leaders of all backgrounds. While pilgrims walked to Santiago in those years, the Via di Francesco, or the Way of Saint Francis, is a modern construct, linking together the many different towns and sanctuaries that Il Poverello walked through on his life-long pilgrimage. Russ Eanes (www.russeanes.com) keeps finding his way back to Francis and the Francesco, first writing about the pilgrimage route in Pilgrim Paths to Assisi: 300 Miles on the Way of St. Francis, and now about Francis himself in the brand new Good Morning, Good People!: Tales for the Way of St. Francis. For more information on The Camino Podcast: www.davewhitson.com www.facebook.com/CaminoPodcast www.patreon.com/davewhitson

On May 20, 1521, Ignatius of Loyola was struck by a cannonball when trying to hold Pamplona against Franco-Navarrese forces. His left leg was wounded, his right shattered. And the city was lost. During the agonizing recovery process that followed, he experienced a profound religious transformation, setting in motion a process that would ultimately lead to the creation of the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuit Order. Father Brendan McManus SJ (www.redemptionroadcamino.com) has brought Jesuit practices and wisdom to his own pilgrimage experience and writings, first in Redemption Road: Grieving on the Camino and most recently in Living the Camino Back Home. In this episode, we explore the applicability and relevance of these practices to all of our pilgrimage journeys. (Available on Apple, Spotify, & Youtube) For more information on The Camino Podcast: www.davewhitson.com www.facebook.com/CaminoPodcast www.patreon.com/davewhitson

The Camino del Norte offers some of the most spectacular scenery of any pilgrimage, combining rugged coastal hills, sandy beaches, spectacular cities and small fishing villages. In this series, we will virtually walk the Norte together, bringing together experienced pilgrims and relevant experts in each episode. In this seventh part of the series, we continue westward through Asturias from La Isla to Avilés, passing through beautiful Gijón as well as one of the most criticized stages of the Norte. Paty Matiskella (www.outdoorpilgrim.com), a pilgrim from Eugene, Oregon, pushes back on that criticism, spotlighting some of the significant virtues of this section of the Norte, while Suzanne Henriksen of The Crafty Cask (www.thecraftycask.com) discusses one of the indisputable highlights of walking through Asturias: Spanish cider. For more information on The Camino Podcast: www.davewhitson.com www.facebook.com/CaminoPodcast www.patreon.com/davewhitson

Episode 102 - Walking in Southern Italy Southern Italy, a region long overlooked by contemporary pilgrims, demands our attention. In the midst of a growing network of long-distance walking routes, two stand out. First is the Via Francigena Sud, a continuation of the historic pilgrim road linking Canterbury and Rome, leading southward through Monte Sant'Angelo, Bari, and Brindisi, en route to Santa Maria di Leuca. Second is the Cammino Materano, a network of routes that spiderweb out from the unique city of Matera. A pair of Cicerone guidebook authors (www.cicerone.co.uk) steer us through this audio journey: Nicole Bukaty, co-author of Walking the Via Francigena Pilgrim Route - Part 4 - Rome to Monte Sant’Angelo, Bari, Brindisi and Santa Maria di Leuca, and Gillian Price, author of Walking the Cammino Materano - Three long-distance routes through Italy’s Puglia and Basilicata regions to Matera. For more information on The Camino Podcast: www.davewhitson.com www.facebook.com/CaminoPodcast www.patreon.com/davewhitson

The Camino del Norte offers some of the most spectacular scenery of any pilgrimage, combining rugged coastal hills, sandy beaches, spectacular cities and small fishing villages. In this series, we will virtually walk the Norte together, bringing together experienced pilgrims and relevant experts in each episode. In this sixth part of the series, Austin Cooke, a Norte veteran, guides us into Asturias from Colombres to La Isla, offering a wealth of stories from the road. Dr. Laura Hydak then discusses the historical importance of the Indianos people in the region (www.municipisindians.cat), a legacy most vividly preserved in the distinct architecture on display. Finally, Dr. Mark Pizzato lends insight into the remarkable prehistoric cave art that is accessible in this area, including the Cueva de Tito Bustillo and the Cueva del Pindal. (Correction: Laura would like to clarify that at a couple points she references the city of "Santander" when she instead intended to discuss the region of Cantabria.) For more information on The Camino Podcast: www.davewhitson.com www.facebook.com/CaminoPodcast www.patreon.com/davewhitson