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TO celebrate your 75th birthday while on a 1 000 km pilgrimage, is no easy feat - especially if you have a heart condition and injured both your knees only three months prior to your departure. But Peter Keanly of the Strand did just that barely a month ago. And at his side was his wife, Georgie. They completed the longest of the pilgrim routes in Spain, the Via de la Plata, in 40 days, with only two (forced) resting days. Peter was the oldest walker on the route. Peter says their interest was sparked a couple of years ago when he read a travel article in a newspaper, about the Camino's.

He found the article on the Camino Francés from St Jean-Pied-du-Port to Santiago de Compostela, which spans a distance of 807 km, very interesting and the Keanly's decided to start their preparation for the walk, crossing the Perenees.

Now the Keanley's have completed that route twice and can also tick off the Via de la Plata. Peter was also the oldest walker on the Camino Francés.

He says they enjoyed the freedom that the walk offers them. Everyone on the route walks at their own pace, for their own reasons, and you decide where and when you want to rest.

The Camino Francés has become very popular and many tourists now flood the route for a cheap holiday, instead of making their way on a spiritual journey. After completing it twice, they were looking for an alternative.

"We walked 1 000 km locally before we set off to Spain and although the camino is 1 000 km long, we walked much further due to detours caused by storms and flooding."

The highlight of their trip was celebrating Peter's 75th birthday in Salamanca, nearly halfway.

The Via de la Plata is the longest of the pilgrim routes in Spain, starting from Seville in Andalusia, and running northwards through the provinces of Extremadura and Castilla y Leon to Salamanca and Zamora to Santiago de Compostela.

Compared with the Camino Francés, the Via de la Plata has very few pilgrims, yet it still has a good network of refugios, though some of the stages between them are quite long (over 30 km.).

Peter says that is what they found. On their first two camino's - "road" in Spanish - you could rely on places to eat and accommodation at very regular intervals. The village people along the route are also extremely helpful and if you come to a refugio that is fully booked, they will phone ahead or organise alternative accommodation elsewhere.

Planned properly
On the Via de la Plata they could walk the whole day without seeing a place to eat or stay over.

This route, developed by the Romans travelling with their silver, is very strenuous and Peter warns that it is not for the faint-hearted.

"Also, do not try to tackle a camino if you have not planned properly and have not exercised your body. Many people suffer from injuries, mental or physical burnout and exhaustion. One of the people we encountered was a marathon runner from South Africa and I thought marathon runners would have a field day on a route like that."

Why travel to Spain to walk 1 000 km? Was it a religious pilgrimage? "If I could walk that distance in my own country without hindrance, I would have. But because I cannot, I rather spend money to do it in another, safer country which treasures the architectural heritage.

"Spain was not affected by either World Wars, so there is no war damage to buildings, some of which have been standing since before the birth of Christ." Georgie says the camino does not have be a religious experience, but it is definitely a spiritual one. "You cannot help thinking of all the millions of others who walked that same route. And it is not only Christians you encounter, we walked with Jews and Muslims," she says.

The Keanly's had to prepare their own meals every day, as they are vegetarians and are very aware of what they eat for Peter's heart condition.

They also had to plan very carefully how far they have to walk every day before they found accommodation, because he had to rest as soon as his heart got tired. Says Peter, "We had to take that into consideration, as the Spaniards take siesta between 14:00 and 17:00 and if you are stuck without food in that time, you are in trouble."

On their last trip, they did not stay in many refugios - inns for pilgrims - but rather opted for guesthouses or one star hotels. Refugios are normally dormitory-style, with shared sleeping quarters and communal bathrooms.

"Believe me, when you have been married for 40 years, and used to your privacy, you long for it. We slept well every night, had a good night's rest and that also made our trip so successful and incident-free," says Georgie.

Their backpacks weighed seven kilograms - nine with two litres of water and their longest walk was 48 km on one day. With them crossing seven mountain passes, their shortest progress in one day, was seven kilometres.

Says the couple, "The people on the Via de la Plata are not geared for pilgrims, so they are not as helpful as we were used to.

"But now, with the flooding of the Camino Francés, the villagers are also becoming less helpful and fed-up with all the tourists."

Georgie says walking one of the pilgrim routes is an excellent way of clearing your mind of all the day-to-day clutter. She says on day two your whole mindshift is focused on two things - to walk without incident and to find food and shelter for that evening.

Their success recipe? "We laughed and joked all the way.

We had little treats like a chocolate here and there, a nice soft bed or other 'luxuries' but we just kept on saying that we were worth it and carried on!"

Peter says his final advice to potential walkers are: "Make sure you have a good partner. Many suffering burnouts, were single."

Send an e-mail to csjofsa@iafrica.com for more details on the camino?s.

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