Nothing a Good Long Walk Won't Fix by Theresa Gauthier

 Walking with Sam by Andrew McCarthy

A good travel memoir is as much a necessity in life as food, air, and water. Travel writers distill their experiences into digestible stories that instill in others either a desire to travel or appease that desire among those who simply cannot—by either condition or circumstance—travel far and wide themselves. 

I’ve read plenty of travel articles, essays, books, and memoirs, and among them, have made acquaintance with the previous writing of Andrew McCarthy. His book, The Longest Way Home, was a favorite of mine some years ago, and it was with great anticipation that I waited to be able to read Walking with Sam. In this, his latest book, McCarthy undertakes to walk across Spain—traveling the Camino de Santiago—with his son, Sam. The Camino, a five hundred mile walk across Spain, is considered one of the three great pilgrimages in Christendom. 

From what I’ve gathered, there are as many reasons to take on the pilgrimage as there are pilgrims walking the road. McCarthy had walked the Camino once before, and wanted to share the experience with his grown son. The pair, like any father and son, had a lot to discuss, but like most people, found it difficult to communicate. The walk gave them both the chance to talk, to be, to get to know each other on a deeper level, and to grow—each one independently and both together as their father and son relationship transitioned from adult/child to adult/adult.

Five hundred miles. 

To say the absolute least—and the most obvious—a walk like that isn’t an easy undertaking. A walk like that requires planing, consideration, and commitment. I was glad to discover that Sam took his father’s advice and bought the comfortable boots rather than the great-looking ones. 

I was also pleased beyond words that this isn’t a camping out sort of endeavor. I’m not sure why it mattered so much to me, except, of course, because I despise the concept of camping. Though I’m sure some pilgrims do decide to sleep under the stars as they cross Spain, The McCarthy’s, and, it seems, most of their Camino friends, chose to sleep in hostels and other such pilgrim spots along the way. Walking on average 12 to 15 miles per day and then stopping in a town to have a bite to eat and a bit of sleep—maybe do your laundry—see to any blisters that have developed along the way, seems like it would make things if not outright easier, than certainly a bit less stressful.

They had their hardships. Of ourselves they did. You can’t walk that far and expect everything to be easy. They had arguments. They had their miscommunications. They got on each other’s nerves from time to time. They made friends along the way, and learned about each other, even if all they learned on a particular day was what time of day it was pointless to try to communicate.

In truth, it was less about the actual destination and more about the journey. Being together, sharing that experience, both of them growing becoming more because of the walk.

Along the trail, the pilgrims and those who encountered them, would sometimes say Buen Camino literally wishing each other a good road. Seems a good wish for all of us.