What is the "Camino Sanabres?

The Camino Sanabres from Ourense to Santiago is perhaps one of the most beautiful “Ways” into Santiago, and includes a piece of the ancient Via de la Plata – the 1,000 km old Roman Gold Trade Route.

The Sanabres Route is an offshoot of the Via de la Plata that starts in Ourense while the main route continues north to Astorga. It is one of the least known routes to Santiago but maybe the most beautiful and interesting. A couple of days after we land in Madrid, we take a 4 hour train trip eastwards to Ourense.  We will start our walk in that ancient Roman city and then walk northward through oak and eucalyptus forests towards one of the most important monasteries in the region at Oseira. We will pass by a sacred mountain - El Pico Sacro. This will be a short walk of seven days always heading north towards Santiago de Compostela, the City of the Apostle Saint James. With the popular Camino Frances getting over 250,000 pilgrims a year these days, the increasing overuse and crowding of facilities along the Way means many pilgrims are looking for alternate routes. The Sanabres was suggested to us by our good friend Cheryl last November at the American Pilgrims on the Camino “hospitalaros” training session in Colorado.

Ourense is a city, now with a population of over 100,000, but still famous for its “burgas” - its geothermal springs. For centuries, the medicinal springs of the city have been famed for having healing properties and its many fountains prized for their crystal clear water.After we leave the city, the Sanabres will offer us the toughest climb of the trip - up 400 meters in six kilometers. But once we have passed this challenge, although the rest of the Way will have its muddy paths, easy to miss yellow arrow signs and ups & downs, generally we expect a fairly easy walk on forest and field pathways, local roads and what the tourist books describe as “charming Roman cobblestone roads” – a cute way of describing what are really stone roads that haven’t been maintained for 2,000 years – taking us through small cities and towns in Southern Galica.

We will be spending a night in the ancient monastery at Oseira, built in 1137 and struggling to survive in today’s modern world. Spain – as recently as the ‘70’s under the dictatorial rule of Franco was one of the most Catholic countries in the world - has now become a place where less than 20% its citizens attest to being practicing Catholics. Who knows how much longer these ancient edifices can remain? On the more popular Camino Frances, they are helped by donations and revitalization created by the “pilgrim trade”. 

A lot of the trail will be in rural areas. For instance, around Sileda we hope for an easy day while heading towards Bandeira, a town famous for its empanadas (tasty Galician tuna pastry pies). We will be walking through farmlands and villages and near here we hope to get a glimpse of the mountain of O Pico Sacro, the most sacred mountain in Galicia and the subject of many legends. Supposedly the mountain itself is a petrified dragon! (Very similar to the Chinese legend about Kowloon in Hong Kong, whose name means “Nine Dragons).

So why are we heading off again to walk in Spain and become a small part of a tradition and belief system that has been going on since the year’s didn’t have four digits? Neither Joan nor I are practicing Christians now, although each of us spent our early years being part of our respective family faith upbringing. Joan attended St. Charles school in Woburn, MA. through 9^th grade and I was part of my family Congregational Church affairs, including going to Sunday school & bible class in a church in Grafton, MA. where my great uncle, nine times removed, was called from Cambridge to be the first minister in 1730. But we both have moved towards a modern science-based skepticism about religion which took away a faith-based foundation. However, with all that, we both find great satisfaction in being in places and being in traditions that were created by religious belief. 

So in a few weeks when we are asked in Santiago “Why did you walk the Camino?”, I think we both will answer that it was for spiritual reasons.  Walking the Camino has been an interest for me for over thirty years but it wasn’t until 2012 that it was physically possible. Joan has been as enthusiastic as I since we did our first Camino attempt in 2013 and we have since walked for long distances in England in 2015 & 2016, the attainment of each English walk being made richer by experiencing the great beauty and majesty of the cathedrals of Bath and Winchester.

But the Camino is different. The experience of being part of that tradition changes lives and transforms future possibilities. It is the embodiment of living, of believing in the motto of the Camino - “Ultreia” (“Forward”) as a foundation of how we see the world and our time in it. Motion means life; without it lies only entropy and the loss of curiosity, passion and wonder. And what really is “living” without those qualities?