Camel Pilgrimage

Here I want to describe a trip taken by some groups of people, where they have attended a camel pilgrimage. Three groups of pilgrims, the first one consisting of eight people and the other two of four people each, came from Sevilla and Valladolid and arrived this morning at the square in Santiago Obradoiro. To get there, they walked the French Camino from Valladolid to Compostela, with camels and a carriage drawn by six horses.

On arrival at the cathedral, Compostela, the group’s spokesperson, Javier Garcia Alvarez, director of the horses’ ‘Centaur’, told Efe that the pilgrimage, begun in Tudela de Duero (Valladolid) last season, had been pretty difficult.  In this connection, he highlighted his experience doing the Camino de Santiago ‘hospitality’, which people received over the fifteen-day pilgrimage. In this sense Javier Garcia said that, “A lot of different people turn to us, not only pilgrims but also the inhabitants of the places that are passed on the pilgrimage route.”

The pilgrimage group spokesperson told Efe that although at first people were surprised and a bit scared when contemplating the camel caravan, they later became comfortable and it was a pleasure to watch them in amazement looking at the camels with affection. He said that the reason for making the pilgrimage with camels, dromedaries, and a carriage drawn by six horses was to experience the way people and saints attended it back in the Middle Ages. This is the best and most authentic way to get a feel of the past and also to be in the midst of nature while going on the pilgrimage.

Javier Garcia said that the experience was very positive and that there was nothing that anyone disliked.   The pilgrimage was composed of family members of Javier Garcia, and Jesús Vázquez, of Valladolid, Seville, who regularly work with camels and dromedaries.  The caravan, which initially started with eight people, rose up to form a group of thirty pilgrims, to help carry their personal belongings.

Garcia Alvarez recalled that during the course of the road they suffered temperatures of 9 degrees below zero and had to walk Cebreiro areas that had over 40 inches of snow. The caravan made this last stage of the pilgrimage from O Monte do Gozo Obradoiro Square, arriving at nine o’clock this morning, accompanied by members of Civil Defense and local police officers, in addition to many people.