In last month’s Te Pānui Rūnaka Brent Ruru wrote about his journey from Istanbul to Gallipoli on foot, a journey he took to attend commemorative ANZAC services at Gallipoli. This month he continues his journey with his wife, Claire, leaving Dubai to reverse walk the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage walk in Spain. This is his story.

There is a saying that the pilgrim’s way to Santiago begins at their doorstep. For us, we saw a National Geographic programme on television when we were living in Dubai and thought “Why aren’t we doing that?” And exactly one month after Anzac Day 2011 at Gallipoli, we took our first steps on the Camino de Santiago, walking from Roncevalles to Pamplona. Little did we know that we would end up cycling the remaining 800 kilometres from Pamplona to Compostela and then walking all the way back.

Departing Roncesvalles on the first day, it was easy to imagine we were walking a track in New Zealand – perhaps the Heaphy or the Routeburn. Animal life was abundant and people of all ages and nationalities were walking with us. The common language among trail walkers was a smile.

The Camino is a thousand-year-old route and old stone buildings, bridges and ruins were all beautiful. The landscape changed from undulating to open countryside and forest. Streams had to be crossed and little villages navigated through.

Arriving in Pamplona after two days of walking, we decided to rent some mountain bikes and cycle the remainder of the Camino. We had not ridden bikes for over two years because Dubai hosts some of the world’s craziest drivers. Neither had we used panniers to hold our life in but to our credit, we were accustomed to downsized weight after walking from Istanbul to Gallipoli.

After leaving Pamplona, we moved onto an undulating road that turned into a goat track. We were off the bikes and pushing; our humming was replaced with grunting and even worse, the walkers we had passed earlier were now passing us with grins on their faces. No one told the Rurus that most people who bike the walking track out of Pamplona do so without panniers.

At the summit, Alto del Perdon, at 770m, we had a spectacular view of Pamplona and surrounding landscape, but we were too focused on descending the steep goat track on the other side. That was just the beginning of a day of walking the bikes up, and sometimes down, all the way to Estella.
Perhaps walking the Camino would have been smarter and easier, as we reflected on the first day’s ride with numb bums. Nā Brent Ruru

The Burning of the Bike Clothes follows on next month.
Footnote: Brent and Claire Ruru have travelled globally over the past five years. Brent is a professional speaker, mentor and celebrant (www.brentruru.com) and can be contacted at [email protected] or 027 511 0249.

Bruce and Claire leaving Ronscevalles.

Bruce and Claire leaving Ronscevalles.

Bruce and Claire about to leave Pamplona by bike.

Bruce and Claire about to leave Pamplona by bike.