Len Walker, Somerset West
A few weeks ago Bolander published a most interesting article by Johan van der Hoven, who had recently undertaken a three- week Camino pilgrim walk (“Camino Frances completed, August 22).
My wife and I have only just returned from a similar experience, the only difference being that our adventure involved four days of walking from Barcelos in Portugal to Tuy in Spain (about 100km).
The first day’s walk to Ponte De Lima was noted in the handbook as being 34km, but turned out to be closer to 40km.
The underfoot terrain was rocky, and in places there were cobblestones, which made it very difficult and uncomfortable.
I developed blisters on my feet the size of eggcups which did not improve, except for the size, my walking ability for the duration of the walk.
The scenery was reputed to be fantastic, but all we saw were mealie plantations on our left and forest or vineyards on our right.
We did, however, meet up with many interesting people from all walks of life and from different countries.
One feature that did impress us were the number of young girls walking by themselves with no fear or threats of being assaulted or mugged.
We concluded that a similar type of Camino walking trail could never ever be replicated in South Africa.
Can you just imagine the number of assaults, murders and rapes that would take place?
Even walking the Hermanus cliff path does not provide any immunity from being attacked.
